Development projects shape cities and systems for decades, defining how people move, where they can live and work, and how they experience public space. Yet, the people most affected by these decisions are often not part of how they are made, creating gaps that directly influence how infrastructure performs, how communities engage with it, and how sustainable outcomes can be over time.
On 3 May 2026, at the Asian Development Bank’s Annual Meeting in Samarkand, Uzbekistan, YOURS – Youth for Road Safety facilitated a panel discussion on how youth and community engagement can strengthen the design and delivery of development projects. The conversation brought together Ulfi Puarada from Transportologi and Shivani Khurana from Raahgiri Foundation, both members of the Global Youth Coalition for Road Safety’s leadership teams representing the voice of the youth movement behind YOURS. Youth advocates spoke alongside Director General Hideaki Iwasaki from the Asian Development Bank, Sectors Department 1 (Energy and Transport Sectors) as well as Mohamed Manssouri, Assistant Director-General and Director of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) Investment Centre, connecting perspectives from young leaders and communities with institutional experience in development and investment.
Invest the time up front, see the returns long-term
Across the discussion, a consistent idea emerged around the role of participation in shaping more effective and sustainable outcomes. Development processes that integrate communities from the earliest stages tend to deliver stronger results across implementation, performance and long term sustainability. When communities understand projects, contribute to their design and see their priorities reflected in decisions, they are more likely to support implementation, strengthen local ownership and sustain outcomes over time.
When asked about measuring return-on-investment from community inclusion, Mr. Iwasaki explained, “There are returns, but those returns take time. In my experience, there is no doubt that high community engagement gives better results. It takes more time and money in the beginning, but investing in communities over the long run is a more sustainable investment.”
Community consultation can look different
Meaningful participation becomes visible in how engagement evolves within project cycles, moving from listening through surveys and focus groups, into co-creation, and at its strongest, into shared roles in decision making, implementation and accountability.
Ms. Ulfi Puarada spoke clearly, “Start with consulting youth, but then bring us in to co-create, and then to lead.”
The panel shared examples of how to listen to the community’s feedback in their own way, including through creative exercises like drawing, music, poetry, and mural making.
One audience member asked about consulting youth and women in particular, when every citizen would be affected by a project. Ms. Shivani Khurana explained that projects should consider which identity groups are most affected by the decisions made — students, wheelchair users, elderly — and to design around the people most vulnerable. “In general, with young people and women, these are the voices that are often left out of the decision process, so we do need to prioritise including them,” she explained.
Rely on data and evidence
Evidence shared during the session reinforced how this approach translates into tangible results in practice.
Mr. Iwasaki shared his experiences from India’s Rural Road Programme in partnership with the Asian Development Bank, where strong community listening activities made the ADB-supported sections of road upgrades more effective and long-lasting. “If you do it right the first time by really listening to the community, your money goes further. Otherwise you will pay to revise and upgrade later.”
In India’s Rural Road Programme, community engagement frameworks were initially perceived as a potential constraint on delivery timelines. In practice, the sections of road that included structured community consultation progressed more efficiently into procurement, supported by stronger local alignment and ownership throughout the process.
This pattern can be observed across sectors, where projects that are co-designed with communities tend to benefit from stronger adoption, wider dissemination through local networks and greater long term sustainability. These outcomes are reflected in improved performance indicators and more resilient impact beyond initial investment periods.
Participatory practices fit into every part of the project lifecycle
YOURS continues to integrate youth and community participation across its work, embedding these approaches into project design, implementation and evaluation through participatory methodologies and community led processes. Across different contexts, these experiences demonstrate how participation can be embedded as a core component of development practice and contribute consistently to stronger results.
This approach also responds to existing gaps in representation across sectors. Decision making spaces in transport, energy and urban development remain limited in diversity, while young people, women and vulnerable communities continue to experience the direct impact of infrastructure and policy decisions over longer time horizons.
As Mr. Mohamed Manssouri shared: “Investing in the human and social capital of youth and women is essential for building strong community-based organizations, creating more and better jobs, and achieving greater impact across agrifood systems.”
Development institutions can build community criteria into loan frameworks, while civil society can reinforce benefits of opting in to governments.
