Brian’s Column: Road Safety Advocacy Opportunities from Africa

Brian’s Column: Road Safety Advocacy Opportunities from Africa

by | Dec 12, 2023 | News & Blog

Our regular columnist Brian Bilal Mwebaze is back with another column, this time with opportunities for advocacy action in Africa. From East to West Africa, Brian is shares the latest ways you can push for road safety in the region. Read this and more Brian’s columns!

From the brightest and arguably the windiest part of the continent, hello!! It’s been shining like crazy the whole of June in Uganda. But it’s been cold in Nairobi and very cold (if you don’t mind me saying) in Cape Town. Could this be the thirsty and ugly outcomes of climate change? Well, you can bet your last dollar on it, but it has something to do with the emissions from our vehicles: But wait, let’s give the cat some mice, shall we?

Speaking about the Cape Town, you may not have heard, but calm down, we (at Youth for Road Safety) are not about to go for a wedding there, but rather the Global Road Safety Partnership- 3rd Africa Road Safety Seminar taking place in August 2014. For details about how you can register for this event, voila… I will be bringing you interrupted updates from and prior to the seminar. Keep your eyes glued onto our Youth for Road Safety website and enviable social media handles.

Just a quick eye in the pot, we will make a presentation on the ‘Role of African Young People in Road Safety’, and all this wouldn’t be possible had it not been for GRSP’s Elna VienKerk and my local organisation:-the Uganda Red Cross. Currently, I am making a hell of a presentation on the best practices, and if you would like your organisation to be highlighted especially on young people and road safety at no cost (ofcourse), please contact us before night falls.
Over to West Africa, La Prévention Routière Internationale- an International organisation that supports road safety activities in Benin, Mali, Niger and Cote D’ivoire shared this photo on their wall, and it gunned 1114 shares in 10 minutes: a record!

Lets turn the steering wheel to the most beautiful part of the continent..shshshsh! #EastAfrica: There is a big event happening, and friends from Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, South Sudan, Rwanda et Burundi must never miss out! Ladies and gentlemen, the East African Regional Safe Communities Conference 2014. The regional integration couldn’t come any earlier! Apply for your scholarships on the website beginning July 5th! Don’t say, we didn’t tell you! (winks)

Don’t forget to join the consultation on localizing the #Post2015 Development Agenda and include road safety! The recommendations emerging from your contributions will ultimately inform the final report of the consultation on localizing the Post-2015 agenda, and will be presented to key decision-makers and leaders deciding upon the post-2015 development framework and feed into the United Nations Secretary General Report.

And you could say this again! Or did you know already? Never mind but the UN Post-2015 ‘Zero Draft’ includes health target on road traffic injury  – See more here. As always, #StaySafe Follow Brian on Twitter.

Georgia Alliance for Safe Roads: 1 minute tv spot on road safety

Georgia Alliance for Safe Roads: 1 minute tv spot on road safety

by | Dec 12, 2023 | News & Blog

Our friends in Georgia from the Georgian Alliance for Safe Roads recently appeared on a TV programme ‘1 Minute’ where people get the opportunity to speak for 1 minute on things they are passionaite about. Ms Kobalia, Diretor of the organization took a moment to talk about road safety and avoiding drink driving.

Recently, Executive Director of Georgia Alliance for Safe Roads (GAFSR), Ms Maya Kobalia, a member of the YOURS network was featured on Georgian TV and given a minute to talk about an issue they are passionate about. Maya chose to focus on road safety, an issue that affects all generations. The show captured very succinctly, the need for Georgians to not drink and drive following up from GAFSR’s drink driving campaign.

Don’t Drink and Drive!” was launched in the framework of the Georgia‘s First Lady’s Healthy Life Style Initiative „Don’t Worry, Be Healthy”. The Campaign/Project is initiated and conducted by “Georgian Alliance for Safe Roads”. The donors of the Campaign are: Company “Natakhtari”, Insurance Company “GPI Holding”, Toyota Caucasus LLC and the U.S. Embassy in Georgia. Road safety public-education campaign aims to raise public awareness of the problems that drunk driving can cause, and to reduce the number of crashes caused by drunk driving.

The goal of the campaign “Don’t Drink and Drive” is to reduce the number of crashes caused by drunk driving, by changing the behavior of drivers through the public awareness campaigns and enhanced enforcement of traffic rules. There’s no excuse for getting behind the wheel when you’re drunk: not emergencies, not ignorance of the law, not “believing you hadn’t drunk anything”, not… anything. Even one injury or death due to a drunk driving accident is one too many, because accidents due to drinking and driving are completely preventable!

The Georgia Alliance for Safe Roads have become an active member of our network with some fantastic submissions for the Long Short Walk at YOURS.

