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.

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!

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.

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.

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.