Advancing this model requires integrating participation into development frameworks from the earliest stages, ensuring it is planned, resourced and implemented as part of standard processes across institutions and governments.
Community consultation is not a ‘nice to have,’ but a strategic return on investment
As global development agendas continue to evolve, this conversation reflects a broader shift already taking place across multiple platforms, where youth participation and road safety are increasingly recognised as essential to building sustainable and effective systems.
La seguridad vial forma parte de la vida cotidiana de miles de jóvenes en Chimalhuacán, especialmente de quienes utilizan la motocicleta como medio de transporte. Frente a esta realidad, el programa Seguro Es Cool busca acercar herramientas de liderazgo, reflexión y acción comunitaria a las juventudes, con el objetivo de fortalecer su participación en la construcción de entornos de movilidad más seguros.
Como parte de esta iniciativa, los días 22, 23 y 24 de abril, 16 jóvenes participaron en una capacitación presencial enfocada en liderazgo juvenil, seguridad vial y acción comunitaria.Durante las sesiones, las y los participantes compartieron experiencias personales y reflexionaron sobre los retos que enfrentan a diario en sus comunidades. Las conversaciones se centraron especialmente en la seguridad de quienes se desplazan en motocicleta, el uso del espacio público y la necesidad de crear entornos más seguros para todas las personas.
“Un elemento muy inspirador de esta experiencia fue ver a jóvenes buscando alternativas para cambiar las realidades que viven todos los días en Chimalhuacán. La seguridad vial se ha convertido en una conversación sobre sus propias calles, sus rutinas y su futuro. Seguro Es Cool busca darles herramientas y confianza para liderar ese cambio desde sus comunidades”, destacó Daniela Gómez, Capacity Development Manager en YOURS y facilitadora de la capacitación.
Además de promover el diálogo, la capacitación estuvo enfocada en el fortalecimiento de habilidades de integración y liderazgo. Durante el segundo día, las y los participantes pusieron en práctica lo aprendido y comenzaron a prepararse para moderar sus propias sesiones y compartir el mensaje de la seguridad vial con más jóvenes en sus comunidades.
Juventudes como agentes de cambio
Uno de los pilares de la iniciativa Seguro Es Cool es reconocer a las juventudes no sólo como beneficiarias de las iniciativas de seguridad vial, sino como actores clave para impulsar transformaciones comunitarias y promover sistemas de movilidad más seguros.A través de espacios de participación activa, el programa impulsa liderazgos locales y promueve conversaciones sobre seguridad vial más cercanas a las experiencias cotidianas de la población.
“Lo más valioso de este proceso fue escuchar a las y los jóvenes de Chimalhuacán compartir cómo viven la movilidad y la seguridad vial en su día a día. Muchos utilizan la motocicleta como medio de transporte y nunca habían tenido acceso a espacios de reflexión sobre estos riesgos. Ver cómo se apropiaron del tema y decidieron compartir este conocimiento con otras personas nos confirma que el cambio puede construirse desde las comunidades. En Fundación Aleatica creemos en el potencial de las juventudes para impulsar transformaciones positivas y acercar la seguridad vial a su realidad cotidiana.” — Rodrigo Rosas-Osuna, Fundación Aleatica.
La capacitación presencial representa un paso importante dentro de un proceso continuo y constante, cuando las y los participantes comiencen a liderar actividades, compartir conocimientos con otras personas y amplificar la conversación sobre movilidad segura en sus comunidades.
Porque construir calles más seguras no depende únicamente de cambios en infraestructura o políticas públicas. También comienza cuando las juventudes encuentran espacios para participar, proponer, compartir ideas y trazar futuros distintos para sus ciudades.
Seguro Es Cool cuenta con el respaldo de Fundación Aleatica y se desarrolla en colaboración con YOURS (Youth for Road Safety), con la participación de la Liga Peatonal y el Circuito Exterior Mexiquense como aliados estratégicos, en el marco de la Child Health Initiative de FIA Foundation.
