The Commonwealth Action Series featured a sub-session on fighting the biggest killer of young people in the Commonwealth – road crashes – as part of its fourth episode on youth development: inclusive, equitable, and accessible opportunities. The session featured speakers from the road safety sector who talked about the facts surrounding road safety in Commonwealth.  Members of the Coalition led a youth panel to talk about road safety and sustainable mobility in their respective countries. 

Road crashes as a public health threat
The speakers during the session – Professor Agnes Binagwaho, Ph.D., M.D., Vice-Chancellor of the University of Global Health Equity; Jessica Truong, the Vice President of Programs and Asia Pacific Region of Toward Zero Foundation; and Raquel Barrios, Project Manager of YOURS – Youth for Road Safety – talked about road safety as an urgent public health issue in the Commonwealth.

Agnes kicked off the session and discussed how road safety is an issue in equity, economy, sustainability, and accessibility. In her discussion, she emphasized that the burden of road crashes is huge, not only for the Countries in the Commonwealth but for the whole world.

After she emphasized how young people are the most affected when it comes to road crashes, Agnes raised the concern of how youth are less able to bear the costs associated with road-related injuries and disabilities.

In her discussion, Agnes pointed out how the GDP of the countries could reach a 3.6% increase by reducing road traffic deaths by 10%. Long term economic growth would also mean youth development through employment opportunities.

Jessica presented facts and figures that explain why road trauma is an important public health concern. In the Commonwealth, half a million people are killed because of road crashes every year. Jessica identified road crashes as “one of the biggest man-made humanitarian crises that we must address”.

The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals has identified road safety as a “priority action area”, strengthened by the new UN declaration of the new Decade of Action for Road Safety.

Youth leading the charge for safer roads and sustainable mobility
Raquel talked about how necessary young people are in the road safety movement. She introduced the Global Youth Coalition for Road Safety, an organization that unites youth from all over the world to lead the movement toward safer roads and sustainable mobility.

“The youth coalition is providing resources, capacity development, and partnerships to young leaders around the world to promote the implementation of evidence-based local actions and innovative strategies for global advocacy that will contribute to the achievement of the global youth statement for road safety,” – Raquel Barrios.

The Commonwealth also featured a youth panel where members of the Coalition participated. The panel had Simon Patrick Obi from Nigeria as moderator and had Olivia Nalwadda from Uganda, Ami Nkumbuye from Rwanda, Grace Willems from Australia, and Alex Ayub from Kenya as panelists.

The panelists talked about the road safety situation in their respective countries. Olivia talked about how dangerous the streets of Uganda are, not only for young people but also for elders who want to enjoy activities like going out for an evening stroll.

Grace discussed how addressing road safety does not just solve issues surrounding mobility, it also helps create more sustainable cities that contribute to a better standard of living for people in the Commonwealth. “I think that finding solutions to road safety goes hand-in-hand with making progress against many other UN SDGs.”

Ami gave the audience a glimpse of how Rwanda is addressing road safety through advocacy. He talked about key interventions that have to do with promoting and raising awareness when it came to road crash statistics in their community. The promotion advocacy came in three ways; teaching sessions, mass campaigns, and conferences. Ami also raised the importance of connecting with governments and NGOs to tackle road safety so that the medical services are not overwhelmed.

Finally, Alex talked about how the Global Youth Coalition, with the help of the Global Youth Statement for Road Safety, is addressing road crashes locally and globally. He discussed how the Coalition is reaching out to young people and other authorities to implement the youth statement and combat the road crash menace.  

READ ABOUT THE GLOBAL YOUTH STATEMENT 

The World Bank’s Transport Global Practice has set a new road safety requirement, which will be applied to billions of dollars of World Bank loans and grants. The requirement is expected to prevent thousands of traffic deaths each year and tens of thousands of serious road injuries. The new policy was backed by members of the Three Star Coalition, which includes YOURS – Youth for Road Safety.

