For months, the virus put the world under house arrest. Well, everyone was affected, especially those who relied on the mobility sector for traveling purposes. The biggest percentage of travelers are estimated to be below the age of 40 with those within the age range of 18 to 30 still the highest. The latter age is the most active, most restless, most productive in the economic sector who also have the most demanding zeal to be everywhere and do everything at the same time.

The mere fact that this age group makes up the majority of the world population means that their presence will dominate a majority of the areas at any time, save restricted places identified by local governments and health organizations.

Young people travel for different reasons. These reasons range from business, education and study tours, corporate and official duty, tourism, sports, individual research activities, and many others like family and friend visits, religious crusades, entertainment, recreation, and more.

In Uganda, for instance, transport systems were greatly affected by the onset of partial lockdown with great changes in mobility systems and a hike in transport fares. These circumstances saw passengers paying up to a 100 percent increment in the charges from the original rates for respective destinations.

But, are these hikes realistic to a youth traveler looking for survival in a poor economy and with no stable source of income?

Considering the exorbitant travel rates, can one earn still make the money they are using when they travel?

In the case of Uganda (and many other African countries), there are no standard billing systems and governments have very little control (if any) over transport charges and transport systems. Sadly, the voices that raise concerns may be ignored and disregarded.

The reason for the high charges for public transport compensates for the seats that were kept empty in the effort to maintain social distancing while traveling. In most cases, however, passengers pay higher fares and are still crowded in the vehicle to capacity.

There are no proper safety monitoring systems ensured in the transport and mobility systems to ensures strict safety standards. This makes control of the spread of the virus difficult. 

While there are conditional circumstances where one must travel, the risk of the transmission of the virus increases as one cannot be constantly careful throughout the journey which may sometimes take a few hours or more.

Recently, Ugandan authorities reported the 4th stage of community transmission of the virus. Unfortunately, a clear-cut strategy to curb the transmission was never released. This makes travelers remain at risk of virus transmission, economic breakdown, poor health safety, and vulnerability to the virus.

It should be remembered that the vulnerability of the youth in this situation goes beyond road safety and COVID-19. When they are affected, several other social and governance systems will be compromised, as well.

The youth need to be supported and valued for a safer future. Young people make up a large portion of the population and are thus able to help contribute to the overall development of their communities and their countries.

As the infection from the virus continues to soar, the best way to ensure the safety of travelers would be to disinfect the mobility systems, employ health workers, and traffic officers at bus and taxi stations to monitor behaviors, and ensure all health protocols are strictly followed.

There is no point in hiking the fares if the health protocols cannot be followed. This would only put the lives of travelers at risk with an increased chance of infection.

Tanzania has had everything running normally throughout the period of global lockdown. Clearly, strict policies on restrictions and health protocols have been implemented and followed to avoid transmissions of the virus and it worked for them. 

There are always opportunities for improvement. To discover better ways, travelers should ensure their own safety and speak when the health protocols are being violated. 

 If the regulations were adhered to, the systems monitored properly, and the safety standards were kept at all points, maybe we would be moving towards a reduced burden of infection and even eliminate the virus sooner. 

As the governments play their role, people must also be responsible and commit to ensuring safe travels and a reduced rate of transmission of COVID-19. This will help economic activities return to normal without a burden. One thing for sure is that there is always a need for one to travel. 

Written by: Brian Odama – Director Operations/Co-Founder, RoadWays Uganda

2021 marks the beginning of the new Decade of Action for Road Safety. Global leaders have shown their commitment to reach the road safety targets according to the Sustainable Development Goals through the Stockholm Declaration which was created during the 3rd Ministerial Conference for Road Safety. To meet this ambitious target, the world has to deliver in order to halve the number of road-related deaths and injuries globally.

The last year has shown us how important it is to have access to safe and sustainable mobility. Road safety connects not just with transport but also with education, work, the economy, and more.

To continuously push the road safety movement forward, young people need to be involved. Youth have deep insights into the reality of road safety on the ground. 

Young people have described how road traffic injuries have affected their lives and how important it is to address this so that others may not experience the loss and tragedy that comes with road crashes. 

“While humanity is facing the coronavirus pandemic, we see the world coming together. Countries are working side-by-side and ramping up efforts to tackle this outbreak. And although it is uncertain how the world will look in the coming year, this might be the time to reset and reshape our future on how we travel for the better.” – Floor Lieshout 

A new artwork has appeared in Birmingham by our 2nd World Youth Assembly resident artist, Mohammed Ali. It depicts 20 as the year of covid and some hope for 2021 that restrictions may eventually lift and enable us some freedoms again.

