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

International Risk Reduction Day is observed every year on the 13^th of August. The day represents a global call to governments and organizations from all over the world to work toward a culture of risk-awareness and disaster reduction. Risk reduction is multi-sectoral; it links policies on land use, building codes, public health, education, environmental protection, and climate change adaptability. Road crashes are among the major risks for the health of the general population, especially among the youth, worldwide. 

Road Crashes as a Risk
Road crashes continue to injure and take the lives of people from all over the world. There are several risk factors, most of which can be based on the five pillars of road safety, that contribute to the severe effects of road crashes.

Improper road safety management, unsafe roads, unsafe vehicles, unsafe road users, and inadequate post-crash response could increase the risk of people getting injured, handicapped, or killed on the road.

Improper road safety management means problems and setbacks in the strategy, targets, and funding in programs and projects for creating safer roads and more sustainable mobility. Leadership affects the push for road safety in local, regional, and global settings.

Unsafe infrastructure, unsafe vehicles, and unsafe road users are factors that everyone lives with and are exposed to every day. Roads that have deteriorated or have low systems can result in drivers losing control of their vehicles or of vehicles getting more worn and unsafe.

Post-crash care is also an important factor to consider when discussing the risk. Good post-crash responses would mean an improved ability of health through appropriate emergency treatment and long-term rehabilitation but a poor one could mean dying or living with a permanent disability.

Speeding is also important to consider in road crash risks. The National Safety Council, speeding reduces the amount of time the driver has to react to dangerous situations to avoid road crash. It records that speeding was a factor in 26% of all traffic fatalities, killing an average of 25 people per day.

Road crashes are the leading killer of young people aged 15-29 worldwide.

Reducing the Risk
International Day of Risk Reduction celebrates how people and communities around the world are reducing their exposure to disasters and raising awareness on the importance of reigning in the risks that they face.

Recently, the United Nations has released a resolution declaring the new Decade of Action for Road Safety. The document commends member states and organizations that have made significant efforts to promote road safety and provide sustainable mobility for the community.

The UN Road Safety Trust Fund is one of the global road safety initiatives used to help achieve SDG Target 3.6 – halving the number of road-related deaths and injuries by the year 2030 – and SDG Target 11.2 – provide access to safe, affordable, accessible, and sustainable transport systems for all, improving road safety, notably by expanding public transport, with special attention to the needs of those in vulnerable situations, women, children, persons with disabilities and older persons.

Head of UNECE, Olga Algayeriva explains that the Road Safety Trust Fund “will serve as a catalyst for much-needed progress towards the road safety targets of the Sustainable Development Goals”.

Another key initiative is Vision Zero, which is designed to eliminate traffic accident fatalities completely. The programs under Vision Zero are specific to preventing the death of vulnerable road users like pedestrians and cyclists while others are described as “more expansive”.

Multiple road safety initiatives have been created but there is still more work to be done.

YOURS and its Mission to Make the World’s Road for Youth
YOURS believes that youth play a vital role in the road safety revolution. The best way to reduce the risk of road crashes is to eliminate them completely by engaging and involving youth in global road safety development efforts.

Earlier this year, in July, the Global Youth Coalition for Road Safety was launched. The Coalition united individual youth and organizations and guides and prepares them to take action on road safety and safe mobility issues. The Coalition champions meaningful youth participation in road safety and beyond.

“We need a revolution for action on road safety. Surely we must look to young people to lead and energize this revolution.” Floor Lieshout

Research has shown that young people are “assets” in disaster and risk management. Young people aged 15 to 24 make up 1.2 billion of the world’s population, coming up to 16%. It only makes sense to involve such a huge part of the population in creating solutions for global issues, including road crashes.

Be part of the road safety movement!

JOIN THE COALITION

The United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) is mandated to promote international cooperation on economic, social, and cultural issues. ECOSOC promotes higher standards of living, international solutions, and universal respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms. ECOSOC granted special consultative status to YOURS – Youth for Road Safety!

New Privileges and Responsibilities
The special consultative status enables YOURS to actively engage with ECOSOC and its subsidiary bodies which include the United Nations Secretariat.

In accordance to ECOSOC Resolution 1996/31, non-government organizations granted consultative status will support the work of the UN by promoting knowledge of its principals and activities which are aligned with its own aims, purposes, nature, and scope of its competencies. This enables the Council and its bodies to receive expert information or advice based on special competencies of the organization in its subject matter.

In the case of YOURS, topics and subjects would revolve around youth and the road safety movement and safe, sustainable mobility issues.

Because of its status, YOURS is entitled to designate official representatives to the UN Headquarters in New York and the UN Offices in Geneva and Vienna. These representatives will be given the opportunity to register and participate in events, conferences, and activities of the UN. YOURS is also able to submit written statements and oral presentations relevant to youth and road safety.

Pushing the Road Safety Agenda Forward
Part of the ECOSOC mandates includes the conduction of follow-ups and reviews of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development which includes SDG Target 3.6, halving the number of road-related deaths and injuries by the year 2030 and all related crosscutting fields of action.

As a special consultant, YOURS is able to push the road safety movement forward. Referencing the New Decade of Action, YOURS will be able to engage further with how the UN members and organizations can best address road crashes on a global scale by engaging and connecting with young people. It also enables us to engage formally in the ECOSOC Youth Forum. 

YOURS is obligated to submit reports on its activities that support the work of ECOSOC and the UN as a way to review the progress of special consultants.

The special consultative status of YOURS under ECOSOC was adopted on 24 June 2020 and communicated in September 2020.

LEARN MORE ABOUT ECOSOC