Upgraded roads financed by the World Bank are designed to carry more traffic at faster speeds with corresponding economic benefits. When roads are upgraded without rigorous safety measures, deaths and serious injuries rise as a result of the faster speeds and increased traffic volume.

The significance of the World Bank Transport Practice’s new requirement is that roads to be financed must now include safety measures such that the new road will have no more forecast fatalities than the original road and will often have fewer fatalities as additional road safety opportunities are defined, even though there are more traffic and faster speeds. 

In cases where it is claimed that this standard cannot be reached, there must be a review by the World Bank’s Global Road Safety Lead. If they agree that the standard cannot be reached, they would normally work with the project team to ensure that at least 7% of the project budget is devoted to safety measures that attain the best possible results. 

The Three Star Coalition Mission
Coordinated by the Fund for Global Health, the Three Star Coalition aims to influence policy and engineering practice in multilateral development banks (MDBs), development agencies, and national highway authorities to promote safer road infrastructure design.

Unsafe roads are a major factor that contributes to the number of road-related deaths and injuries. The Three Star Coalition advocates for the design and construction of safer roads in the developing world. The organization and its members advocate for roads in developing countries to be built to a minimum three-star safety standard for all road users.

To assess roads, the World Bank will use the Road Safety Screening and Appraisal Tool (RSSAT) tool which calculates how the new road compares to the old road in terms of the number of traffic deaths. The new policy is expected to prevent thousands of deaths and tens of thousands of injuries at an annual rate.

YOURS is a Three Star Coalition Member
“YOURS is a proud member of the 3-Star Coalition. I would like to congratulate the World Bank for including road safety requirements within their infrastructure loans and grants. In addition, I would like to thank Keith Johnson for leading this Coalition and representing the members while negotiating with the World Bank, well done!” – YOURS Executive Director, Floor Lieshout. 

To continuously raise awareness on the importance of road infrastructure and its role in maintaining road safety, members of the Three Star Coalition will continue to share updates and developments in the organization that relate to road infrastructures and road safety. 

READ THE THREE STAR COALITION PRESS RELEASE  

YOURS – Youth for Road Safety is looking for an Advocacy Director to be responsible for the development and implementation of our advocacy strategy and work plan. The Advocacy Director will be working in collaboration with the YOURS team in accordance with our organizational principles, vision, and mission.

CLOSING DATE: 5 NOVEMBER 2020

About Our Work

YOURS is a global organization that acts to make the world’s roads safe for youth. We are experts in youth and road safety issues and advocate for sustainable mobility at the highest levels of decision-making. We believe in meaningful youth participation as a key strategy to change these statistics.

With strategic global advocacy and empowering youth locally, we will unlock a global revolution for road safety and make this generation the last one facing this massive public health threat.

We are a small team with big ideas and powerful allies. We are proud of our work and have loads of fun while doing it. The Advocacy Director is a new exciting role within the leading global organization on youth and road safety issues. We need you to be pro-active, organised, self-managing, a self-starter and ready to take our global advocacy work to the next level. 

Roles and Responsibilities of the Advocacy Director

The Advocacy Director provides leadership and strategic direction for YOURS’ advocacy work and is responsible for the development and implementation of its long-term strategy and work plan.

The Advocacy Director assumes a leadership role in partnering with, building and maintaining relationships with all relevant stakeholders, such as foundations, businesses, universities, multilaterals, governments, youth leaders, other non-profits, and supporters with the mission of expanding youth voices and experiences on road safety and safe mobility in decision-making spaces. The Advocacy Director oversees all advocacy elements of each project and ensures it is strategically focused and connected.

CLOSING DATE: 5 NOVEMBER 2020

LEARN MORE ABOUT THE POSITION

YOURS – Youth for Road Safety, Dr. Etienne Krug – Director for Social Determinants of the World Health Organization will partner with the Global Youth Coalition for Road Safety to hold the first series of Coalition Capacity Development Sessions. The session is set to happen on the 30th of October, Friday, at 3 pm CET.