The work for safer roads and more sustainable mobility continues! We wish for a productive and successful 2021 in road safety and global development. Happy New Year! 

READ YOUTH ACTIVITIES FOR ROAD SAFETY

The Virtual Pre-Conference Global Injury Prevention Showcase, supported by the World Health Organization, is offering a limited number of partial registration scholarships to support participants of Lower Middle-Income Countries (LMIC) and First Nations People to attend the Virtual Pre-Conference Global Injury Prevention Showcase 2021. 

The Global Injury Prevention Showcase

The World Conference on Injury on Prevention and Safety Promotion seek to promote prevention and safety when it comes to public health. The conference involves many disciplines and interest groups who are active in their respective fields.

Organized by the Public Health Association of Australia (PHAA), the conference will facilitate international information sharing and cooperation to further the development of the science of injury prevention and safety promotion.

The conference will also provide evidence on good practices by national progress, create an environment of knowledge sharing, encourage research and heal promotion practitioners to develop a career in injury prevention, develop a knowledge base of injury prevention practice, and more.

The 14^th World Conference on Injury on Prevention and Safety Promotion was set to happen next year in Adelaide, Australia but was postponed because of concerns around the global pandemic. The conference is now set to happen on 27 – 30 November 2022 in Adelaide, Australia.

To maintain the momentum, a Virtual Pre-Conference Global Injury Prevention Showcase was launched and will be held next year from 22 – 26 March 2021.

The Pre-Conference
The pre-conference will ensure that there is an opportunity between the on-site events to engage, network, and continue knowledge sharing for the global safety community.

To get more people involved in safety and prevention, PHAA is offering partial registration scholarships for presenting applicants or for those who may have difficulty attending. Those who would be accepted will be offered a discount registration rate of $55 AUD.

To be eligible for the scholarship, the applicant must be either from a low or middle-income country or identifies as a First Nations People, must be taking part in the virtual pre-conference showcase either by an oral or poster presentation, and must be in the following priority groups; practitioner, researcher, policy, or advocate. 

The application for the scholarship will close at 11:59 PM AEST, Sunday 17 January 2021.

LEARN MORE ABOUT THE PRE-CONFERENCE SCHOLARSHIP 

READ ABOUT OUR INVOLVEMENT IN SAFETY 2018

Earlier this month, the UN Road Safety Collaboration (UNRSC) revealed that the theme for UN Road Safety Week 2021 will focus on speed. World Health Organization (WHO) Director of Social Determinants of Health, Dr. Etienne Krug, said that the theme “stresses how central tackling speed is to reduce deaths by 50% by 2030”.

UN Road Safety Weeks
The UN Global Road Safety Weeks and its’ campaigns are coordinated by the UNRSC and are chaired by the WHO. During this week, all stakeholders are invited to plan and host events focused on road safety marking the specific road safety week.

The 2021 global road safety campaign will be the sixth UN Global Road Safety week since it was launched in 2007.

The first UN Road Safety Week focused on youth and road safety. At that time, a recorded 400,000 under 25 years old died on the world’s roads. The first road safety week culminated in an event called the World Youth Assembly for Road Safety, bringing together 400 young people from over 100 countries to tackle the road safety crisis.

The second UN Road Safety Week was held in 2013 and focused on pedestrian safety. This week highlighted the urgent need to better protect pedestrians. During this year, it was estimated that over 270,000 pedestrians lose their lives on the world’s roads, accounting for 22% of the total road traffic deaths of 1.24 million recorded during that year.

2015 saw the third UN Road Safety Week with the theme #SaveKidsLives. During this week, it was emphasized how road traffic crashes took the lives of 186,300 children every year. The campaign gathered more than a million signatures in support of the Child Declaration for Road Safety.  

“Help us keep every child, in every country, safe on the roads today, tomorrow, and always. Together we can and we will #SaveKidsLives.” Anthony Lake, Executive Director of UNICEF. 

The fourth UN Road Safety Week, launched in 2017, was themed Save Lives – #SlowDown. The week raised awareness on how slowing down can make roads safer for children, family, and friends. Research shows that a 5% cut in average speed can result in a 30% reduction in the number of fatal road crashes. 

The most recent road safety week happened last year in 2019 with the theme #SpeakUp to save lives. The recent road safety week focused on leadership for road safety to mobilize leaders and road safety stakeholders to take action to help reduce the number of road-related deaths and injuries. 