Click here to see Maya’s video on Youtube or see it in the right column.

Updates from Training of Facilitators – Belmopan, Belize

Updates from Training of Facilitators – Belmopan, Belize

by | Dec 12, 2023 | News & Blog

‘The YOURS Training officially kicked off on Monday 16th June 2014 and is off to an incredibly dynamic, engaging and informative start’, say our participants. The training sees 19 young leaders, specially selected by the Government of Belize to partake in the two week training and subsequently reach over 2000 young Belizeans.

As we kick off day three of the two week Training of Facilitators in Belmopan, Belize, a number of key road safety workshops have already been undertaken with great gusto and energy. 19 youth leaders from all across Belize have joined together to partake in the joint programme funded by the Caribbean Development Bank and The Government of Belize.

Official Government of Belize Press Statement:
2,000 Belizean Youth between ages 16-29 and are expected to benefit from this USD$157,000 the Youth and Road Safety Capacity Building Project jointly funded by the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) and the Government of Belize (GOBZ). The project will be executed by the Ministry of Finance and Economic Development, Road Safety Unit and the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports. The road safety capacity building programme for teens and young adults will be facilitated by Youth For Road Safety, an international youth-led and youth- oriented, not-for-profit, non-governmental organisation focused on youth and road safety. The programme will utilise a train-the-trainer approach, while incorporating peer education and active learning. It is expected that the project will also enhance the benefits to be realised from the ongoing USD8.844 million CDB and GOBZ funded Road Safety Project launched in March 2013.

So far the participants have actively engaged in the YOURS Training Programme including understanding the Scope of the Road Safety Problem in the world and in Belize.

Road traffic injuries are the fourth leading cause of death in Belize. Of these, youth comprise 30% of road crash fatalities, with young males specifically, accounting for approximately 90%. Through this project we aim to increase youth’s understanding of road safety, and create the awareness for young men and women to become advocates and peer- facilitators for road safety. The first phase of the project will commence from June 16-27, 2014 over a two-week period. YOURS will take the selected young leaders through an intensive road safety programme and train them in all aspects of youth and road safety issues as well as key skills on running their own workshops with young people in the country. The training combines theory with practice and will give hands on experience as well as life-long transferrable skills and an unforgettable experience.

As stated by Mr. Glen McCarvell from the CDB, “the project seeks to catalyse behavioural change in young males, while equipping all participants with the knowledge needed, and assisting with the development of the skills required, to implement their own road safety activities.” These young men and women will receive a hands-on approach to appreciate the importance of road safety and build the will to disseminate this information, using a multiplier approach, to families, friends and the community at large.

Young participants exploring why youth are at particular risk of road traffic crashes than other age groups.

Young men and women will be able to appreciate the importance of driving responsibly and subsequently transfer this knowledge to others. For example, it is well known that alcohol impairs one ́s ability to drive since it affects judgment, vision, coordination and reflexes and increases the risk of crashing. The law with respect to driving under the influence of alcohol stipulates that Belizean drivers must have a blood alcohol concentration (BAC) as an equivalent to less than 0.08. BAC is a measurement of the amount of alcohol in your body, expressed as grams of alcohol per 100ml of blood. Statistics show that driving under the influence of alcohol is the second most common cause of fatalities for road traffic collisions in Belize.

In the first phase, approximately 19 young men and women will be selected based on the following criteria: highly motivated to make a positive change for youth and road safety; feels comfortable in front of a group of people; is patient and can explain issues in a simple way to young people; is able to create a good learning environment and atmosphere where young people are relaxed and open to share information; can relate to youth issues and understands their needs/culture; have good organization and communication skills; works or worked at a professional organization that can support their road safety work after the training; experienced in facilitating workshops/trainings; and experienced in road safety and understands the basics.

Participants actively engaging in the YOURS Training.

The second phase will focus on reaching 2,000 youth by the 15 Train-The-Trainers from the first phase. The Train-The- Trainers will prepare a plan for the Youth and Road Safety Workshops over a 6-month period and will be assisted by the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports (MOEYS) in the selection of high schools within the on-going Road Safety Project’s Demonstration Corridor for the initial rollout of workshops and thereafter extend to the entire country. In addition, the MOEYS will identify opportunities to extend the workshops to reach youth not in the school system.

The YOURS Belize Project is a unique opportunity for young leaders to be trained in Road Safety and to contribute to reducing deaths and injuries from road traffic collisions on Belize roads.

