Last August 2020, the United Nations adopted resolution 74/299 “Improving global road safety”, proclaiming the Decade of Action for Road Safety 2021-2030. The plan highlights how governments and member states can take action in order to achieve Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) Target 3.6 – halving the number of road-related deaths and injuries by the year 2030.
In the same resolution, the UN General Assembly requested WHO and the UN Regional Commissions, in cooperation with other partners in the UN Road Safety Collaboration and other stakeholders, to prepare a plan of action of the Second Decade as a guiding document to support the implementation of the Decade’s objective.
However, it has come to the Coalition’s attention that the plan does little to recognize Youth as stakeholders to fight their own #1 leading cause of death and to help shape their own future around sustainable mobility.
After carefully reviewing, it has come to the Coalition’s attention that the Plan does not recognize youth as stakeholders to fight their own leading cause of death and to help shape their own future around sustainable mobility.
By ignoring Youth as stakeholders, the Global Plan is also failing to consider best practices around meaningful youth engagement guidelines to member states, set by the UN and WHO, respectively through the UN Youth Strategy 2030 and WHO Global Accelerated Action for the Health of Adolescents (AA-HA!)
The Coalition, through the Youth Advisory Board, is demanding the developers of the Plan to recognize Youth as equal partners in developing and implementing the global plan and a driving force to help deliver the Global Goals, including its road safety targets.
In 2020, promises were made to young people during the 3rd Global Ministerial Conference on Road Safety in Sweden. We cannot afford to have the new Decade of Action for Road Safety without Youth. They have every right to be part of it.
As a result, the Coalition is demanding to have young people involved in the global plan by submitting a plan where young people are at the center of the Global Plan of Action.
We are very proud to share the Youth Submission for the new Decade of Action (DoA) for Road Safety which has gained support from all sectors and shows that many stakeholders are ready to work together with young people. This strengthens us in our call to amend the Plan.
Last Thursday, May 20, YOURS – Youth for Road Safety Head of Communications, Manpreet Darroch, joined the Jamaica National Road Safety Council webinar for the 6th UN Global Road Safety Week. The session tackled the importance of addressing road crashes in Jamaica. Dr. Lucien Jones, Vice Chairman of the National Road Safety Council, led the session.
Road safety and the Decade of Action
The session was opened by the Most Honorable Andrew Holness, ON, MP – the Prime Minister of Jamaica and the Chairman of the National Road Safety Council. During his opening remarks, PM Holness, showed support for the goals set in the new Decade of Action for Road Safety.
“In Jamaica, we will be playing our part to ensure the successful design and implementation of a holistic plan to make our roadways streets for life” – Most Honorable Andrew Holness, ON, MP
The session included speakers; Hon. Earl Jarett, OJ, CD, JP from the Jamaica National Group, Zoleka Mandela from Child Health Initiative, Dr. Parris Lyew-Ayee Jnr. from the Mona Geoinfomatics Institute, Dr. Etienne Krug from the World Health Organization, Saul Billingsley from the Federation Internationale de L’Automobile, Julio Urzua from iRAP – International Road Assessment Programme, Avi Silverman from the Federation Internationale de L’Automobile, and Manpreet Darroch from YOURS – Youth for Road Safety.
Each of the road safety leaders talked about how important low-speed streets are in the achievement of the new Decade of Action for Road Safety. Julio Urzua emphasized that, apart from achieving the goals in the new Decade of Action, addressing issues around road safety could also meet the targets in the Sustainable Development Goals.
Dr. Etienne also pointed out how important following up on statements is as important as sharing commitments. This task falls on all stakeholders.
“Be more vocal and bolder. We can’t continue having, even discussions like this, where we have high-level political leaders join us and state their commitment and do not see the results. We have to be more demanding, we have to be more pushy and make sure that these political statements lead to real action” – Dr. Etienne Krug
The role of youth During his discussion, Manpreet talked about how important young people are to advocate for low-speed streets and implement road safety projects and initiatives.
Manpreet talked about how YOURS and the Coalition have gathered young people from around the world who are extremely committed to making streets safer for their peers.
“Too many young have seen their peers being killed on the road and the tragic effects that it has on communities around the world. So we, as the young people, are stepping up and claiming our space” – Manpreet Darroch
Manpreet also emphasized that, apart from giving young people a voice, it is also important to provide them with support and opportunities to energize the global road safety movement so they can move forward and take the fight for road safety forward with them.
On May 18, the Child Injury Prevention Alliance (CIPA) led a webinar to talk about ensuring safer journeys for students around the world through a webinar entitled How Communities Can Help Students Get to School Safely. This is part of the global programs for the 6th UN Global Road Safety Week that focuses on advocating for 30 km/h (20 mp/h) streets through the Streets for Life campaign.
