Last week from 16 – 19 September, our members Alison Collard de Beaufort and Thiago Gruner joined the United Nations Transforming Education Summit at the UN Head Quarters in New York City. The Summit is a key initiative launched by UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.

It seeks to bring together education stakeholders from around the world for an inclusive, networked, and effective dialogue to discuss the progress around SDG 4: Quality Education. 

We joined delegations from government entities, representatives from the Member States, and youth members under the UN system in conversations aimed at mobilizing all stakeholders to support the transformation of education worldwide.  

At the Summit, our youth leaders met with decision-makers, talking about the connections between road safety and education through our SDG 4 Policy Brief. The relevance and importance of road safety fall under one of the thematic tracks of the Summit, specifically (1) Inclusive, equitable, safe, and healthy schools. The other themes include (2) learning and skills for life, work, and sustainable development, (3) teachers, teaching, and the teaching profession, (4) digital learning and transformation, and (5) financing of education.

In their conversations, Thiago and Alison talked about how road crashes are the leading killer of youth worldwide, emphasizing that 90% of child pedestrian fatalities occur within 500 meters of a school. 

They are guided by our Policy Brief which lists key facts and recommendations for ensuring safer school zones and safer journeys for students to and from school. 

Some of the recommendations highlighted in our Policy Brief include the enforcement of 30km/h speed limits in densely populated areas especially prioritizing school zones, better infrastructure for safe walking and cycling, and mainstreaming meaningful engagement of children and youth to ensure representation in efforts to address their needs when designing school and university environments. It seeks to bring together education stakeholders from around the world for an inclusive, networked, and effective dialogue to discuss the progress around SDG 4: Quality Education.

We joined delegations from government entities, representatives from the Member States, and youth members under the UN system in conversations aimed at mobilizing all stakeholders to support the transformation of education worldwide.

At the Summit, our youth leaders met with decision-makers, talking about the connections between road safety and education through our SDG 4 Policy Brief. The relevance and importance of road safety fall under one of the thematic tracks of the Summit, specifically (1) Inclusive, equitable, safe, and healthy schools. The other themes include (2) learning and skills for life, work, and sustainable development, (3) teachers, teaching, and the teaching profession, (4) digital learning and transformation, and (5) financing of education.

The Summit, taking place during the 77th session of the UN General Assembly, was convened by the Secretary-General to elevate education to the top of the global political agenda while also maximizing public awareness and engagement. 

We maintain that road safety is important in addressing the targets under SDG 4. Prioritizing road safety will also fast-track the achievement of the other Global Goals, including Education. Access our Policy Brief for more details. 

DOWNLOAD SDG 4 POLICY BRIEF

Last Month, August, the Secretary-General’s Special Envoy for Road Safety Jean Todt met up with some of our youth leaders from Latin America to talk about some of the most pressing road safety issues young people face. He met with Aldo González Barrera and Ana Ródriguez from Mexico, Laura Daniela Gómez from Colombia, and Cecilia Morales from Guatemala. 

The first stop was in Mexico where Aldo and Ana asked for support from local federal authorities, emphasizing the importance of prioritizing road safety actions around schools with the support of young people. They also discussed the current situation in Mexico brought on by the Mobility and Road Safety Law. 

Also making their way into the discussion are the youth-led efforts Aldo and Ana have taken part in through Liga Peatonal and the Youth Coalition’s Local Actions initiative. They talked about how the work they take part in is usually done as volunteers, promoting advocacy processes. Aldo and Ana also promoted our recently published Policymakers’ Toolkit.

Our Policymakers’ Toolkit is here! We bring you a unique advocacy document that will help policymakers and decision-makers meaningfully engage with young people. This Toolkit promotes the core principles of meaningful youth participation as a cycle of relationship building, commitment, investment, and a shift in mindset around the idea of working with youth and for youth.

Once you download our Toolkit, you will have access to a road map that will guide you through the ins and outs of meaningful youth participation. It will pave the way for the development, implementation, and evaluation of road safety policies with young people. 

You will also find case studies that show the tangible benefits of involving young people in local and global road safety efforts. We provide examples through the experiences of our youth leaders. Finally, you will get self-assessment scorecards that will support the evaluation of your efforts to meaningfully involve youth. The scorecards will also help you track your progress as you work on meaningful participatory practices. 

The Toolkit was initially presented during the High-Level Meeting on Road Safety which happened last 30 June. Our Executive Director, Floor Lieshout, spoke about the need for the Toolkit. He talked about what it meant to meaningfully involve youth in all stages of policymaking and decision-making.

He also provided a rundown of how local and global leaders can create inclusive impact through a cycle that focuses on mindset, the way of working, and commitment and investment in young people, their experiences, ideas, expertise, and perception.

Through the Toolkit, we highlight the fact that road traffic crashes are the leading killer of young people. We present key data that present the realities youth face on the world’s roads. We also acknowledge that human error is inevitable, especially for children and adolescents who are still developing physically and cognitively. This is why it’s important to create a system that takes into account these factors and design one that protects and involves youth.

“Road traffic crashes are the leading killer of youth. Young people are smart and creative. With our skills and ingenuity, we are able to work with decision-makers to reduce the number of deaths and achieve the global road safety mandates.” – Youth Advocate, Nigeria.