Providing Members with Updated Road Safety Information
The session will provide members of the Global Youth Coalition with knowledge and information about the main theories and concepts around road safety. It will also tackle road crashes as the leading cause of death for youth aged 15 to 29 worldwide.

By the end of the session, participants will be able to; identify key issues surrounding road safety – such as the main statistics and risk factors, identify regional trends in road safety across the world, identify key risk factors facing youth, and understand the safe systems approach and other evidence-based solutions.

The capacity development series will use creative and interactive online and offline sessions where the Coalition members will strengthen their core knowledge on the road safety crisis facing the youth.

The session will help young leaders start thinking about creating and implementing evidence-based local actions and innovation strategies for global advocacy. It will discuss road safety and its connection with different areas such as health, education, inequalities, sustainable cities, and climate action.

The series is available for members of the Global Youth Coalition.

The First Capacity Development Series
The first series is an introduction to road safety. It will first assess the initial knowledge the members have on topics around safe roads and sustainable mobility.

The session will talk about the global situation that young people face all over the world. It will update members on statistics from regional and global stats on road-related deaths and injuries and how these affect young people. A discussion on key road safety risk factors and key road safety interventions with evidence-based results will also be tackled.

The session will be the first of multiple series focusing on different aspects of road safety.

Get the chance to join this session and future ones by joining the Global Youth Coalition for Road Safety.

 JOIN THE COALITION TO TAKE PART

The Commonwealth has released a virtual event called the Commonwealth Action Series for young people to have a louder voice in policy decisions affecting them. The series will run from July to December featuring six episodes; (1) Taking Charge of Our Future, (2) Trade, Entrepreneurship, and Employment, (3) Technology and Innovation, (4) Youth Development, (5) Governance and Rule of Law, and (6) Environment. The themes of each episode will focus on the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) pillars. 

Engaging Youth through CHOGM Pillars

The series will engage youth from 54 countries and discuss issues and solutions that would have been presented to Commonwealth leaders at the CHOGM that was set to take place at Kigali, Rwanda earlier this June 2020. However, it was postponed because of the COVID-19 Pandemic.

The pandemic has limited movement on a global scale. It has exposed young people’s need for spaces where they can meet and discuss the challenges they face while finding and creating solutions that use their ingenuity and resources.

Social media and the internet been effective tools and engaging youth and providing them with a platform to share and discuss their opinions with fellow youth from all over the world.

The Commonwealth is using these tools to reach young people everywhere so that an inclusive and equitable strategy can be applied in building back better.

Commonwealth Secretary-General, Patricia Scotland, shares that “young people are active in the fight against COVID-19”, adding that youth are showing leadership and are making ‘vital efforts’ in their communities.

It is important for all young people, regardless of their background, to have opportunities that foster an inclusive and equitable society to drive transformative change in local and global settings. There is an urgent need to ensure society’s most vulnerable groups are not left behind.

Youth Development: Inclusive, Equitable, and Accessible Opportunitie

The first three episodes of the Commonwealth Action Series were held from July to September. Theme Four, Youth Development, will be launched this 27 October 2020. The session will talk about youth development in terms of Inclusive, Equitable, and Accessible Opportunities. 

Episode 4 will feature a sub-session that focuses on road crashes, highlighting it as the “biggest killer of youth in the Commonwealth”.

The session focuses on reasserting the potential of young people across the Commonwealth in shaping the future. Young people are responsible, capable, and energized in charting their future. Young people do not just aspire for a better world, they act and deliver tangible solutions.

The fourth episode of the Commonwealth Youth Action Series will feature members of the Global Youth Coalition for Road Safety. The youth panelists will dive into issues surrounding safer roads and sustainable mobility, highlighting the fact that more than a thousand young people lose their lives to the world’s roads on a daily basis.

Join youth and road safety activists, through the Global Youth Coalition, in taking local and global action to fight road crashes as one of the global killers of youth. Register today! 

REGISTER HERE