Attending the World Urban Forum for the first time as a representative of YOURS – Youth for Road Safetywas both energising and affirming. We were there with a clear mission: to speak up and position the fact that cities cannot be truly sustainable if young people are not safe moving through them. Road traffic injuries remain one of the leading threats to young people’s lives, and no city can claim to be livable or resilient while its youngest residents face daily danger on their streets. If we are designing the cities of tomorrow, young people must be in the room today. And yes… the full programme and venue corridors were full of youth, which was inspiring and motivating.
One of the most striking insights from #WUF was how deeply the housing sector has embraced community engagement compared to the transport field. Housing actors have normalised participatory processes that centre residents’ voices, while transport and road‑safety planning still often operate at a distance from the communities most affected. There is so much to learn from the housing agenda: the methodologies, the co‑creation practices, and the recognition that people are experts in their own environments. These approaches can and should be adapted to mobility planning, where young people, the most frequent users of urban transport, bring creativity, digital fluency, and a sense of urgency that cities desperately need.
Throughout the forum, one theme kept resurfacing: urban resilience is not only about infrastructure; it is about protecting people. Cities that invest in road safety see gains in health, productivity, equity, and long‑term resilience. Safe streets unlock access to education, jobs, and opportunities, especially for young people, women, and vulnerable groups. Road safety is not just a transport issue; it is a public‑health, equity, and development priority that must be embedded in every urban agenda.
I leave #WUF more convinced than ever that safer transport and safer housing are two deeply interrelated components shaping the urban environments we all depend on. You cannot build a safe home in an unsafe neighbourhood, and you cannot build a thriving mobility system when people do not feel secure where they live, walk, or travel. These systems reinforce each other: safe streets support stable communities, and stable communities demand safer streets. If we want to see a truly holistic, safe society, both sectors must receive equal attention, investment, and political will. Urban transformation will only be real when mobility and housing are treated not as parallel agendas, but as interconnected foundations of human dignity and collective well‑being.
With the support of the FIA Foundation and in partnership with Liga Peatonal, Despacio, ASR (Association des Ambassadeurs de la Sécurité Routière), and Kemi Ketiga l, YOURS is implementing a structured coaching programme to support youth-led advocacy at the city level. The project aims to embed young people within urban governance systems by supporting their meaningful participation in city-level councils related to mobility, health, and road safety across four cities: Tunis, Bogotá, Guadalajara, and Bandung.
Over the past months, youth advocates across these cities have been developing Advocacy Youth Action Plans, strategic, locally grounded documents designed to move beyond one-off engagement toward sustained, intergenerational collaboration in decision-making processes.
In Tunis, Tunisia, this work is already taking shape in a powerful and tangible way. Young advocates, supported by YOURS and ASR, identified speeding, weak enforcement, and unsafe environments around schools and community spaces as critical road safety challenges affecting their daily lives. While many entered the programme with limited experience in policy processes, they demonstrated strong analytical capacity and confidence in using data to support their arguments.
Through a combination of group coaching, individual mentoring, and onsite engagement, the Tunis cohort strengthened key skills in advocacy communication, stakeholder engagement, and evidence-based campaigning. This support enabled them to translate lived experience into a structured action plan focused on speed management and safer school zones.
Their engagement has already moved beyond consultation. Youth advocates contributed to a national WHO campaign on road safety and held multiple engagements with the Road Safety Committee in the Governorate of Tunis. Most notably, they presented their Youth Action Plan to the Committee, positioning themselves as credible contributors to ongoing policy discussions.
The plan outlines a set of practical and scalable actions, including assessing risk in high-exposure areas for children and youth, co-designing community awareness initiatives, and advocating for stronger enforcement and infrastructure improvements. It also proposes pathways to institutionalise youth participation within the Committee, ensuring that young people are not only heard but have a sustained role in shaping safer urban environments.
This marks an important shift, from youth as beneficiaries of road safety interventions to youth as partners in governance.
As the project progresses, the Tunis experience is emerging as a strong example of how structured coaching, local partnerships, and clear policy entry points can translate youth engagement into meaningful influence, while offering valuable lessons for replication across Bogotá, Guadalajara, and Bandung.
In July 2026, global leaders, institutions, and partners will gather in New York for the United Nations High-Level Meeting on Improving Global Road Safety. The focus is clear: moving from commitments to implementation.
