The Global Youth Coalition for Road Safety, FIA Foundation, and Restless Development are partnering up to lead Move4Change: Mobilising youth for the converging agendas of sustainable mobility, air quality, and climate change – an official side event under All4Climate under Pre-COP or the Conference of Parties. Happening this Thursday, September 30, at 3 PM CET, the event will bring together youth leaders, policymakers, and decision-makers from around the world to talk about the environment, climate action, public health, and road safety. 

Included in the event is a panel discussion on mobilizing youth for converging the agendas of safe, active, sustainable mobility, and air quality for tackling climate change. The speakers include Omnia el Omrani from the Global Youth Coalition for Road Safety and the International Federation for Medical Student’s Association (IFMSA), Maíne Celidonio – the Secretary of Mobility of Rio de Janeiro, Andrea San Gil from the Center for Urban Sustainability in Costa Rica, Welmoed Neijmeijer from Micro-Mobility for Europe, and Prarthana Borah from Clean Air Asia. 

Learn more about our panelists: 

ANDREA SAN GIL
Andrea is passionate about people, cities, and nature, trying to reduce social vulnerability and increasing the quality of life in cities through sustainable and regenerative solutions. She is the Founder and Chair of the Center for Urban Sustainability in Costa Rica, Co-Founder of Agile City Partners, and part of the team behind the Global Partnership for Informal Transportation. She has over a decade of experience working with governments, international cooperation, civil society, and the private sector.

MAÍNE CELIDONIO
Maína Celidonio holds a PhD in Economics at PUC-Rio and currently works as Secretary of Transport of the City of Rio de Janeiro. Graduated in Economics from PUC-Rio, has a master’s degree in Economics with an emphasis on Labor Studies and Social Policies. She was the director of the Department of Economic Development at Instituto Pereira Passos and an analyst in Impact Assessment for Project Management at Itaú Unibanco.

OMNIA EL OMRANI
Omnia is a young medical doctor at Ain Shams University in Egypt. She is currently serving as the Liaison Officer for Public Health Issues for the International Federation of Medical Students’ Association, representing the voice of more than 1.3 million medical students from 140 countries worldwide. She is leading IFMSA’s external work in the areas of climate change, planetary health, and non-communicable diseases as the organization’s focal point to the United Nations Framework on Climate Change and the WHO Climate Change Unit.

PRARTHANA BORAH
Prarthana has over two decades of experience in strategic planning and management of large budget projects on Air Pollution, Climate Change, Biodiversity Conservation, and Education for Sustainable Development. She is an experienced facilitator of partnerships for environmental and development issues between and with governments, donors, civil society, and the private sector to influence policy and action. Prarthana is currently India Director of INGO Clean Air Asia where she is responsible for leading a team of researchers, scientists, and managers.

WELMOED NEIJMEIJER
Welmoed Neijmeijer is Co-Chair of Micro-mobility for Europe and Head of Public Policy at Bolt. Welmoed is passionate about helping people live more sustainably and believes businesses are in a great position to reduce the impact on the environment by helping people to make more conscious choices such as offering sustainable products and services or by supporting a transition to a more sustainable lifestyle.  Micro-Mobility for Europe is a coalition of shared micro-mobility providers such as short-term rental of electric scooters.

Get involved and join the conversation by registering for our event! Sign-up is free!

REGISTER FOR MOVE4CHANGE

YOURS Executive Director Floor Lieshout and YOURS Communications Officer Maolin Macatangay join the House of Representatives’ Standing Committee on Transport 1^st Meeting with the theme “Towards the Second Decade of Action for Road Safety: Sharing Responsibilities, Engaging Young People” last Friday, September 17, to talk about YOURS, the Global Youth Coalition for Road Safety, and meaningful youth participation. 

Sharing Responsibilities, Engaging Young People
According to the Thailand House of Representatives, road traffic injuries continue to be a public health and security thread for Thailand throughout the last decade. They note that road crashes are responsible for 20,000 deaths and one million injuries every year.

Despite efforts to improve the situation, the Global Status Report for Road Safety still reports Thailand to be one of the top ten countries with the highest road traffic deaths. According to data from the House of Representatives, one in three road traffic deaths in Thailand involved young people aged between 15 – 29 years old. Data from Thailand’s Department of Disease Control reports that the last decade has seen the loss of 53,000 young people to road crashes.

