We are excited to announce that Youth for Road Safety (YOURS) has been awarded the Inclusion and Diversity Award at the IRF World Congress 2024 for our work on the Belize Youth Empowerment Programme. This recognition underscores the power of youth-led initiatives to create safer, more inclusive, and sustainable communities.

In 2014, Belize faced a road safety crisis, with young people representing 30% of road fatalities. In response, YOURS partnered with the Caribbean Development Bank, the Government of Belize through the Ministry of Education, and with Youth to launch the Belize Youth Empowerment Programme. This initiative empowered 35 young leaders to address road safety in their communities, transforming them into change-makers.

Our award-winning methodology provided these young leaders with the tools to lead a ripple effect. After various master training sessions, they reached over 3,000 peers through workshops, festivals, and media outreach. All these efforts created a safety vision amongst the country’s youth. To ensure the sustainability of their actions, they even founded the Belizean Youth for Road Safety (BYRS).

The success of this initiative demonstrates the power of multisectoral collaboration—combining the investment of a multilateral bank, the strategic vision of government ministries, and the leadership of youth.

We thank the IRF for acknowledging the importance of youth engagement in road safety and look forward to continuing our mission to empower young leaders worldwide.

Article originally published by TotalEnergies Foundation

After an initial support phase (2019-2023) that helped federate more than 2,100 young people from 121 different countries, a new partnership between TotalEnergies Foundation and the Global Youth Coalition for Road Safety (YOURS) has been agreed on, to last until June 2026. With the shared aim to inspire, mobilize and unite young people worldwide to create a youth-led force demanding and delivering safe and sustainable mobility at global and local levels.

The 2024-2026 cycle will continue to build on the existing work done by and for young people, but efforts will focus more on actions in urban areas. YOURS will be provided with training,  tools, seed funding, and will develop partnerships to promote the implementation of innovative local actions and strategies to achieve a “glocal^*” impact. 

“Global” is a combination of the words “global” and “local” to describe an approach that links the local and global dimensions of the same phenomenon.

YOURS will therefore deepen its regional and local influence by making customizable, translated resources available that connect global advocacy to change on the ground.

The new partnership will support several priority activities:

• The “YOURS Academy”: an online learning platform where young people can progress at their own pace. YOURS is the first global organization to open an interactive, online platform inspired by the gaming community. In the coming years, YOURS will continue to build a suite of learning modules to meet the needs of young leaders.
• A regional training program for training instructors: the “glocal” approach involves adapting training topics to local environments and delivering them in the local language. YOURS will therefore train a group of 10 to 12 leaders who have the skills, knowledge and practical experience in road safety, sustainable mobility and advocacy, so that they can empower other young people in their region.
• Live training sessions through online webinars. With a moderator and advice from experts, these live sessions will encourage members to engage and share best practices.
• A digital platform and a real “community hub”. The platform was created to streamline relationships among the members of YOURS and is designed to federate the members of the coalition, follow-up their engagement and make communication among them easier.
• A former member “Alumni” program to encourage mentoring, a valuable resource for new members.

These initiatives resonate with those of TotalEnergies Foundation and its partners (Prévention Routière association, the International Road Federation, Global Alliance, Global Road Safety Facility and so on) working toward safer roads.

Recently, YOURS – Youth for Road Safety welcomed youth leaders, Simon Patrick Obi and Inés Yabar, into its governing body, the Supervisory Board. 

Additionally, YOURS welcomes another person to the Board—Professor Jagnoor Jagnoor—who represents the role of academe and advocacy in road safety, sustainable mobility, and meaningful youth participation.

Professor Jagnoor currently serves as an Associate Professor and Programme Lead for Injury at the George Institute for Global Health in Australia. She also heads the Injury Division in India and co-directs the World Health Organization—WHO Collaborating Center for Injury Prevention and Trauma Care. 

She holds an Emerging Leadership Level under the NHMRC or the National Health and Medical Research Council, which means that she has been given a grant to pursue research on health and medicine with a focus on injury epidemiology. 

Professor Jagnoor’s research focuses on various topics, including the impact of injuries, equity and vulnerability in injury burden distribution, interventions to reduce the load of injuries across Australia, Africa, and Asia, and injury prevention and post-injury recovery outcomes.

To help you get to know Professor Jagnoor better, we asked her a few questions about her life and her experiences. Read on! 

Can you tell us a little bit about yourself? About how you got into academe and eventually into the road safety field?
My journey into academia has been one of continuous learning, unlearning, and relearning. I’ve always been fascinated by how social systems, policies, and infrastructure shape individual behaviours, particularly when it comes to public health and safety. Over time, I recognised that road safety is not just a technical issue but a deeply intersectional one, where marginalised groups—whether due to gender, disability, or socio-economic status—are often the most vulnerable. Safe, accessible and efficient transportation is an enabler for better social determinants of health with access to education, employment and health services. This realization fuelled my commitment to working in this field, with a focus on addressing systemic barriers rather than placing the burden of change solely on individuals.

