Manila, Philippines – This week, 11-13 October, our members Ray Adrian Macalalag and Maolin Macatangay joined the Asia Development Bank’s Dialogue for Powered-Two-Wheeled Vehicles to advocate for meaningful youth participation to help address road safety issues for road users, particularly those who use motorcycles, e-bikes, and other two-wheeled vehicles.
Ray and Mao were the only youth delegation during the event, championing the youth agenda and the importance and necessity of meaningful youth participation. On the first day, Ray and Mao joined the opening session to talk about youth actions in road safety supported by YOURS – Youth for Road Safety and the Global Youth Coalition for Road Safety.
“At the center of the Youth Coalition are youth leadership structures where young people around the world function as the engine. We have a youth leadership board that oversees the activities, initiatives, and projects of the Youth Coalition making sure it aligns with the youth and road safety agenda.” – Ray Adrian Macalalag.
During the opening session, Ray and Mao joined global road safety leaders including Nhan Tran from the World Health Organization, Nikorn Chamnong from the Asia-Pacific Regional Network for Road Safety Legislators, Dave Shelton from the Asia Development Bank, and Patrick Osewe also from the Asia Development Bank.
Apart from different sessions that discussed different elements of road safety connected to powered-two-wheeled vehicles, the event also included a series of dialogues where all the delegates had a chance to speak about issues from tactical urbanism to the integration of diverse voices in road safety planning.
The second day of the event saw Mao and Ray leading a dialogue on the barriers that hinder diverse voices from being considered in road safety planning, especially around two-vehicle safety.
The third day of the event covered the APRSO Annual Meeting for the Asia Pacific Region to talk about implementing the Global Plan to achieve the targets listed in the Decade of Action for 2021-2030.
Throughout the event, Ray and Mao also shared our Advocacy tools, which include our Policymakers’ Toolkit, SDG 4 Policy Brief, and SDG 5 Policy Brief to engage and connect with ministers, policymakers, ministers, and other stakeholders.