“For many years, youth have always been seen as problematic road users. Today, we will prove that we can be part of the solution and our voices should be taken into consideration by the political leaders at the decision-making table. We’re ready to #ClaimingOurSpace!” – Estiara Ellizar, Youth Leadership Board member. Our youth representatives are going to be joining the High-Level Meeting (HLM) on Road Safety this coming 30th June.

We are bringing youth voices to the highest echelons of leadership to show local and global leaders that young people are ready to take action and that it is time they were included in all levels of decision-making when it comes to road safety and sustainable mobility. 

The high-level meeting consists of an opening statement, a plenary segment, multi-stakeholder thematic panels, and a closing statement. It will view the global agenda through a road safety lens, assessing the progress made in attaining road safety-related SDG targets.

The Meeting will be a time for Members States and all involved partners to mobilize political leadership to address road safety needs around the world. Attendees and representatives will also address different road safety gaps and challenges, promote multi-sectoral and multi-stakeholder collaboration, and assess the progress made in implementing the Global Plan for the Decade of Action at national and municipal levels. 

During the Meeting, our youth leaders will take part in two-part in two key events; host a global art exhibit inspired by the #ClaimingOurSpace Campaign and lead an official side event that will promote meaningful youth participation as a standard at all stages and levels of road safety and sustainable mobility policymaking processes. 

The meeting will be an opportunity for our youth to elevate their demands for decision-makers and policymakers for improved road safety and safe and sustainable modes of transport.

Through the exhibit, our leaders will highlight the road safety realities young people face and will show leaders and other stakeholders how youth are addressing these issues in an effort to protect themselves and their peers. The exhibit will feature six different art pieces from our local artists. 

The side event titled “Stop Blaming Us, Start Engaging Us” will be led by our very own Jacob Smith. Through the event, our youth leaders will; (1) promote the importance and necessity of an intergenerational dialogue between youth, government authorities, and multilateral organizations, (2) launch a Policymakers toolkit for meaningful youth participation in road safety, and (3) disseminate and promote the endorsement of the Policymakers toolkit with all stakeholders. 

The HLM will approve a concise and action-oriented political declaration agreed in advance by consensus through intergovernmental negotiations, to be submitted by the President of the General Assembly for adoption by the UN General Assembly. The Governments of Côte d’Ivoire and the Russian Federation have been tasked with leading these negotiations. 

MORE ABOUT THE HLM

Our Junior Project Manager, Sana’a Khasawneh, joined the Road Safety Pioneers (RSP) NGO in an online session called “moving from paper plans to effective actions”. The session gathered different leaders from the road safety field so that they can discuss the challenges different countries face in implementing the road safety plan while also finding solutions to address the challenges identified. The session was held last Thursday, June 16.

Session: moving paper to action
This RSP webinar is the first of a two-part session. The second one will be held next Thursday, June 23 at 12 pm CEST. Each of the two will discuss ways on how to implement the Global Plan for Road Safety while also touching on the best practices from different organizations represented by the speakers. 

This first session featured four different speakers, including Sana’a. The others were Nneka Henry from the UN Road Safety Fund, Dr. Hafez Alavi from HA Consulting, and Dr. Alina Burlacu from the World Bank Global Road Safety Facility (GRSF). It was led by Ali Zayerzadeh, the CEO of the RSP. 

The speakers talked about the different initiatives they are leading to realize the targets in the Global Plan. Dr. Hafez, for example, focused on the work they are doing for sustainable transport. He explained how modes of transport like cycling would have positive impacts on the economy, environment, public health, and transport and safety. 

In her speech, Dr. Alina shared how important it is to fund road safety initiatives in support of the Plan. She shared the different projects the GRSF has invested in to create safer road safety facilities around the world. She added that, at present, the World Bank Transport has 163 projects totaling $31 billion. 

Taking action
During her intervention, Sana’a focused on the actions youth are taking to address road safety issues in their countries and communities. She emphasized that it was high-time youth are involved in efforts to address their biggest killer; road crashes. “Youth are an asset”. 