The New Decade of Action
The 2021 UN Road Safety week will be an opportunity to launch the global plan for the newly proclaimed decade of action for road safety 2021-2030. Focusing on speeding, the next road safety week will highlight the importance of speed in the reduction of fatal road crashes.

According to WHO, speed has been identified as a key risk factor in road traffic injuries, influencing both the risk of a road crash as well as the severity of injuries that result from road crashes.

Different road safety organizations have already shown support for the 2021 road safety week with the hashtag #RoadSafetyWeek. 

GET UPDATES FROM UNRSC 

YOURS – Youth for Road Safety welcomes its new advocacy director, Luiza Amorim! Luiza started working with yours last week, December 2. As advocacy director, Luiza will be responsible for collaboration efforts in accordance with our organizational principles, vision, and mission. Get to know more about Luiza and her previous experiences on road safety. 

1. Give us an interesting fact about yourself. 

When I was six, I was involved in a car crash that almost killed my family. It was caused by drunk drivers at a high speed and it was severe. Even though I had minor injuries, my father almost got killed and so did my aunt. Recovery was tough, our lives turned upside down for a couple of years. Luckily, we all recovered and were able to continue our lives safely and healthy. As a survivor of a car crash, road safety became is personally relevant to me and to have the chance to work with YOURS, in an important effort to empower youth and save lives on the roads, is the motive of great honor and gratitude for me.

2. What were you doing before you got into YOURS? 

Before joining YOURS, I was the Communications Manager for Brazil and Argentina at global health organization Vital Strategies for the past four years, managing the area of policy, advocacy, communications in the region and leading the development of mass media campaigns and advocacy-communication strategies in collaboration with local and global partners in multiple areas, including food policy, road safety, tobacco control, and COVID-19 response.

3. What got you involved in road safety? 

I got involved in road safety through the Bloomberg Initiative for Global Road Safety (BIGRS) four years ago, while I was in Vital. Vital is one of the BIGRS partners, coordinating the initiative and leading the communications area with technical support to the cities in the initiative in the development of effective behavior change communication campaigns and strategies. I led the front of communications in Brazil and, later on, in Argentina and got to know the fantastic world of road safety and several fantastic partners and leaders involved in it worldwide. 

4. Tell us about the work you’ll be doing as an advocacy director. 

As Advocacy Director in YOURS, one of my main tasks will be to develop and implement the advocacy strategy of the organization, always in close collaboration and alignment with the YOURS team and youth leaders, in order to enhance and ensure high-quality global youth engagement and participation in the decision-making process in road safety. I will also be fostering partnerships with key stakeholders locally and globally and ensuring we share our policy positions in alignment with the Global Youth Statement. I will also be working closely with the Global Youth Coalition, especially with the Youth Advisory Board, in identifying key opportunities to enhance our work globally and locally, as well as in supporting global awareness campaigns, ensuring meaningful youth participation in events and in the policymaking and support and train youth advocates. 

5. What are you most excited about in this new role?

I am really excited about working closely with so many young leaders globally. As a young leader myself, I understand the challenges of being young, bold, having much to say but not always having the chance to be properly heard by the ones at the decision-making table. I feel I have a lot to learn from the YOURS team and the Youth Coalition members and will be a pleasure to add to the incredible work the teams are doing!

6. How do you see the future of road safety with YOURS and youth?  

I envision a future where youth will have sound, formal, and meaningful participation mechanisms that provide access to youth leaders at the decision-making table locally and globally, especially when it comes to road safety. We know how hard it is to be part of the decision-making process, even when we want to (and we do want) so I envision a world where the leaders of today can understand the importance of engaging with, hearing, and involving the leaders of tomorrow and creating the proper tools, forums and mechanisms to make this happen in a permanent, meaningful and organic way. And I am really excited to, alongside YOURS team and the Coalition, to part of efforts to make this happen soon!

7. Tell us about your hobbies. 

I really enjoy having a moment to practice yoga every morning after my daily meditation. I believe that, if we want to take care of the world, we need to take care of ourselves too! I love scuba diving, even though it’s been hard to practice this year with COVID, and I do love to play with my dogs (I have four of them!). I am absolutely passionate about travelling and getting to know new countries, new cultures, new people and I also love to read and write – I have a “secret” blog where I post some poems and texts (in Portuguese only!). And a good Pisces, I love Zodiacs and astrology, so I read my horoscope every day!