Sweden is to host the 3rd Global Ministerial Conference on Road Safety on 19–20 February 2020. The conference will be co-sponsored by the World Health Organization (WHO), and minister-led delegations from more than 100 countries are expected to attend. Representatives from the world of industry and research, international institutions and other global organizations will also participate.

The conference marks the end of the UN Decade of Action for Road Safety 2011–2020 and the starting point for continued collaboration on road safety. The aim is to reach global consensus on guidelines for continued international collaboration on road safety up to 2030.

As part of the preparation for this landmark meeting in 2020, the Government of Sweden in collaboration with the World Health Organization undertook a meeting with a high-level consultative committee. YOURS was invited to be part of the committee to bring the voice of youth in road safety to the table and speak about our plans for a 2nd World Youth Assembly for Road Safety.

The meeting focused on a number of areas including an overview of the Decade of Action for Road Safety which comes to its conclusion in 2020 and the steps ahead; objectives of the 3rd Ministerial Conference, the role of road safety stakeholders ad well as a discussion on pre and post events.

Our Executive Director, Floor Lieshout presented the idea of a 2nd World Youth Assembly for Road Safety to take place as a pre-event to the conference. The Assembly has the vision:

For young delegates to be empowered with road safety knowledge, skills and resources and to have direct access to their leaders in order to work together as equals on building a safe mobility system. 

Overall, the idea for the Youth Assembly was well received and we are now working hard to make it a reality in Sweden.

YOURS is a direct follow-up of the United Nations World Youth Assembly for Road Safety in 2007. More than 400 young people from over 100 countries gathered to discuss the global road safety crisis and how young people can be part of the solution. One of the main wishes of the World Youth Ambassadors was the creation of a global youth-led organization that would lead a global youth movement for road safety. After a full year of planning and preparations under the auspices of the World Health Organization, YOURS was officially launched November 2009 during the opening ceremony of the First Global Ministerial Conference on Road Safety in Moscow, Russia.

READ MORE ABOUT SWEDEN 2020

Young people from across the UK are using their personal experiences of road safety to change people’s behaviour. Fifty 16-25 year olds have worked with Fixers, the charity giving young people a voice, to create films, posters, air fresheners and beer mats.These resources, created in partnership with the Road Safety Trust, have been housed in a unique digital space for professionals, parents and young people.

The projects cover topics ranging from drink driving to cyclist awareness; distractions in the car to learning how to drive.

Jay Connor’s One Pint Worth a Life? film addresses the life-long consequences of driving under the influence, while Cassy Del Busso’s Don’t Dial and Drive video emphasises the devastating effect using a phone behind the wheel can have on drivers and their families.

Lucinda Larnach’s Personal MOT, is about to start driving. She has developed a personal M.O.T acronym for drivers to follow before taking to the roads, to ensure they are in an appropriate mind-set to operate a vehicle.

Her M.O.T stands for ‘Mind-set’, ‘Obstructions’, and ‘Tell Someone’, highlighting the importance of checking your own physical and mental state, as well as being aware of the actions of other drivers and communicating your intentions with friends and family.

Print resources include the One Second, One Life air-freshener created by Ferhaz Alam, made to encourage motorists to consider their speed, and the Don’t be a C@?k beer mats designed by Jessica Burris to be an explicit reminder not to drink and drive.

While the resources have been made by young people, they are aimed at everyone who shares the roads to try and bring about positive change in these issue areas.

Ann Havline, Director of Product Development for a2om international and writer for Drive IQ DriverMetrics said of the site: ‘These young people have first hand knowledge of how bad speed choice, social responsibility or just inexperience can have dire consequences.’

VISIT THE FIXERS ROAD SAFETY MICROSITE

Company Name: FedEx
Title: Reaching 17 million kids, improving infrastructure, and helping a global alliance: A FedEx Road Safety Story
Video Description: Road traffic crashes take 1.35 million lives annually, and injure as many as 50 million people worldwide every year.

If you had more than 170,000 vehicles on the world’s roads, caring about road safety would be top-of-mind. Well…FedEx does, and FedEx cares. Internal investments in road safety range from training drivers to maintaining vehicles. Externally we come alongside road safety NGOs and invest resources to help keep other road users safe.

This video shares our story about reaching more than 17 million kids around the world with lifesaving road safety education and training, improving road infrastructure around schools, and increasing the capacity of road safety nonprofit organizations in 90 countries.

From enabling our drivers around the world to visit schools in a FedEx truck to teach kids about blind spots, to facilitating the development of a tool that will lead to infrastructure improvements for schools worldwide, to helping people in a village in Botswana feel safer, you will be encouraged to see FedEx reaching way beyond the borders of our company to help make communities safer.

This video demonstrates how we strategically align our CSR programs with our corporate values, resources and expertise to help communities worldwide

FedEx truly believes in supporting communities and we are proud to have worked with them with the Alliance Advocates programme and a range of workshops delivered together. We ask you to vote for this company’s great CSR work!

VOTE FOR FEDEX

READ ABOUT OUR WORK WITH FEDEX

MY BROTHERS AND SISTERS – By Joel Njoroge

It is painful.
Writing these words of apology,
Making these late wishes,
I failed to help you survive.
For not being there to rescue you,
At least to have you;
Read these snaking phrases;
Nor can you see our tears.
Because you are far gone,
Earlier than your
And our wishes wished.

This letter goes to the millions,
Global sisters and brothers,
Thousands countrymen and women,
Suspended from us by this menace;
Of daily road traffic crashes
I mourn your absence
While trying to keep pledge
To protect your descendants;
Campaigning against loss of lives,
Through road traffic crashes

Today I am an advocate,
A preacher and a teacher;
Of safety messages;
Do not speed,
Speeding killed my brother.
Do not drink and drive,
It killed my sister and her in-laws.
Always wear a helmet,
Its non-use killed my cousin.
It prevents most head injuries,
And saves more lives,
But negligence has killed many.

I send this sorrowful message,
A tribute to your failed journey;
You left home but never made it back,
For road traffic crashes had taken you.
Our families and country mourns you,
For you can never be replaced.
Your presence always remain praised,
And to your honour and respect,
I pledge to take a duty;
Campaigning for road safety.

Inspired by the new Netflix thriller, Bird Box, people film themselves completing everyday tasks blindfolded – sometimes for 24 hours – without much success. So much so that Netflix issued a warning.