She shared how we at YOURS are empowering young people through the Global Youth Coalition, providing them with the tools, resources, and opportunities they need to lead positive change in their communities. Through our youth leaders, we are slowly inching toward the achievement of the goal to reduce the number of road-related deaths and injuries worldwide. 

Learn more about the youth movement in road safety by checking out the Youth Coalition. 

GLOBAL YOUTH COALITION FOR ROAD SAFETY

Marking another local milestone, one of the Global Youth Coalition’s Youth Leadership Board members Laura Daniela Gómez joins the Congreso Gallego de Seguridad y Educación Viaria or the Galician Congress of Road Safety and Education to represent the Youth Coalition last 19 May. Dani talked about the programs and projects of the Youth Coalition, emphasizing how they empower young people around the world. 

Galician Congress of Road Safety and Education
The Congress featured different forums on mobility, road culture, and public spaces. It also invited different representatives within the road safety sector to provide and discuss multiple perspectives to analyze ways to approach public actions and how to contribute to the development of urban spaces. 

The Congress ran from the 19th to the 20th of May and was held at the Pazo da Cultura in A Coruña, Spain. 

The Congress gathered local and international experts who spoke within the structures of four themes throughout the event. The themes include; a new model of public space, vehicles for personal mobility and road safety, new methodologies of education for good mobility, and international cooperation. 

Youth intervention 
Dani joined a panel called international cooperation where she helped cover topics around the experiences and international best practices on road safety and youth engagement.

She talked about how organizations like YOURS – Youth for Road Safety, the Global Youth Coalition for Road Safety, and Despacio are supporting the youth movement by providing young people with all the resources they need to create positive change around road safety, sustainable mobility, and youth engagement. 

Dani elaborated on the Youth Coalition’s Local Actions initiative where she shared her experience of implementing three projects in the same number of years to promote and institutionalize safe cycling in Bogota, Colombia. She shared how she was able to access funds, partnerships, mentorship, and other opportunities that helped her impact local perception of more sustainable modes of transport. 

Participants of the Congress were also given the opportunity to interact with the speakers through tools like Mentimeter. During this section, the road safety knowledge of the participants was tested and discussed. 

Dani ended the session by calling on the participants to join the road safety movement by signing up for the Global Youth Coalition for Road Safety. “Let’s claim our space!”

JOIN THE GLOBAL YOUTH COALITION 

Our SDG Champion, Soumita Chakraborty, called on leaders and other stakeholders to involve young people in the implementation of the Global Plan during a live session about the new Decade of Action for Road Safety 2021 – 2030 last 18 May at Leipzig, Germany. The session was led by our friends from the Global Alliance of NGOs for Road Safety, Global Road Safety Partnership, and Johns Hopkins.

The event featured different leaders and representatives from the road safety and sustainable mobility sector. Each speaker emphasized the challenges that would come with implementing the Global Plan while raising the importance of each sector’s role in changing the system.

Jessica Truong from the Toward Zero Foundation called on governments and manufacturers to join the road safety movement as part of our “shared responsibility” so that the task to improve the road safety and mobility systems do not fall on the road users.

In his intervention, Ricardo Pérez-Núñez from the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO WHO) shared that one of the biggest challenges in improving road safety was political commitment. He said “there is a significant gap between the information available and the information we need to inform country decision-making” 

The speakers also talked about the importance of research, elaborating on its role to apply “rigorous methodologies” to improve actions different stakeholders can take for road safety and sustainable mobility. 

Soumita joined a panel that highlighted the role of non-government stakeholders in the implementation of the Global Plan. She was onstage with Lotte Brondum from the Global Alliance of NGOs for Road Safety and Nicolas Beaumont from Michelin.

Lotte gave her insights about the necessity of involving and engaging with all stakeholders saying; “we must enable people to exercise that right [to be involved] and we must help people to understand that this is their right”. 

