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  PIARC President, Nazir Alli, welcoming the participants

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  Plenary session of the kick-off meetings

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  Reception team - Members of PIARC General Secretariat

PIARC launched its Strategic Plan for the 2024-2027 cycle by organising working meetings for all of its 23 Technical Committees. A thousand experts from around 140 countries took part in these meetings to discuss how to organise their work for the cycle over the next four years.

>> See photos of the launch meetings

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  Strategic Theme 1 "Road Administration"

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  Strategic Theme 2 "Road Mobility"

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  Strategic Theme 3 "Safety and Sustainability"

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  Strategic Theme 4 "Resilient Infrastructures"

Each Strategic Theme comprises several Technical Committees and Study Groups, which met for two and a half days in Paris from 31 January to 14 February to prepare their 2024-2027 work cycle.

The main aim of the kick-off meetings is to familiarise the participants with the objectives of the Strategic Plan and to finalise the detailed action plans so that the Committees can begin their work as soon as possible. Another objective is to give the experts the opportunity to meet the colleagues with whom they will be working closely over the next four years. Such personal contacts are one of the Association's strong points.

PIARC experts also got to know the Strategic Theme Coordinators, who are responsible for advising them and coordinating actions when necessary, and the staff of the Association's General Secretariat, including the Technical Advisors who act as points of contact between the Technical Committees and the General Secretariat.

During this cycle, particular emphasis will be placed on the quality, added value and timeliness of the Committee products for which PIARC is renowned. The focus on low and middle income countries (LMICs) will also remain an important consideration, including the organisation of two international seminars in LMICs. In addition, as the promotion of gender equality and diversity is now an integral part of the Association's values, the Committees will endeavour to properly represent the diversity needs of transport users.

Finally, for the first time, these meetings were held in hybrid mode (face-to-face and virtual) to enable Committee members who could not travel to take an active part in the discussions. This principle will be applied throughout the four years of the cycle.