The Thailand Government has demonstrated efforts to save lives on their roads; the Master Plan for Road Safety (2017 – 2020) includes targets to promote road safety behaviors among young people. They have also enforced measures to curb drink driving by limiting the alcohol consumption of drivers through the Alcohol Control Act.

There are still some gaps that remain when it comes to addressing road crashes. Following significant developments on road safety at a global level and the local situation of road traffic deaths In Thailand, the Standing Committee on Transport of the House of Representatives organized a meeting following the theme “Toward the Second Decade of Action for Road Safety: Sharing Responsibilities, Engaging Youth” 

YOURS Intervention 
The House of Representatives invited YOURS – Youth for Road Safety to talk about interventions to engage and involve young people in road safety efforts in a session titled Young People and International Road Safety. To begin, YOURS Executive Director Floor Lieshout talked about the philosophy that guides YOURS in efforts to meaningfully engage and involve young people.

Under the Conference of Parties or COP, the UNFCCC – United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change also organized side events under All4Climate – an opportunity that provides different stakeholders with the opportunity to contribute to COP. YOURS – Youth for Road Safety, the Global Youth Coalition for Road Safety, Restless Development, and FIA Foundation will be leading an official side event titled Move4Change: Mobilizing youth for the converging agendas of safe, active, and sustainable mobility and air quality for tackling climate change on Thursday, September 30 at 3 pm CET. 

Why is All4Climate Important
All4Climate encompasses a full lineup of climate events taking place in Italy. The goal of the event is to make 2021 the landmark year for climate ambition. It also aims to foster proactive dialogue on the challenges of the climate crisis and deliver on the objectives of the Paris Agreement.

The event sheds light on different issues young people face connected to climate. The Youth Climate Series emphasized that for years, young people have been calling for climate action pointing out the urgent need to take significant steps to address the climate issue. Through activities like #Youth4ClimateLive, All4Climate has driven real ambition toward climate action from young people, governments, and other stakeholders.

Through the event, engagement of young people and stakeholders and continued efforts to fight climate change is ensured through different fields and avenues. It will also establish important connections between different fields such as road safety, sustainable mobility, youth, climate, and more.

Young people will also be able to discuss and highlight the projects and initiatives they’re working on to support climate efforts within their respective fields, Through this, they will be able to connect and network with peers for possible partnerships to work on their efforts together.

How mobility and climate are connected
Under the Global Youth Statement for Road Safety, young people are demanding safe and sustainable transport to combat the climate crisis. “Let us breathe!”

Increased development and improvement of transportation services have resulted in a concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. Transportation is one of the main sources of carbon emissions that contribute to global warming. Because of this, it is important for stakeholders to provide more sustainable modes of transport and to design cities that promote streets for life.

Addressing road safety and mobility issues result in streets for life as emphasized during the 6^th UN Road Safety Week this year. By ensuring that communities have access to safe and sustainable mobility, carbon emissions will be reduced and will result in lower levels of air pollution.

Cleaner, more livable, and sustainable cities will also give children and the rest of the community the opportunity to walk, run, jog, cycle, and play in cities without having to fear road crashes.

The demands of youth
The members of the Coalition call for sustainable cities, more sustainable modes of transport, and climate action in the Global Youth Statement for Road Safety. Under the Youth Statement, young people point out that “there is no Planet B” emphasizing the need for safe and sustainable transport systems that combat the climate crisis. “Let us breathe!”

Under the Youth Manifesto, which gathers the demands of young people under the Global Goals, youth express; “we are overcome by despair when we realize that the climate change clock is ticking… how can we be hopeful for the future when we see forests constantly burn and oceans constantly rise?”

To address this, young people are taking action as individuals and as members of organizations taking charge to address issues around road safety and climate change.

Learn more about how road safety and climate are connected and how young people are taking charge by signing up for our event!

REGISTER TO THE EVENT

As part of the events under the 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference scheduled this November 2021, the UNFCCC – United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change also organizes side events under All4Climate – an opportunity that provides different stakeholders with the opportunity to contribute to COP.

All4Climate side events
All4Climate was launched by the Italian Ministry for Ecological Transition, the World Bank Group’s Connect4Climate, the Lombardy Region, and the Municipality of Milan. It encompasses the full lineup of climate events taking place during the Conference of Parties (COP) happening in Italy. The goal of the event is to make this year (2021) a landmark year for climate ambition and to foster proactive dialogue on the challenges of the climate crisis.