Training of Faciliators to kick off in Belize, Caribbean with youth leaders

Training of Faciliators to kick off in Belize, Caribbean with youth leaders

by | Dec 12, 2023 | News & Blog

We are very excited to kick off the first Training of Facilitators in Belmopan, Belize tomorrow (16th June) the second road safety training run by YOURS and in the Caribbean region. The training is coordinated by the Government of Belize (GOBZ) with a grant from the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) and is set to train 18 young leaders in youth and road safety issues who will subsequently reach over 2000 young people in the coming year.

A joint project of the Caribbean Development Bank, the Government of Belize; Department of Finance, Department of Youth Services, the Belize Road Safety Corridor project and YOURS will see the realization of a two week Training of Facilitators for Road Safety starting next tomorrow (16th June 2014) in Belmopan, the capital of Belize. It builds on our previous work in the Caribbean with the VYBZING Forum held in Saint Lucia 2013 entitled; ‘Road Safety: Save a Life Save a Future’

The training will bring together 18 youth leaders specially selected for the road safety training who will commit two weeks to an intensive road safety theory and practical workshops focusing on many aspects of road safety from the scope of the road safety problem in the world, the Caribbean and Belize down to facilitation skills, the fundamentals of human learning and much much more.

Over the next year, these 18 young leaders, on completing the YOURS Training of Facilitators will reach over 2000 youth in Belize with road safety workshops.

The training is all set to kick off tomorrow at the George Price Centre for Peace and Development – Belmopan.

Mr. Glen McCarvell, Operations Officer (Civil Engineer), CDB, notes, “Road traffic injuries are the fourth leading cause of death in Belize. Of these, youth comprise 30 per cent of road crash fatalities, with young males specifically, accounting for 90 per cent. Through this project we aim to increase youth’s understanding of road safety, and youth-related issues surrounding the safe use of Belize’s road network. In particular, the project seeks to catalyse behavioural change in young males, while equipping all participants with the knowledge needed, and assisting with the development of the skills required, to implement their own road safety activities.”

Floor Lieshout, Director of YOURS said: “We are thrilled about this contract and thank the CDB and Belize Government for the trust in our organisation. We are looking forward to our collaboration, and can’t wait to kick off the project and work with the wonderful youth of Belize.”

Of course, you can expect regular updates in the typical YOURS style so stay tuned!

Reporting back from the ECOSOC Youth Forum – NYC

Reporting back from the ECOSOC Youth Forum – NYC

by | Dec 12, 2023 | News & Blog

In New York, the third annual ECOSOC Youth Forum concluded with a Global Youth Call being presented to Member States. Endorsed by more than 1,000 youth and civil society organizations from some 140 countries, the Global Youth Call is an emerging global consensus on concrete proposals for target areas on youth in the Post-2015 Development Agenda. Forty speakers from the floor provided their comments and reflections on the consolidated document.

The key outcome from last week’s ECOSOC Youth Forum was an overall consolidation of youth priorties from several platforms of consultation incuding The World Conference on Youth in May, previous youth declarations and the online crowdsourcing platform for GPY2015. The result was the Global Call on Youth, an overarching document consolidating youth priorities from across the world for the Post-2015 Development Agenda.

During the morning session, Doug Court with ITU delivered a presentation on the convergence of ideas, supported by data from the crowdsourcing platform, whereas moderator of the session Prateek Awasthi from UNFPA gave a detailed overview of the Global Youth Call.

The idea of ‘leave no one behind’ set the tone for the discussion, and the youth voice resounded strongly as young people shared their vision of the world they want to see post-2015. An important highlight extracted from the discussion was that the Post-2015 Development Agenda should be looked at holistically, as there can be no isolated goals. Youth participants also voiced the need to see and recognize the linkages between all of the five thematic areas outlined in the Global Youth Call, because these issues all inform one another.

President of ECOSOC H.E. Mr. Martin Sajdik and Secretary General of the United Nations H.E Ban Ki Moon address the ECOSOC Youth Forum.

In his closing remarks addressing youth, H.E. Mr. Martin Sajdik, President of the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), said: “You exceeded my expectations. If you will be the leaders, you will do a good job, I’m sure.” He also pointed out that recommended action from these two days would be presented during ECOSOC’s high-level segment, and expressed hope that the Youth Forum would become part of the Council’s formal proceedings.

Ahmad Alhendawi, the Secretary-General’s Envoy on Youth, in his concluding remarks stressed that the ECOSOC Youth Forum and the endorsement of the Global Youth Call were a collective accomplishment. He also reminded the participants that next year will mark the 20 year anniversary of the World Programme of Action for Youth, and extended an open invitation to everyone to take part in continuing the discussion and work on advancing youth priorities.

For YOURS and the Global Youth Network for Road Safety – getting road traffic crashes mentioned under the specific health goal was crucial.

