“Acutely ill and injured people seek care for medical, surgical, and obstetric emergencies including road traffic injuries,” writes the United Nations Road Safety Collaboration (UNRSC). Earlier this month, the World Health Organization (WHO) launched “Advocating for Emergency Care” – a guide for non-governmental organizations that define their roles in emergency care.

WHO has published information about the guide. We published them here; 

The guide was developed collaboratively by WHO, including the WHO Global Alliance for Care of the Injured and the Global Alliance of NGOs for Road Safety. It offers step-by-step actions for more effective and impactful advocacy efforts for people who need emergency care, including those injured in road traffic crashes.

The guide primarily targets non-governmental organizations that operate with limited resources. It will support NGOs in their efforts to improve timely care for people with road traffic injuries and other medical emergencies while also offering ideas for the types of initiatives NGOs might conduct with a series of global case studies set in the context of road traffic injuries. 

“Individuals and families affected by injuries and other health emergencies have a range of physical, psychological, and legal needs. In this volume, we focus on advocacy for the time-sensitive health care that we can save millions of lives every year.”

Emergency care is an essential part of the health system and serves as the first point of contact for many who are injured, including in road crashes around the world. However, in some regions and contexts, timely emergency care is not consistently available or may be expensive. 

NGOs can effectively advocate for improved emergency care services in several contexts. They can promote improvements at the local level, such as improved care in the emergency department or operating theatre at the local hospital. They can also effect change at the national level, such as advocating for the passage of legislation on universal access numbers, free emergency care, or bystander protection laws.

MORE ABOUT THE ADVOCACY FOR EMERGENCY CARE GUIDE

YOURS Capacity Development Manager and Youth Coalition Youth Local Actions winner Dilshod Kholmatov joined the “Outspoken Cyclist Podcast” on Tuesday, March 7. Hosted and produced by Diane Jenks, the podcast is one of the longest-running and most popular bicycling podcasts in the field. Its topics range from advocacy and legislation to competition and other topics related to cycling. Daniela and Dilshod were joined by Carolyne Whelan, the Editor-In-Chief of Adventure Cyclist Magazine.

During the discussion, Daniela and Deepanshu talked about the work YOURS – Youth for Road Safety and the Global Youth Coalition for Road Safety are doing to educate and empower youth to address road safety issues worldwide. 

They began by sharing the stories of how they got involved with the Global Youth Coalition, citing the 2nd World Youth Assembly for Road Safety that happened in Stockholm, Sweden on February 2020. Dilshod shared; “Our colleague Haidarsho (Makulshoev) won the (Impact Generator Challenge) grant – that’s where our journey started. He was familiar with YOURS and he told me about it. I was interested and became a member of the Global Youth Coalition for Road Safety where submitted my own (Local Actions) proposal for walking and cycling.” 

Both also talked about the work they’re doing in their communities to further road safety and meaningful youth engagement. They talked about their partnerships with decision-makers, also giving examples of the challenges that they sometimes face

“Well, there are many challenges. One is making decision-makers see us [youth] as legitimate counterparts. They are always saying we don’t have enough experience and they underestimate our skills. It can be hard to get their attention. That’s why we have the Policymakers’ Toolkit to help policymakers understand the different mechanisms on how to interact and allow participation from young people,” – Laura Daniela Gomez.

Focusing on the work they are currently doing, Dilshod spoke about how he and his team and Dushanbe have engaged with decision-makers at the city level to get them more involved in addressing the road safety needs of cyclists in the area. They are also working to improve road infrastructure so that it caters to the needs of pedestrians, cyclists, and other vulnerable road users. 

“Cars are the king of the road in Dushanbe and this is a struggle. There are always victims and when you show these losses to decision-makers, they usually would like to be part of the project; they’d like to help and be involved,” Dilshod shared. 

Daniela spoke about the different services the Youth Coalitions provide to support young people in their road safety work. She talked about the Capacity Development opportunities, the Local Actions projects, and YOURS Academy. She ended her intervention by inviting the listeners to go to the Youth Coalition website to get involved and to go to YOURS Academy to improve their road safety knowledge.

LISTEN TO THE FULL PODCAST HERE

We join the rest of the world in commemorating this year’s International Women’s Day. Today, we are reminded of the many girls and women whose lives and dreams have been failed and shattered by the world’s unsafe roads and discriminative mobility systems. They deserved and continue to deserve better.

We also celebrate the girls and women on the frontlines, the young advocates taking bold actions to create a more equal and just world. Today is not just another public holiday. No! It is an opportunity to extend our love and support to the women and girls in our lives and bolster our commitment to influencing policy change on safe, sustainable, and gender-responsive transport systems and urban planning.