The session was moderated by Gary Smith from CIPA and featured road safety leaders from around the world. The webinar’s panel included Rafaela Machado from iRAP – International Road Assessment Programme, Torine Creppy from Safe Kids Worldwide, Elizabeth Oestreich from Safe Kids Fargo, and Manpreet Darroch from YOURS – Youth for Road Safety.
The session began with Rafaela Machado, Star Rating for Schools Global Programme Coordinator of iRAP. She talked about how iRAP, through the Star rating for Schools (SR4S) Methodology, is working toward a world free of high-risk roads. iRAP assesses roads through the SR4S methodology and provides evidence-based data that will lobby for three-star roads or higher.
Building on the importance of keeping children and students safe, the President of Safe Kids Worldwide – Torine Creppy – talked about Safe Kids’ mission to keep all kids safe from preventable injuries such as road crashes. To achieve this mission, Torine elaborated on the networks, members, and teams behind Safe Kids that range from nurses, doctors, firefighters, paramedics, and more.
“As part of the Safe Kids Walk This Way program, the Safe School Zone grant program was created by Safe Kids Worldwide and FedEx to focus on improving child pedestrian safety in school zones.” – Torine Creppy
Elizabeth Oestreich from Safe Kids Fargo provided a deeper insight on how Safe Kids utilizes the Star Rating for Schools Methodology to help make positive changes in school zones and other elements of urban design and development. During her discussion, Elizabeth shared how Safe Kids assessed elementary schools around Fargo to make them safer for the students.
Offering a youth perspective, Manpreet Darroch from YOURS – Youth for Road Safety talked about how YOURS, through the Global Youth Coalition for Road Safety is using the SR4S methodology to empower young people to take action in their communities.
Manpreet talked about the importance of including young people in road safety efforts in the community in all stages, elaborating through the three-lens model that empowers young people and equips them to engage with governments, communities, and other partners.
Across the world, child pedestrians are facing unsafe streets on their way to and from school. The webinar focused on how powerful the SR4S methodology is to help improve journeys to school and to make changes to improve their safety.
About the Child Injury Prevention Alliance The Child Injury Prevention Alliance (CIPA) is dedicated to the prevention of injuries to children and adolescents in the United States and around the world. CIPA achieves its goal through scientific research, translating research findings into programs and policies, providing leadership in injury prevention initiatives and advocacy, and fostering national and global collaboration in injury research and prevention.
As an organization with a global focus, individuals from around the world serve on CIPA’s board of directors and advisory board. Information about these individuals can be found on our Leadership page.
Last Monday, May 17, the 6th UN Global Road Safety Week was launched on behalf of the UN Road Safety Collaboration. The theme for this year’s UNGRSW is Streets for Life and it raises awareness on the importance of 30 km/h streets. The global launch gathered global road safety leaders and representatives to talk about why low-speed streets are important in road safety and urban design.
Last Monday, May 17, the 6th UN Global Road Safety Week was launched on behalf of the UN Road Safety Collaboration. The theme for this year’s UNGRSW is Streets for Life and it raises awareness on the importance of 30 km/h streets. The global launch gathered global road safety leaders and representatives to talk about why low-speed streets are important in road safety and urban design.
Sana’a joined leaders like Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus – Director-General of the World Health Organization, Maimuna Mohd Sharif – Executive Director of the UN Human Rights Settlements Programme, Jean Todt – the UN Secretary General’s Envoy for Road Safety, Michael Bloomberg – the WHO Global Ambassador for NCDs and Injuries, and more.
She spoke about why low-speed streets are important for young people as well as the efforts the Coalition is doing to make sure that road safety is prioritized in the global agenda.
“We are claiming our space and joining Streets for Life campaign to demand lowering speed limits to 30 km/h. We want streets that are safe and dynamic for living. We, the youth, are part of the solution” – Sana’a Khsawneh
Omnia joined a panel that also had leaders like Eike Van den Brandt – Minister of the Government in Brussels, Rob de Jong – Head of Sustainable Mobility from the UN Environment Programme, Stefanie Holzwarth – Urban Mobility Specialist from UN-Habitat, and Mirjam Sidik – Asia Injury Prevention Foundation.
During the panel, Omnia raised awareness on why road safety and the topic of low-speed streets are important for young people. She talked about how young people are often “under-represented” despite being the most affected when it comes to road crashes.