Floor Lieshout, who attended the ECOSOC Forum said, “We worked hard on this campaign and it was truly a joint effort. We represent our global youth network for road safety the best we can. We are literally YOURS. Having road traffic crashes mentioned in the Global Call on Youth is something we can celebrate together. We continue our campaign with individual lobbying at our governments. Thank you again for your support!”

Due to the combined efforts of the youth of the world and the global network for road safety, road traffic injuries featured prominently in the overall collation of words used in the health section of the Crowdsourcing platform. See in the middle of the wordle above to see the prominence of ‘road traffic injuries’ and ‘road safety’. More on this can be read here.

A video of part one of the closing session of the ECOSOC Youth Forum is available here, and part two here. Read the Global Youth Call here.

Road safety target in zero draft of Post-2015 Development Agenda!

Road safety target in zero draft of Post-2015 Development Agenda!

by | Dec 12, 2023 | News & Blog

We are very excited to share that a specific road safety goal has been mentioned in the zero draft in the “Introduction and proposed goals and targets on sustainable development for the Post-2015 Development Agenda”. The international road safety community, under the great leadership of FIA Foundation, has been working tirelessly to ensure that a specific target for safe and sustainable transport is mentioned in the coming agenda and this zero draft is a good sign of things to come, although the work does not stop here. Let’s keep it in!

Enormous progress has been made towards achieving the Millennium Development Goals, (MDGs). Global poverty continues to decline, more children than ever are attending primary school, child deaths have dropped dramatically, access to safe drinking water has been greatly expanded, and targeted investments in fighting malaria, AIDS and tuberculosis have saved millions. 

The MDGs are making a real difference in people’s lives and, with strong leadership and accountability, this progress can be expanded in most of the world’s countries by the target date of 2015.

After 2015, efforts to achieve a world of prosperity, equity, freedom, dignity and peace will continue unabated.

The UN is working with governments, civil society and other partners to build on the momentum generated by the MDGs and carry on with an ambitious post-2015 development agenda.

At the September 2010 MDG Summit, UN Member States initiated steps towards advancing the development agenda beyond 2015 and are now leading a process of open, inclusive consultations on the post-2015 agenda. Civil society organizations from all over the world have also begun to engage in the post-2015 process, while academia and other research institutions, including think tanks, are particularly active. The set of eleven global thematic consultations and national consultations in over 60 countries is facilitated by the United Nations Development Group and involves partnership with multiple stakeholders.

Much of the conversation around the Post-2015 Development Agenda began with the UN’s Global Survey – The World We Want

In a recent ‘Zero Draft’ report entitled, “INTRODUCTION AND PROPOSED GOALS AND TARGETS ON SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT FOR THE POST2015 DEVELOPMENT AGENDA”, a specfic goal has been included under the health goal. Currently there are 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGS) included in the zero draft which are likely to be cut down.

List of Proposed Sustainable Development Goals to be attained by 2030

  1. End poverty in all its forms everywhere
  2. End hunger, achieve food security and adequate nutrition for all, and promote sustainable agriculture
  3. Attain healthy life for all at all ages
  4. Provide equitable and inclusive quality education and life-long learning opportunities for all
  5. Attain gender equality, empower women and girls everywhere
  6. Secure water and sanitation for all for a sustainable world
  7. Ensure access to affordable, sustainable, and reliable modern energy services for all
  8. Promote strong, inclusive and sustainable economic growth and decent work for all
  9. Promotesustainableindustrialization
  10. Reduce inequality within and among countries
  11. Build inclusive, safe and sustainable cities and human settlements
  12. Promote sustainable consumption and production patterns
  13. Promote actions at all levels to address climate change
  14. Attain conservation and sustainable use of marine resources, oceans and seas
  15. Protect and restore terrestrial ecosystems and halt all biodiversity loss
  16. Achieve peaceful and inclusive societies, rule of law, effective and capable institutions
  17. 17.Strengthen and enhance the means of implementation and global partnership for sustainable development

Under the ‘Attain healthy life for all at all ages” the international road safety movement including the United Nations Road Safety Collaboration have been lobbying for a specific road safety goal and its is with great excitement that road traffic deaths have been mentioned in the zero draft of the SDGs.

This mention at this stage is testament to all the hard work the international road safety community has undertaken for road safety.

This is a great step in ensuring road safety is given focus in the Post-2015 Sustainable Development Agenda, however, we are far from our end goals. The next steps will be to ensure we keep this phrase in the final development agenda goals. The zero draft will undergo several ratifications and adjustments.

It is crucial that we keep up the lobbying pressure from the ground by writing to your UN Officials and heads of state with these model letters and guidance.