Why Road Safety Equality?
According to UN Women, one of the leading hindrances to achieving global gender equality is the lack of equitable access to safe and secure mobility for women and girls. 

Road safety NGOs from around the world have come together in El Salvador for the Eighth Global Meeting of Non-Governmental Organizations Advocating for Road Safety and Road Victims. Lotte Brondum, Executive Director of the Global Alliance of NGOs for Road Safety says, “It is the role of governments to keep its people safe. Road safety NGO’s role in building governments to account for safe roads.” The event takes place from the 6th to the 10th of March 2023.

This year’s Global Meeting theme is “Rethink Road Safety: Mobility for People and Planet”. It is hosted by the Global Alliance of NGOs for Road Safety with the International Road Assessment Programme (iRAP) and is co-hosted by the Vice Ministry of Transport of El Salvador and the World Health Organization. The meeting will be a hybrid event, with member organizations able to attend live and online.

The event will feature different opportunities for capacity building. It will allow different road safety organizations to network and participate in high-level symposiums and multi-lateral discussions. The iRAP shares that “the interconnections between road safety, safe mobility, and other key global challenges addressed by the SDGs will be explored, with a focus on accountability for the Decade of Action for Road Safety 2021-2030.”

The first day of the Meeting saw the Global Alliance of NGOs for Road Safety Latin America Chapter coming together to discuss strategies on how to continue to foster the development of a unified regional voice and vision to reduce road traffic deaths and injuries. Other Chapters also came together to discuss the relevant regional issues.

The second day will allow participants to take part in different road safety workshops. The topics include; creating an environment to enable NGOs, bridging knowledge and action for road safety, a modal shift in transportation and mobility, capacity building clinics, mandatory insurance, #Love30 for people and planet, victim-centered post-crash intervention, safe and affordable helmets, and financing road safety.

The succeeding days will be filled with sessions by different road safety experts where they will tackle evidence-based road safety solutions, the Sustainable Development Goals, the UN Global Road Safety Week, the Alliance Accountability Toolkit, and more. 

“The Global Meeting is the primary NGO-led road safety and safe mobility gathering globally. This is where we mobilize together shoulder-to-shoulder with the global road safety community to trigger stronger action to reduce road deaths by 50% by 2030 and call for action to guarantee that every person has the right to safe, affordable, accessible, and sustainable mobility,” – Global Alliance of NGOs for Road Safety

Online registration for the Meeting is open. 

REGISTER FOR THE MEETING HERE

Last week, March 3, YOURS – Youth for Road Safety Executive Director Floor Lieshout joined the UN Road Safety Fund (UNRSF) Virtual Open Day as a moderator for one of its sessions which featured Mozambique Ministry of Transport Vice Minister Amilton Alissone, Assistant Secretary General of the Organization of African, Caribbean, and Pacific States Dr. Ibrahim Richard, Kenya Director of Road Transport Martin Eshiwani, and WHO Bangladesh Representative Dr. Watin Alam, among others.

The speakers talked about their experiences with the UNRSF and shared how it, along with UN partners like the UN-Habitat, supported the road safety master plan of countries within Africa and Asia.

Elana Sentieri, Urban Resilience and Development Specialist of the UN-Habitat Mozambique, said, “global partnerships such as the one of UNRSF are crucial. As UN-Habitat Mozambique, it allowed us to improve road conception and usage as well as advocacy for road safety policies at national and local levels, focusing on vulnerable road users such as children, pedestrians, and cyclists.” 

Different updates were shared following the successful partnership of the UN partners and national government units. Some of the developments reported include; positive behavior changes in road safety, more opportunities for national and local governments to strengthen road safety efforts, and increased knowledge and expertise on inclusive safer street design among road safety organizations, associations, and government agencies.

The UN Road Safety Fund will host its first-ever virtual open day this Friday, March 3. The event will invite stakeholders to participate in a knowledge forum with the UNRSF’s leading partners to talk about the support provided for governments in their efforts to tackle priority road safety needs for the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The forum runs from 10 AM to 5 PM CET. 

Among the topics to be discussed in the forum are the efforts the UNRSF and its partners are making to support low-and-middle-income countries to take priority action to ensure safer roads. It will also explore the global project impact and financing innovations currently achieved to deliver road safety commitments in support of the 2030 Agenda. 

The event will be launched through the opening remarks of the UN Secretary General’s Special Envoy for Road Safety, Jean Todt. YOURS – Youth for Road Safety Executive Director Floor Lieshout will moderate the event for the morning session. Government officials and UN partners from Mozambique, West Africa, Bangladesh, and Brazil will participate in the session.

The afternoon session will be moderated by the Deputy Secretary of the UN Economic Commission for Europe Dmitry Mariyasin and feature corporate and country donors of the UNRSF.