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
Young people are being invited to join a scheme to improve road safety and promote greener transport in the West Midlands.
The CityShift Road Safety Ambassadors Programme is looking for 18-25-year-olds from Birmingham with an interest in improving road safety to help shape transport plans and policies.
The new programme comes at an important time: road traffic crashes remain the leading cause of death for young people worldwide, and in the West Midlands under 25s make up around 36% of those killed or seriously injured on the roads.
In Birmingham, nearly 4 in 10 residents are in this age group.
Running over ten months until December 2026 with a combination of online learning and in-person workshops, the programme will train 25 young people to become CityShift Ambassadors, building new skills while being asked for advice on travel and transport initiatives in their city.
This project, from Transport for West Midlands (TfWM) in partnership with YOURS – Youth for Road Safety with the aim of improving how young people travel about their city – with a primary focus on road safety.
“CityShift is a powerful example of how cities can incorporate youth vision into policies and strategies. Through this initiative, young people are not only sharing their experiences but also contributing to recommendations that can influence local strategies and shape the future of mobility in the West Midlands, bringing sustainability and effectiveness to the city’s investments,” said Raquel Barrios, Executive Director, YOURS
The aim is to strengthen the role of young people in developing, designing and improving the city’s streets. A Youth Action Roadmap for Road Safety, providing recommendations for local authorities and decision-makers, will also be developed.
Transport for West Midlands (TfWM) Director said: “Through City Shift we will make sure the voice of young people is heard as we design and develop new transport schemes across Birmingham. The new Ambassadors will get the opportunity to share their experiences and shape their communities while learning new leadership skills along the way.”
The programme is flexible, allowing participants to balance the work, study and other commitments while developing leadership skills and making a difference to their communities.
Applications are now open. No previous experience is required – just an interest in safer streets.
Transport for West Midlands (TfWM), part of the West Midlands Combined Authority, works to create a more connected, fairer, greener and healthier region through inclusive and sustainable transport. YOURS – Youth for Road Safety is a global youth-led organisation working to support meaningful youth engagement in safe and sustainable mobility.
What started as a youth-led Local Action in Peru, supported by YOURS through seed funding, has grown into a multi-city initiative shaping safer cycling systems and securing $100,000 USD in global investment.
Pedalea Seguro, led by Jeffrey Leandro Díaz, maps cycling risks, mobilises communities, and works with local governments to turn data into safer streets. It didn’t start as a defined solution, but with a simple question: what are cyclists actually experiencing when they move through the city?
Cycling in many Peruvian cities is not designed to feel safe. It often means navigating streets that prioritise speed over people, dealing with unclear infrastructure, and constantly adapting to risk. For Jeffrey, this was not abstract, it was part of his daily experience.
That is where Pedalea Seguro took shape. Not as a predefined solution, but as a process of listening. Together with local cyclists and young leaders, the team began mapping routes, identifying high-risk areas, and collecting data that reflected how people actually move through their cities.
What made this work different was not only the data itself, but how it was built. It combined lived experience, community knowledge, and youth leadership, shifting the conversation from abstract planning to real conditions on the ground.
As the work evolved, it became clear that the model could go further. What started as a Local Action began to scale, leading to Pedalea Seguro 2.0, which expanded across Lima, Tacna, and Trujillo and brought together data, community action, and policy engagement.
This evolution did not go unnoticed. Out of more than 240 applications from over 45 countries, Pedalea Seguro was selected as one of three global winners of the Healthy Cycling Challenge, securing $100,000 USD to support its next phase.
The funding matters, but it is not the whole story. What it reflects is something broader, a recognition that solutions built from local realities, led by young people, and strengthened through collaboration, can move beyond small-scale initiatives and influence how systems are shaped.
As Pedalea Seguro 2.0 moves forward, it continues to build partnerships with organisations, local networks, and public institutions, strengthening both its reach and its impact.
This is how change takes place. It starts locally, with people who recognise what needs to be different. And with the right support, those ideas can grow, connecting communities, attracting investment, and contributing to systems that work better for everyone.