We need the re-orientation of the decision-making table by prime ministers to provide a sustainable mechanism, not only for youth participation but also the emergence and implementation of youth-led solutions.” – Omnia el Omrani
The 6th UN Global Road Safety Week runs from May 17 until May 23. You can still get involved by joining the Coalition activities and other global events.
As part of Global Road Safety Week 2021, Child Injury Prevention Alliance with iRAP – International Road Assessment Programme and Star Rating for Schools will hold a webinar on How Communities Can Help Students Get to School Safely. The webinar highlights the 6th UN Global Road Safety Week’s theme: Streets for Life and will help raise awareness on the importance of low-speed streets in communities, especially in school zones.
The webinar will feature national and global road safety experts discussing the use of the Star Rating for Schools program to improve safety as children travel to and from school.
Star Rating for Schools, which was developed by iRAP, is an evidence-based tool for assessing road elements that affect pedestrian safety encountered by children as they travel to school. It also provides users guidance on appropriate interventions for addressing identified safety risks.
The webinar will be held on Tuesday, May 18 from 1-2 pm Eastern Time and will demonstrate how to use the program, present a case study, provide tips on involving youth, and close with a panel discussion on implementing program recommendations.
Speakers for the webinar include; Rafaela Machado from iRAP/Star Rating for Schools, Torine Creppy from Safe Kids Worldwide, Elizabeth Oestreich from Safe Kids Fargo/Moorhead, and Manpreet Darroch from YOURS – Youth for Road Safety. The session will be moderated by Gary Smith from the Child Injury Prevention Alliance.
By using the Star Rating for Schools program to measure, manage, and communicate the risks that children encounter traveling to school, community groups and individuals can help students get to school and home again safely.
Global Youth Coalition for Road Safety member and Vision Zero Youth Council – Rwanda President, Nkumbuye Ami, submitted an article that talks about issues around safer mobility in the newly constructed road that connects Huye and Gisagara District in Rwanda. It also highlights the importance of road infrastructures and reduced speed limits. We reproduced the article here.
According to the World Health Organization, 1.35 million people die each year due to road traffic crashes and up to 50 million more suffer from non-fatal injuries. It is the leading cause of death in young people aged between 15-29 years old.
Surprisingly most crashes can be prevented if each country develops a good education program focusing on road safety, good road infrastructure that is favorable for vehicles and road users, community awareness on road safety, obeying traffic rules, and strengthening of road safety legislation.
All are key factors that can be considered to decrease road crashes.
In this article, we are going to address some issues that should be considered for safer mobility in the newly constructed road that connect Huye and Gisagara District.
When you start your journey from Huye City to Gisagara, there is a newly constructed road that passes between two secondary schools including Groupe Officiel de Butare School at its start from Huye City. It is a well-designed road that has many zebra crossing that allows road users to cross safely, a 50 km/h road speed limit, sidewalks for pedestrians and a cycling way.
All these are measures that contribute to decreasing the risk of road crashes. Health People Rwanda volunteers also evaluated this road focusing on where to improve especially at school zones and advocate for improvement that makes it safer for all road users.
At the school zone mentioned above, we noticed a lack of road humps and that the 50 Km/h speed limit is not appropriate for such a place clouded by students especially at pick and drop hours.
Recently in Toronto, researchers found that on streets where the speed limit lowered from 40km/h to 30km/h there was a 28% reduction in car-pedestrians collisions.
As we start UN Global Road Safety Week in the coming month, Healthy People Rwanda joins the global road safety community calling for a 30km/h speed limit to become the default speed limit in cities, towns, and villages.
Dr. Nzeyimana Innocent, the president of Healthy People Rwanda said “ As we start a new decade of action, HPR will play a key role in contributing to the decrease of road crashes in Rwanda and the region in partnership with different stakeholders including Rwanda National Police. Our advocacy this year will focus on safer road infrastructures accommodating human errors, especially at school zones and also road safety education. Roads should not be there to kill the dreams of Youth but rather help to accomplish them”.
The Director of the school Groupe Officiel de Butare Charles said “ Last trimester in our district many students died due to road crashes, sadly most of them were avoidable. I really appreciate that we have a good road aside from the schools that really help us as road users but I ask you to advocate for us to have at least road humps and zebra crossings near the school gate. I do believe if we develop a strong educational program and community awareness on road safety as well advocacy like this we would see a significant decrease in the number of injuries and deaths related to road crashes”
We can’t conclude this article without saying that we will keep advocating for safer roads. We also stand with other NGOs across the globe and different partners calling 30km/h to become the default speed limit in cities, towns, and villages in the upcoming UN Global Road safety week to happen on May 17th- 23rd, 2021.
