Every year in Commonwealth countries over 210,000 people are killed in road crashes and millions more are seriously injured. Today road traffic injuries are now the leading cause of death for children and young people aged 5-29 years. This is a major challenge for the Commonwealth as over 60% of its countries’ population is under 30. Road safety in the 53 countries of the Commonwealth is very diverse. Fatality rates in road crashes range from 3 to above 30 per 100,000 population. However, in nearly all Commonwealth countries fatality and injury rates are rising rather than falling. Across the Commonwealth, the level of road deaths remains unacceptably high and urgent action is required to prevent the loss of over 2 million lives in the decade to 2030.

The report places a special focus on youth and calls for meaningful youth engagement with young people in road safety as beneficiaries, leaders and partners to be part of the solution and be seen as assets in road safety. (Recommendation 4 – reducing road trauma of children and young people):

There is a strong potential for youth action for road safety, for example, by supporting the safe routes to school campaign of the Child Health & Mobility Initiative, better road design & speed enforcement to protect vulnerable road users, and effective road safety education & training. Such initiatives are also closely linked to other priorities in sustainable transport such as improving air quality, reducing carbon emissions, and promoting healthy lifestyles. Neglect of these issues are estimated to result in the deaths worldwide of 350,000 children and young people each year.

There is also a strong case for meaningful youth participation in road safety in line with the Commonwealth Youth mission to ‘Engage and Recognize Young People’. When decisions or road safety programs are being made, or when policies are being developed that concern young person, they have the fundamental right to co-decide on these issues. Active youth participation creates stronger policy outcomes for this unique demographic of society. Young people can and should meaningfully participate in all stages of decision-making in road safety, especially for policies designed for youth, where they exist. Young people have a role to play during the development, implementation and evaluation of road safety initiatives and it is crucial to ensure that road safety initiatives foster meaningful participation with youth that avoid manipulation, decoration and tokenism. Young people have a massive opportunity to improve road safety through active engagement in road safety and stimulate positive road safety change as bene ciaries, partners and leaders in road safety across the Commonwealth.

Putting Road Safety on the Commonwealth Agenda
HRH Prince Michael of Kent speaking at the launch of the Commonwealth Expert Panel Report.

Your excellencies, ladies and gentlemen. Good morning, I am delighted to welcome you all to the Royal Society of Arts. We are here to launch the Memorandum and Expert Recommendations of the Commonwealth Road Safety Initiative. Our aim is to put road safety on the Commonwealth agenda. And briefly this morning I would like to tell you why.

The Commonwealth has a proud record of encouraging knowledge sharing and co-operation among its 53 member countries. It promotes networks of expertise and shared interests in every world region. Commonwealth leaders have well established commitments to the sustainable development goals, especially for health and a strong focus on the well being of young people. But to date the Commonwealth has not actively engaged with the issue of road injury prevention. With respect I think this is a missed opportunity.

According to the World Health Organisation, Commonwealth countries suffer over 500,000 road fatalities every year. And today road injury is the world’s number one cause of death of children and young people between the ages of five and twenty nine. What more reason do we need to recognize road safety as an issue of relevance to the Commonwealth?

That is why I am very pleased that the Towards Zero Foundation has launched the Commonwealth Road Safety Initiative. The CRSI has brought together a distinguished panel of experts, co-chaired by Dr Agnes Binagwhao and Iain Cameron. Their work has resulted in clear recommendations to the next Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting to be held in Kigali, Rwanda next June. They have set out a compelling case for Commonwealth leaders to devote some of their important discussions in Kigali to road safety. I am looking forward to hearing from the co-chairs very shortly.

With many High Commissioners here today, I would like to take the opportunity to encourage you all to send back to your capitals the positive case for Commonwealth co-operation on road safety. As the CRSI experts will explain there are great opportunities for sharing best practice in road injury prevention across the Commonwealth. Among Commonwealth countries there are world-class centres of excellence and expertise in road injury prevention and in others, there is an urgent need for capacity building in road safety policy-making, legislation and programmes. This is why I believe the Commonwealth is very well placed in the decade ahead to bring together this potential supply and demand for stronger road injury prevention.

Commonwealth action would also be very timely as next year important meetings will determine a new 2030 framework for global road safety co-operation. In February the Swedish Government is hosting in Stockholm the 3rd Global Ministerial Conference on Road Safety. This meeting will reflect on the results of the current UN Decade of Action and hopefully set a new target to halve road deaths and injuries by 2030. Then in April the UN General Assembly will hold a special debate on ‘Improving Global Road Safety’ which is expected to endorse the main recommendations of the Stockholm Ministerial Meeting.

These important high-level events are another strong reason why Commonwealth leaders meeting in Kigali should reflect on how their countries can refocus and re-energise their road safety commitments.

I am very grateful to the Swedish Government for enabling me to host a special lunch for Commonwealth Ministers attending the Stockholm meeting. This will allow us to share the CRSI recommendations with Ministers and I hope to build the case for including road safety on the Kigali agenda. I have just sent invitations to all Commonwealth Transport Ministers and I would greatly appreciate the assistance of High Commissioners to ensure that as many as possible come to Stockholm. The Ministerial meeting and our side event will be a great opportunity to discuss with us the issues we are sharing with you today.

