As we wished a warm goodbye to 2014 and ushered in 2015, we look ahead to the new year bringing with it renewed resolve to make following 12 months successful for our global mission of safer roads the world over. There are some massive plans here at YOURS for 2015 as we continue with our role to make the world’s roads safer for young people. We reflect on 2014 and look ahead to a productive and safe 2015.
Since we officially launched in late 2009, we have been connecting young people all around to build a strong community of road safety ambassadors all around the world. Now approaching our fifth year of operation, YOURS continues to embed youth and road safety efforts in communities across the world and 2015 is set to be another groundbreaking year for the cause.
There were lots of great activities last year in 2014 and we feature some of the key activities here as we reflect on a year of continued road safety action:
New CORE Group 2014-2016
A full CORE Group representing every single region of the world at the start of the year. This means that we now have representation on every part of the world bringing us closer to young people on the ground as well as illustrating that young people all around the world care about road safety and are taking action! They continue their work in 2015. Meet the CORE Group.
YOURS involvement in Youth Post-2015 Development Agenda
We took a big role in bringing road safety to the forefront of consultations for the youth elements of the Post-2015 Develoment Agenda including consultations at the World Conference on Youth in Sri Lanka, the online GPY2015 crowsdourcing platform, writing my UN envoys as well as attending the ECOSOC Forum in New York. We continue our input into 2015 as the ageda is finalised. Read more.
YOURS joined SloCaT Partnership
We are very happy to announce that we have officially joined Partnership on Sustainable Low Carbon Transport (SLoCaT), a multi-stakeholder partnership of over 80 organizations (representing UN organizations, Multilateral and Bilateral development organizations, NGOs and Foundations, Academe and the Business Sector). SLoCaT promotes the integration on sustainable transport in global policies on sustainable development and climate change. Read more.
Training of Facilitators Belize
We successfully completed the first stage of the Training of Facilitators in Collaboration with the Caribbean Development Bank, Government of Belize and Belize Road Safety Initiative. The training took place in Belmopan, Belize and concluded on the 27th June 2014. 19 youth leaders were equipped with the skills, knowledge and ignited passion to reach more than 2000 young people through road safety workshops across Belize. YOURS will conduct phase 2 of the training in 2015. Read more.
WHO Road Safety PSA Project
YOURS was recently involved in a project to assist the World Health Organization in identifying public service announcements (PSAs) for road safety. The finished result is a searchable online database of effective road safety PSAs from around the world illustrating impactful road safety campaigns. Read more.
Brian’s Column
In 2014, we published a Brian’s column every single month with news, opportunities and discussion points from the world of African youth and road safety through the eyes of Brian Mwebaze. His columns are a popular feature that raise some pertinent questions on the role of African youth in terms of road safety development. Read more.
As we look ahead to 2015, we continue our focus on the #SaveKidsLives campaign for the third UN Road Safety Week. We encourage you to log on and take part here by reading and signing the declaration and taking a #Safie.
We also continue our work in Capacity Development as we plan for further trainings of facilitators workshops for the new year. We will keep you posted on the process of finalising the Post-2015 Development Agenda as it reaches its climax this year.