What are you looking forward to doing and achieving as a new member of the YOURS Supervisory Board?
As a new member, I’m eager to contribute to the organisation’s mission, ensuring that our strategies remain inclusive and responsive to diverse needs. My goal is to foster a more holistic approach to road safety, one that extends beyond traditional measures and considers how gender, disability, and other intersecting factors shape road use. I also aim to advocate for policies that address these structural inequities, striving for solutions that are both effective and equitable. I hope to help bridge the gap between evidence and community voices, creating platforms that bring marginalized perspectives into the mainstream.

Working with youth, especially those from marginalised communities, is also a unique opportunity to amplify voices that are often unheard. I’m excited to engage with young leaders who bring their lived experiences into the conversation around road safety. Their perspectives on issues like accessibility, gender-based violence, and the socio-economic barriers to safe mobility are crucial. I believe my role is to ensure that these insights help shape the global road safety agenda and are reflected in both policy and practice.

Can you talk a bit about the role academia and advocacy have in furthering road safety efforts?
Academia provides the framework to understand how complex social determinants shape behaviours, particularly in the realm of road safety. The role of research is not only to inform but also to challenge traditional narratives that place the onus on individuals to be “responsible” drivers or pedestrians. Instead, we need to look at how structural factors—such as access to education, socio-economic status, and physical ability—affect road use and safety. Clearly, academia is often perceived and respected as an “expert” voice. Advocacy, on the other hand, translates this knowledge into action, pushing for policies that address these root causes.

 From a strategic point of view, how will you integrate academia into the work YOURS is doing for young people and road safety?
Strategically, academia can serve as a foundation for inclusive, data-driven advocacy. By integrating academic research with the lived experiences of young people, we can create a roadmap for effective and equitable interventions. This means not only studying road safety from a technical standpoint but also examining how different populations—such as women, people with disabilities, and low-income communities—experience road environments differently. I see opportunities for YOURS to work closely with academic institutions to produce intersectional research that informs our campaigns and advocacy efforts.

Can you give us a little glimpse into what your visions are for the organisation with this new Supervisory Board that now includes young people within its structure?
With young people now playing a more integral role on the supervisory board, I envision YOURS becoming an even more dynamic and inclusive force for change. My hope is to build an environment where youth from all backgrounds—feel empowered to lead and innovate. I see this as a chance to co-create strategies that reflect the realities of different groups, whether it’s addressing the unique challenges faced by women on the roads, or ensuring that people with disabilities have access to safe and reliable transportation options.

Professor Jagnoor joins Professor Adnan A. Hyder, Professor Shanthi Ameratunga, and Ruud de Groot on the Board.

14th October 2024, Lisbon, Portugal – YOURS – Youth for Road Safety is participating in Walk21 Portugal: Everybody Walks in three key sessions to share youth-led projects focused on fostering active modes of mobility.

Throughout the event, YOURS will participate in the WalkShop on Inclusive Street Design for children, women, and people with disabilities, the Pecha Kucha Presentation on the Star Rating for Schools (SR4S) Project in Yaounde, Cameroon, and the WalkShop about the app “YEA”.

The 24th International Walk21 Conference on Walking and Liveable Communities is being hosted by the Institute of Mobility and Transport on behalf of the Government of the Portuguese Republic in partnership with the City of Lisbon, Iscte, and Walk21.

Participants are invited to discuss how walking policies and projects are transforming the urban paradigm; impacting people’s walking experiences; helping deliver on safety, equity and climate goals and attracting investment for urban development that supports people walking.

Featured during the Walk21 sessions are Local Actions projects “Pedestrian First” in Colombia and “Waka Fine To School” in Cameroon. 

Pedestrian First raises awareness around pedestrian vulnerability and the need to respect their integrity. Implemented in 2023, it amplified the message about how road users are co-responsibility for creating safer spaces and how they can advocate for safer roads in Bogotá.

Meanwhile, Waka Fine To School mapped school zones, created risk maps, implemented the Star Rating for Schools (SR4S) methodology pioneered by the International Road Assessment Programme (iRAP) to implement road safety infrastructure interventions which will result in the creation of school signs, enforcement of speed limits, and the maintenance of pedestrian crosswalks in ‘risky locations’.

These youth-led projects fit within the Walk21 objective of stakeholders sharing insights and expertise on developing and implementing walking policies and programmes that deliver walkable communities and safer streets, broader community participation and enhance the value of walking.