We are also very much look forward to contributing to the Kigali meeting next June. I am very pleased that the High Commissioner for Rwanda, Her Excellency Ms Karitanyi is with us today. Together with Dr Binagwhao and the University of Global Health Equity we plan to organise a side event on road safety. We also hope to engage with other stakeholder events such as the 12th Commonwealth Youth Forum which will bring over 1,000 young people to Kigali.

And that brings me back to the question why should the Commonwealth put road safety on its agenda? Over 60% of the Commonwealth’s combined population is under 30. We know that children and young people face the gravest risk of road traffic injury. So I think perhaps we should put the question in another way. How can road safety not be on the agenda of the Commonwealth?

READ THE REPORT HERE

As you will know by now, the 2nd World Youth Assembly is taking place next year on the 18th February 2020 in Stockholm, Sweden. We are inviting young leaders from across the world to join us to start  #ClaimingOurSpace for safe mobility and at the decision-making table! Whether you will be applying to attend or not, we want to hear from you! What do you have to say about safe mobility in your area?

These Youth Consultations are a space for young people to come together, reflect discuss their futures. We want to hear your proposed solutions to transform our area into safer and sustainable spaces, considering topics such as health, environment, human rights, equality, poverty and other issues related to road safety and mobility. What issues do you face on the road? What could make your journeys safer? What needs to change?

We are aiming to collect voices incorporating all of the diverse backgrounds, interests and experiences of young people. We also want to hear from the different fields and sectors of development.

The Youth Consultations will gather youth opinions and directly build in to the Stockholm Youth Statement for Road Safety. This statement will gather all of the key points from the Consultations into one Statement and it will then be shared with global decision-makers in road safety during the 3rd Ministerial Conference in Road Safety in Stockholm, Sweden (19-20 February 2020).

Are you a young leader that wants to take action in your country for safer mobility through advocacy and campaigning? Then you can apply to attend the Assembly.

The 2nd World Youth Assembly for Road Safety will take place in Stockholm on the 18th of February 2020, as an official pre-event of the 3rd Global Ministerial Conference on Road Safety.

TAKE PART IN THE YOUTH CONSULTATIONS

We recently returned from a great youth and road safety workshop in Iceland. We partnered with national search and rescue organization Landsbjörg, who often attend to road traffic crashes as part of their work. Through their ‘Youth Units’, young people from across the country working with Landsbjörg, joined us for a special workshop after their 2019 Safety Conference.

At the Slysavarnir 2019 conference, Manpreet delivered a keynote presentation on ‘Meaningful Youth Participation in Road Safety’, and focused on how young people are valuable partners for positive development in reducing road traffic crashes in their communities and countries. He gave the case study of Belize and shared the principles of meaningful youth participation in creating more responsive, better reflective and more effective youth programmes and policies in addressing road safety.

Landsbjörg partnered with YOURS to deliver a unique youth and road safety workshop. “Traffic Crashes are the leading cause of deaths of young people aged 15-29 worldwide and it is important that young people are self-aware and participate in responding to the road safety crisis facing youth as well as finding solutions”.

The workshop was conducted in the signature YOURS style and had the following learning objectievs:

By the end of the workshop participants were able to:

1. Explain the road safety crisis facing young people globally and in their country.
2. Identify a key risk factor in road safety; drink and drug driving and demonstrate new knowledge on the issue.
3. Understand peer education for road safety and some of the activities you can start in the Youth Units at Landsbjörg.

“YOURS has run workshops around the world, run campaigns, and has tremendous experience leading youth work in traffic safety”, Jónas Guðmundsson, Project Manager for Accident Prevention at Landsbjörg.

Twenty young people attended the workshop, many of the youth departments at Landsbjörg sent their representatives from across the coutry. After undergoing an intensive day of road safety interaction, the young people undertook a creative action planning session and pledged to take action in working with other young people in their areas.

MORE ON WORKSHOPS AT YOURS

At the heart of every global threat is a failure of leadership. This new generation is the most informed, most educated, most connected generation in human history. One Young World identifies, promotes and connects the world’s most impactful young leaders to create a better world, with more responsible, more effective leadership.

This year, YOURS were invited to join the event through the sponsorship of the Total Foundation. Our Head of Communications Manpreet Darroch will be attending the conference on behalf of YOURS. He has been with the organization since its first inception idea at the First World Youth Assembly for Road Safety back in 2007. The summit, being the biggest youth summit in the world focuses on a range of topics from youth empowerment, climate change, peace and reconciliation to making a change in a digital world.

Manpreet said, “It’s an amazing opportunity to attend this awe-inspiring event! I’m really looking forward to meeting youth leaders from around the world and learning from young people who are doing incredible work. My mission will be to represent road safety and safe mobility at the summit and learn from the distinguished delegates.

We are living in exciting times where young people have never been better equipped to tackle global issues. It’s happening in the most innovative ways around the world and this event really shows that young people are at the forefront of positive change, rejecting the old paradigms that youth are not engaged”.

Some parts of the event will be live-streamed here and you can, of course, follow our live streams from the event at our Twitter profile!

There will be some incredible activities happening across London that will illustrate the power of youth to take action! Be sure to follow the action following the hashtag #OYW2019.

Check out the One Young World Website