To support this, YOURS – Youth for Road Safety, the Global Youth Coalition for Road Safety, Restless Development, and FIA Foundation have partnered to raise awareness and promote meaningful youth participation in decision-making spaces to demand action on the most pressing issues impacting youth globally.

Move4Change
The event led by YOURS along with Restless Development and FIA Foundation is titled Move4Change: Mobilizing Youth for the Converging Agendas of Safe, Active, and Sustainable Mobility and Air Quality for Tackling Climate Change.

The event will bring together youth leaders, policymakers, and decision-makers from around the world to talk about the environment, climate action, public health, and road safety. Through an intergenerational dialogue, participants will share their ideas on how to implement safe, active, and sustainable mobility to end road traffic deaths and serious injuries, reduce transport emissions and mitigate climate change.

The format of the event will be a round table/debate where policymakers and decision-makers will share their initiatives that converge agendas and promote safe, active, and sustainable transportation in their cities. Young leaders will then share their own and their peers’ perceptions and what should be done to improve the situation. Together they will also discuss the importance of meaningful participation. Our aim is to find solutions amidst different backgrounds and perspectives.

Key actions discussed by youth leaders, policymakers, and decision-makers will be extracted and translated into a document that can be adopted by governments to tackle climate change and reduce premature deaths from road crashes and air pollution. This document will be shared with leaders attending the Ministerial Pre-COP.

REGISTER TO MOVE4CHANGE HERE

Congratulations to all the winners of the Art for Road Safety Challenge! Big up to Rital Khasawneh for winning the challenge on Egypt Week, the team of Musa Ssempebwa, Patrick Musoke Hillington, Ronald Kushemererwa, and Steven Kyalire Fred for Uganda Week, and Pierre Sada Sarr for Senegal Week! The winners were selected young people from all over the world through the Global Youth Coalition’s Instagram account. The submission with the most likes/views wins the challenge for the respective week.

Last June 15, the Global Youth Coalition for Road Safety and TotalEnergies Foundation launched the Art for Road Safety campaign- the first art challenge for safer mobility in the African continent. The campaign was set in Egypt, Uganda, and Senegal. 

From June 6 to July 22, the Coalition featured different artists every week to raise awareness on road safety issues that include the dangers of speeding and the importance of wearing a helmet. 

The first week featured Ahmed Fathy (Elna2ash), an internationally celebrated graffiti artist. The challenge was to recreate his piece that shows the dangers of speeding with the tagline “life has no reset button”.

Rital Khasawneh from Jordan won the first-week challenge by recreating Elna2ash’s graffiti in a drawing where she illustrates a vehicle and the damage it could get with every increase in speed the driver takes. Rital was awarded some art supplies.

The second week featured Sylar Robert Ssempijja, a dancer, breakdancer, choreographer, and teacher. The challenge was to recreate his dance to the song Yambala Helmet produced by Youth Arts Movement Uganda. The challenge received submissions from different parts of Africa, both with individual submissions and group submissions.

The winner for Uganda week was a group submission by Musa Ssempebwa, Patrick Musoke Hillington, Ronald Kushemererwa, and Steven Kyalire Fred. The group each received a motorcycle helmet for gathering the most views and likes during Uganda Week. 

The final week featured Dieynaba Sidibé (Zeinixx) – the first female graffiti artist in Senegal who is internationally known for her mural work that highlights women empowerment. The challenge for Senegal week was to recreate Zeinixx’s mural that emphasized the importance of low-speed streets. The mural featured a large 30 sign that is reflective of this year’s theme for the 6th UN Global Road Safety Week – #StreetsforLife – which advocates for 30 km/h streets worldwide.

The winner for the Art for Road Safety challenge, Senegal Week, was Pierre Sada Sarr. He received a bike kit and a graffiti kit.

The objective of the art for road safety challenge was to get more young people in efforts to promote road safety and get more young people involved through an artistic intervention like graffiti, drawings, and dance. 

With this, young people can take ownership of road safety issues in their areas and become local ambassadors in the most creative and original way possible.

WATCH ART FOR ROAD SAFETY CAP OFF VIDEO