Talking about meaningful youth engagement, Soumita calls on all stakeholders to involve young people. “Decision-makers need diverse voices and youth [have the most to contribute because] we are the most affected group [when it comes to road crashes].” 

MORE ABOUT THE GLOBAL PLAN FOR ROAD SAFETY 

The Global Alliance for NGOs for Road Safety is launching the  #CommitToAct #StreetsForLife Week of Action this week, starting Monday, 16 May. Following up on the 2021 UN Global Road Safety Week, the campaign is poised to mobilize civil societies to push decision-makers to make specific and meaningful commitments that will make roads safer and more livable for everyone.

Through the campaign, the Alliance is looking to implement actions that are proven to save lives, starting with implementing 30 km/h streets in urban areas. It also encourages governments and other organizations to invest in road safety, prioritizing budgets and recording how money allotted for road safety is spent. Finally, the campaign seeks to involve civil societies, including NGOs, in road safety decision-making activities that affect different elements of the community. 

Interested? If the answer is YES, here are some things you can do; 

1. Download the official campaign signboards, have them printed, TAKE A PICTURE of yourself holding the board, and share them on your socials with the hashtags #CommitToAct #StreetsForLife

2. Make a  short video clip, about 10 to 20 seconds long, where you talk about what makes streets for life or what action is needed to make our streets safer. You can use this video frame 

3. Join the Alliance Twitter Storm happening on Tuesday, 18 May, at 15:00 CEST by posting your #CommitToAct photos and videos. Don’t forget to use the hashtags  #CommitToAct #StreetsForLife

4. Go to the Alliance’s website and fight out other ways on how you can take part 

#StreetsforLife and #CommitToAct focus on implementing life-saving projects, initiatives, and policies around road safety to build safer, healthier, and greener communities. The low-speed interventions were framed as life-saving, low-cost, and achievable measures to reduce road traffic deaths and injuries and facilitate multiple benefits for health, environment, and equity. 

MORE INFORMATION ABOUT THE CAMPAIGN 

We have some very exciting news! Our SDG Champion for Climate Action, Soumita Chakraborty, is joining the Global Alliance of NGOs for Road Safety, the Road Safety Partnership Collaboration, and the Johns Hopkins University in a session called A New Deal for Road Safety. The event is happening live in Germany this coming 18 May 1t 4:30 PM CEST. Live updates will be shared from the official Twitter account of the Alliance so be sure to connect with them as soon as you can. 

The side event on Implementing the Global Plan – 2nd Decade of Action for Road Safety – Capacity building, monitoring and research, and the roles of non-state actors will have different speakers and representatives exchange ideas on the shortcomings of governments in the implementation of the Global Plan with the Safe Systems Approach. The panelists will also talk about non-state actors’ roles in helping meet the road safety targets under the Global Goals. 

In her intervention, Soumita will talk about the Youth Coalition and how we, as an organization, promote road safety through meaningful youth engagement. She will elaborate on how programs like the Local Actions can accelerate the implementation of the Global Plan for road Safety.

She will also explain how our SDG Champions are raising awareness of the connection of other SDGs with road safety and sustainable mobility. One of their most notable initiatives is the development of Policy Briefs that elaborate on the data around the global goals and how it links to road safety. The Briefs will serve as an advocacy tool for young people that will help them emphasize the relationship road safety has with the Global Goals and how it would influence the wider SDG agenda. 

So far, we’ve published two Policy Briefs, specifically on SDG 4: Quality Education and SDG 5: Gender Equality. 

Road safety has been receiving increased global attention through the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, the United Nations General Assembly adoption of Resolution 74/299, and the Stockholm Declaration for Road Safety. Non-state actors are recognized in these declarations and the event led by the Alliance elaborates on their roles and how they can synergize and accelerate the process. 

A New Deal for Road Safety is being organized by the Alliance, YOURS – Youth for Road Safety, Michelin, and TotalEnergies Foundation. It will feature panel discussions where with representatives from the corporate, youth, academic, and non-governmental organization sectors.

FOLLOW THE ALLIANCE ON TWITTER