The event is an opportunity for YOURS to connect with organisations sharing similar goals geared toward improving road safety and sustainable mobility.

By exploring different synergies anchored on the importance of investing in youth, YOURS can bridge the gap between young people and investors to help amplify road safety impact on the ground. The space is also an opportunity for knowledge sharing, paving the way for more improved and more strategic projects supported by the organisation.

YOURS – Youth for Road Safety is joining the IRF World Congress happening in Istanbul, Turkiye from the 15th to the 18th of October 2024.

The Congress offers a unique platform for different organisations to engage with global leaders, policymakers, and industry experts in road safety and youth empowerment. It also serves as a key moment for road safety and transport partners to share their plans, pledges, campaigns for the upcoming 4th Ministerial Conference on Road Safety on February 2025 in Marrackesh, Morocco. 

YOURS is participating as a co-organiser to the IRF Young Professionals Summit session, representatives at a high-level roundtable session, and as a nominee for the Inclusion and Diversity Award to the IRF Award Ceremony. 

As co-organisers to the Young Professionals Summit, YOURS will engage young professionals in road safety discussions that focus recognising the role of youth in addressing the road safety crisis. 

Youth remain to be the most affected age group impacted by road traffic injuries yet are often uninvolved in decisions that most affect them. 

Through this Summit, YOURS will reiterate the role of youth in road safety, as stated in the Global Plan for Road Safety 2021-2030. Through its advocacy tools and resources, YOURS will lead the conversation on why its important and necessary for decision-makers and other leaders to invest in youth and be accountable in their commitments for road safety and in meaningful youth engagement. 

The roundtable session will aid these discussions by focusing the conversation on the linkages between health, active mobility, and climate action in building safe and sustainable mobility systems while emphasising the importance of youth involvement. 

While YOURS has key roles in building the messages of the Conference and in shedding light on youth efforts in road safety, the organisation is also recognised as a nominee for the Inclusion and Diversity for its Belize Youth Empowerment Programme.

This category honours outstanding achievement in promoting diversity, equity, and inclusion in the transportation sector. It celebrates organisations, projects, and/or initiatives that have demonstrated exemplary leadership, innovation, and commitment to fostering inclusive practices and embracing diversity in all its forms.

The Belize Youth Empowerment Programme, launched in 2014, was created to address the road safety crisis in Belize. With investment from the Carribean Development Bank to improve infrastructure in the country, YOURS worked with young leaders to tackle the statistics.

Through the Programme, YOURS trained 35 young leaders on road safety through its award-winning capacity development methodology. These leaders went on to train a futher 2000+ youth in road safety by the end of 2015. 

Continued efforts by these youth leaders resulted in them reaching 3,000 more of their peers through workshops in schools, festivals, through music and media outreach. They even founded the Belizean Youth for Road Safety (BYRS) to keep spreading the message and ensure that no one was left behind.

The IRF World Congress will gather the road and mobility sectors as enablers of growth and development.

With the theme, “Connecting to Empower Mobility: Roads as Enablers of a Sustainable Future for All”, the congress will serve as a platform explore innovations in road safety and more.

More updates will follow after the event – in the mean time, you can read more about the Congress in the link below;

“Walk the Talk” – True to its core values, YOURS – Youth for Road Safety is an organisation for youth, by youth. As August and the celebration of young people through International Youth Day formally ends, we welcome September with some exciting news about how young leaders have been given seats at YOURS’ governing body, the Supervisory Board. 

The Board welcomes Simon Patrick Obi and Inés Yabar! 

To learn more about these incredible leaders, YOURS Junior Communication Manager Maolin Macatangay talks with the two about their experiences in road safety and sustainable development. Read on to get to know them better! 

Mao: Good morning, guys! It’s nice to finally get a chance to speak with you! Congratulations on joining the Supervisory Board. I’m so excited to see what you will bring to the table. Before we start with the questions, maybe you can share a little bit about yourself. 

Simon: Yes, Simon Patrick Obi is my name, and I am from Nigeria. I founded a nonprofit called GreenLight Initiative, for which I have promoted road safety for over a decade. I was at the 2nd World Youth Assembly for Road Safety, where we kicked off the idea of the Global Youth Coalition for Road Safety. I joined the Youth Leadership Board, and ever since, we’ve been working with the YOURS team to push for road safety. 

Inés: I think my interactions with Youth for Road Safety started even before I knew Youth for Road Safety was a thing. I met Raqui [Raquel Barrios] when she had her role at Techo, I had founded an organisation in France that supported the efforts in Latin America, and she was the European coordinator. So that’s how I met her. She joined this road safety movement, and I thought, “What’s this?”. When I joined the UN Foundation – they were partners of the Global Youth Coalition – so it’s been a nice way to see the journey a bit from the outside. 