The Toolkit states that; the fundamental right of youth to meaningfully participate in policymaking processes is not a new idea. Participation is a human right recognized in the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child for those under 18 years of age; in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights; and is central to equal, inclusive, and sustainable development in the Sustainable Development Goals and New Urban Agenda. The Global Plan for the Decade of Action for Road Safety 2021 – 2030 recognizes youth as a critical stakeholder vital to its successful delivery. 

If you haven’t yet, it’s time you meaningfully engage and work with young people. Download our Policymakers’ Toolkit to get started! 

DOWNLOAD OUR POLICYMAKERS’ TOOLKIT

It’s been three months since we launched YOURS Academy, our latest learning platform and the definitive online e-learning road safety school. We took our award-winning capacity development workshops and turned them into online modules that you can access any time, anywhere. Join us to take action against the biggest killer of youth in the world; road traffic crashes. Enroll today by going to https://www.yoursacademy.org! 

What you can find
YOURS Academy collates a decade of our global experience of in-person training in road safety into a digital format. We offer road safety information in brain-friendly and easy-to-digest content that will be easy to follow and interact with. All our content is derived from evidence-based research, reports, best practices, and global subject matter experts. The contents are also rooted in young people’s road safety experiences around the world.

Currently, the first module is available FREE for anyone who signs up. The module covers the global road safety problem and its impact on young people. It talks about road safety as a global issue with statistics, facts, trends as well as the human cost of road traffic crashes. It also explores why youth are at risk and how youth can take action to address this. 

The module is designed to be informative and engaging. With our facilitated style of teaching, we offer you videos, infographics, games, and more. You can take the lessons at your pace, pausing as needed or going all in and finishing the course in a day. Everything is up to you as the learner. Everything is just a click away. 

What do our youth leaders say? 
Our module is written with young people and is designed for young people. Youth leaders from around the world have tried and tested our newest learning platform and taken away important lessons. 

One of our youth leaders, Estiara Ellizar from Indonesia says “YOURS Academy is such a brilliant platform! It compiles essential knowledge that you need to know about road safety. I really enjoyed every section of the first module and am very excited to wait for the next ones as this was packaged in a very fun way! I highly recommend this platform to you as young leaders who are advocating for road safety. Congratulations and a welcome to the new road safety champions!”

Our partners also had positive things to say about the Academy. Margie Peden from the George Institute of Health shares “this first module on the global road safety problem facing youth by YOURS Academy is a great introduction for young leaders to learn about evidence-based solutions and how to be part of the solution. This course is both informative and fun and I enjoyed reviewing it! Good luck to the next generation of road safety ambassadors”. 

Don’t miss out! Enroll today!

ENROLL AT YOURS ACADEMY

Last month during the High-Level Meeting on Road Safety, we announced the launch of our Policymakers Toolkit – a document that will guide policymakers and decision-makers on how to meaningfully engage and involve young people. Meaningful youth engagement, particularly in road safety, is something we’ve championed since the very beginning. We believe that young people have a right to be involved in the issues that most affect their lives.

Talking about meaningful youth participation
Our Toolkit highlights that meaningful youth participation happens when youth experiences, youth ideas, youth expertise, and youth perspectives are integrated into institutions that support the development and implementation of programs, policies, and decision-making efforts. 

To effectively engage with youth, three mechanisms need to come together; mindset, way of thinking, and commitment. To begin the process of meaningful youth participation, a fundamental shift in perception of the role of young people in society must occur. Under mindset, society, especially leaders and policymakers need to change its bias and view young people as politically credible and as experts of their own.

In terms of the way of working, all sectors of society must come together to systematically integrate meaningful youth participation within policymaking and decision-making structures as a cycle of continuous relationship building. Successful integration would mean taking a multi-method approach so that young people can choose the best way they could participate.

The final mechanism talks about commitment and investment. For leaders, decision-makers, and policymakers, it poses the question; “how far are you prepared to go?” Commitment and investment will rely on how societies, organizations, and governments sustain and follow up the integration of meaningful youth participation. 

Our Toolkit provides examples of how young people are already taking action and how they are ready to work hand-in-hand with local and global leaders to address the road safety crisis. 

What you can find in the Toolkit
Our upcoming Toolkit also emphasizes points on why it’s so important to meaningfully involve youth in the decision-making and policymaking processes. It cites how youth are recognized as key stakeholders in the Global Plan for the Decade of Action for Road Safety 2021-2030 and how they should be recognized in both formal and informal spaces of the policymaking process. 

To support this, our Toolkit provides the following resources; a model for meaningful youth participation, a road map to develop meaningful youth participation, a self-assessment scorecard, and some case studies to use as additional guides. 

The model and road map to develop meaningful youth participation provide reflective questions that will guide policymakers and leaders through each step of building a cycle of inclusive youth participation. The scorecard, on the other hand, provides a tool to score the current work an organization is doing with youth while at the same time tracking the progress of the efforts to meaningfully involve youth. 

Finally, the case studies will show examples of how the different aspects of the road map are used in programs that result in beneficial outcomes for the organization. It also provides insights directly from young people on why they should be engaged. 

Our Policymaker’s Toolkit is still being finalized but we will send word as soon as it is out!

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