We are halfway through the decade. The direction has been set for some time, but what is happening on the ground still does not fully reflect that ambition. In many places, progress feels slow. In others, it is difficult to see at all. The gap between what has been agreed and what people experience every day remains, and it is becoming harder to ignore.
This is what makes this moment important. Not because something new needs to be defined, but because what already exists needs to be delivered. The conversation is shifting, from what should happen to what is actually happening, and why.
Road safety is often treated as a transport issue, but it shapes much more than that. It affects how people move through their cities, what options feel safe to use, and what opportunities are realistically within reach. It also influences how cities respond to climate challenges and how inclusive those responses really are. Safety is not an add-on. It is what determines whether these systems work at all.
Across regions, this is already visible. Young people are shaping mobility systems through local action, partnerships, and ongoing work in their communities. In many cases, this is already influencing how solutions are tested, adapted, and implemented.
The question is no longer whether young people should be included. It is whether systems are designed to make use of that contribution. Where youth engagement is consistent and meaningful, it tends to change outcomes. Solutions become more grounded, more relevant, and more likely to last.
At the High-Level Meeting, YOURS will bring this into the conversation. The focus is on accountability, on connecting safety and sustainability, and on ensuring that youth engagement is part of implementation, not something that sits alongside it. This work is carried out in collaboration with governments, institutions, and partners, where different roles need to come together to make progress possible.
The meeting itself is only one step; what matters is what follows, how commitments are carried forward, how progress is tracked, and how systems continue to evolve over time.
Fifty-six teachers from 28 high schools across the Mekong Delta in Vietnam have completed three-day Training of Trainers (TOT) workshops designed to equip them with the skills to mentor youth leaders and promote road safety and youth well-being. The trainings were held in Vinh Long province from 28–30 March 2026 and An Giang province from 2–4 April 2026 as part of the AI&Me: Empowering Youth for Livable Cities program.
This program is supported by Fondation Botnar and the FIA Foundation, and implemented by AIP Foundation, Youth for Road Safety (YOURS), and the International Road Assessment Programme (iRAP) in collaboration with the Department of Education and Training and the Department of Construction of Vinh Long and An Giang provinces. The program aims to strengthen youth well-being by empowering young people to become agents of change for safer and healthier cities in Vietnam.
The cascade training approach combines two days of online pre-training through the YOURS Academy platform with a three-day in-person Training of Trainers (TOT) workshop, providing teachers with comprehensive training in road safety concepts, youth leadership development, and interactive facilitation techniques. Jorge Gomez, Capacity Development Manager at YOURS, led the training with Molly Stoneman, Partnerships & Business Development Director at YOURS.
Participants explored the global and national context of road safety, learned methods for effective youth engagement and peer education, and practised delivering interactive workshops for youth audiences.
Teachers were also introduced to digital tools that will support youth-led road safety initiatives later this year, including the Youth Engagement App (YEA), which allows students to identify and report hazardous road locations, and the Star Rating for Schools (SR4S) methodology by iRAP, which supports evidence-based improvements to road infrastructure near schools.
Following the TOT training, teachers will return to their schools to deliver two-day training sessions for student Youth Leaders. In total, 28 two-day student trainings will be conducted across participating schools in April and May 2026, enabling young people to gain the knowledge and skills needed to lead peer education activities and youth-led projects advocating for safer roads in their communities.
“Empowering young people to participate in solutions is essential for creating safer and more livable communities,” said Vo Van Quoi, Deputy Head of High School Department from the Department of Education and Training of An Giang Province. “When students learn from their peers and take ownership of the solutions, the message becomes more impactful and sustainable.”
Teachers who attended the TOT workshops expressed enthusiasm about applying the approach in their schools.
“This training provides practical methods to engage students in discussions about road safety and leadership,” said Huynh Ngoc Phuong Thao, a teacher from Nguyen Hung Son High School in An Giang. “We are committed to partnering with students and encouraging their leadership to help create safer journeys for young people.”
Through this cascading training approach, the initiative aims to build a growing network of youth leaders who can champion safer mobility and healthier urban environments in their communities. By combining youth engagement, digital tools, and strong partnerships between schools, government agencies, and international organizations, the program seeks to create sustainable, youth-led solutions that contribute to safer roads and more livable cities for future generations in Viet Nam