I have never been a strong advocate for road safety; my advocacy has been mainly the reduction of inequalities and climate change sustainability. But I’ve always admired how the team finds the intersections and tries to bring other people in. I’ve always been in and out interacting, as you said, Mao, with the different requests from the team, which I always enjoy. That’s what I mostly enjoy – the team of YOURS is super friendly and is doing a lot for a very small team. So I’m excited to be joining in a more formal role and get to contribute from different angles and also get to learn a lot.

Mao: That is incredible, and I know you guys have done a lot and I feel very privileged to see those journeys unfold. So the first question is about a significant lesson you learned, or maybe an experience that shaped you to be the leader you are today, and how will this lesson be applied within your role as a Supervisory Board Member?

Simon: You see, as a Youth Leadership Board member for the Global Youth Coalition for Road Safety and also being involved in several leadership associations, I have learned that to effectively engage with young people, it is essential to act and not just to act but also to communicate in ways that resonate with youth. I’ve also learned that young people are more engaged and interested when they are empowered, when they are mentored, when they are included in the decision-making process. By integrating these lessons I have learned over the years, I hope to contribute to the board’s effectiveness and support YOURS  in advancing its mission to improve safe and sustainable mobility for youth worldwide. 

Inés: I am currently in a situation where leadership is hard because I make hard decisions. I think that this is something I’ve learned from previous structures I’ve been in or even structures that I’m in now is that leadership isn’t just guiding people in the nice areas or getting people to do things or bringing people along or motivating them – it’s sometimes often learning to say no or learning when you have to let go of someone who’s not following the guidelines or the values that the team is in. I think it will be interesting to see how, in the Supervisory Board, we can align in more difficult moments. I want to see how we can ensure that the organisation still supports the young leaders and the work it’s doing while also standing firm in whatever values or structures are in place.

Mao: In today’s generation where, people are going towards more of the influencer route or going the route that will allow them to make a profit. Can you give us the story of why you chose an altruistic professional path? 

Simon: The answer reflects my lived experience. Actually, when I wanted to go into road safety, some folks told me that I was broke and I was going to an area that would make me even poorer. It was such a hard decision for me but I wanted to change because I saw a need and a problem in my society. In 2015, I came across a newspaper article saying that car crashes were the leading cause of violent deaths in Nigeria. However, the government and the public showed minimum interest in road safety. This is largely because the victims of road crashes were often from low-income backgrounds – evidence also shows that. Around that same time, I experienced the tragic loss of young friends dying in crashes, and it struck me that not too much is done to advocate for young people in my country. So, I was determined to make a difference.

Inés: When I was 15 years old, I went to volunteer in a Shanti town –  this was part of a school project – and I saw that I could make a change. We built a house for one family that transformed their lives because they lived in inhumane conditions. So, I could see the impact of small things I could make. The anecdote I thought about road safety specifically isn’t good; I was riding my bike in Peru, and I wasn’t wearing a helmet. I didn’t have lights, either. A reporter stopped me, and he was filming something about the new bike law. There was going to be a new law that made us wear helmets and have lights on our bikes. So he was interviewing people riding past and of course, I took the opportunity to talk to him. We spoke for half an hour, and I was feeling super great about myself, but then when I saw the report come out, the only part that they focused on was that I was saying, “Yes, it’s good – people should wear helmets,” and I wasn’t wearing one. And so, to me, that was a motivation to say, “Okay? I’m preaching about how you should wear a helmet, but I’m not wearing one because I didn’t feel like it was necessary”. That was broadcast nationally, and I just thought, “Oh my goodness” Since then, I have not gotten onto a bike without a helmet and lights.

Mao: So, what is your vision for YOURS and young people in road safety? And what do you think is our role in achieving 50by30?

Simon: So, my vision for the future of YOURS is simple; I want to see YOURS lead a transformative shift in global road safety by involving and engaging youth who have continued to bear the greatest brunt of road crashes. I also envision YOURS becoming a critical force in driving systemic change through creative and innovative strategy and robust advocacy for safe and sustainable mobility for young people. 

Inés: Maybe my vision is a bit more selfish in the sense that I want to see people like me who also want to advocate for road safety but those who hasn’t done it before. How can we bring those who don’t realise how affected young people are by road safety or don’t understand how they can take action? How do you reach the countries most affected by road crashes but also reach those countries that aren’t? How do we get these low-risk countries to advocate for other countries to step up their game? How do we make sure that those young people have the right tools and aren’t working in silos for governments, companies, or other institutions?  

Mao: Thank you very much, guys. Looking forward to working with you!

There will be additional updates on the YOURS Supervisory Board so stay tuned!