From 12-16th March 2018, we were in Nairobi, Kenya to co-deliver the first Alliance Advocates regional programme for the African region. The training brought together 20 NGO leaders from across Africa to be trained in advocacy and a particular focus on safe school zones across the region.
Having some of the highest rates of road crashes across the world, the African region sees a large proportion of the world’s road deaths. This training equipped NGO leaders to gain new skills in assessing schools zones using the new iRAP Safe Routes to School app, which helps road safety campaigners identify high-risk roads and advocate for improvement to a minimum 3* star road.
We joined the International Roads Assessment Programme (iRAP), the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Global Alliance of NGOs for Road Safety to train 20 NGO leaders from across Africa on advocacy. Countries included Mozambique, Namibia, Rwanda, Ivory Coast, Nigeria, Cameroon, Benin, Tanzania, Uganda, Algeria, and Kenya.
The participants were trained on a range of topics including the purpose of advocacy in road safety, understanding data gathering in the field, strategic planning for advocacy activities, talking with decision makers and getting your message across (road safety messaging). We were responsible for delivering the aforementioned sessions, designed in consultation with the Global Alliance using our interactive and brain-friendly methodology.
The regional focus enabled NGOs from a similar backgrounds, culture and road safety situation to align with a common focus; to improve school zones around the region. Pioneered by iRAP, this training offered practical insights into the Star Rating for Schools App, which guided participants through the process of assessing school zones and translating this data into a star rating. Similar to the rating of hotels, the high the star rating the safer the road for travel. African NGOs pledged to advocate for a minimum of 3-star roads to enable safe routes to school.
Advocates were guided through a practical session by going into the field and assessing a real school zone in central Nairobi. The Alliance Advocate training program is the flagship element of the Alliance Empowerment Program, an innovative capacity-building program, sponsored by FedEx Corp. (NYSE: FDX), which has so far seen 50 Advocates trained in data collection and analysis, evidence-based program design and management, media engagement, and advocacy.