In May–July 2008 “The Global Status Report on Road Safety” project was implemented in Azerbaijan.

Early in 2008 the WHO Country office in Azerbaijan planned to examine effective measures to ensure traffic safety in Azerbaijan. In this regard, Dr. Rustam Talishinskiy, Deputy Director of Academic Issues at the Scientific-Research Institute of Traumatology and Orthopaedics of the Ministry of Health of Azerbaijan Republic, was elected as a focal point of the Ministry of Health on traffic accidents prevention. Dr. Talishinskiy also attended "The Global status report on road safety" training organized by WHO in Geneva, Switzerland on March 3-4, 2008.

Based on these training materials and with WHO technical assistance the Public Health and Reforms Centre (PHRC) of the Ministry of Health of Azerbaijan Republic implemented the project aimed at evaluation of the efficiency of measures on road safety. The survey was conducted among government agencies representatives. The survey questionnaire was filled in by authorized representatives of Ministry of Transportation, Office of the Head State Traffic Police of the Ministry of Interior, Ministry of Health, the State Statistics Committee and the Ministry of Justice. The survey findings were put into an overall country report and used in formulating the Global status report on road safety published on the WHO official website in 2009.

Road safety is a global issue and attracts international attention. Worldwide, annually 1.2 million people are killed in road traffic accidents while 50 million are injured or disabled. In 2003, for the first time the United Nations (UN) General Assembly raised this issue and adopted a number of resolutions including a resolution on "Improving global road safety". The UN invited WHO to cooperate in this area and coordinate road safety issues pursued by the United Nations. In 2005, the UN General Assembly decided to commemorate the third Sunday in November each year as the World Day of Remembrance for Road Traffic Victims, and launch the First Global Road Safety Week in 23-29 April 2007.

To protect people’s life, to prevent road traffic accidents and their harmful effects a National Plan in Azerbaijan was developed for years 2002-2005. The program had been developed in compliance with the Law of Azerbaijan Republic "On Road Traffic" and considered the rational land use and planning, socio-economic conditions and environment of the regions, as well as traffic system condition.