It is with great pleasure that YOURS reports back on the First Regional Youth Assembly for Road Safety in the Middle-East. The Assembly was hosted by Oman and organized by the Omani Youth Ambassadors for Road Safety with the support and oversight of YOURS-Youth for Road Safety and the Global Road Safety Partnership with the Middle East and North Africa Road Safety Partnership (MENARSP). Under the theme ‘Connectivity and Moving Forward’.
The three-day assembly was a great success and endorsed the empowerment of youth in the region. 36 Young people from 24 countries gathered in Muscat to talk about youth and road safety issues in their region.
The main outcomes of the Assembly were that the participants:
- learnt how to advocate for Youth and Road Safety issues
- shared their road safety knowledge and experiences from other countries
- acknowledged the importance of capacity development and identified their current skills and capacities and how they can be improved
- listened and worked on research methods for their road safety projects
- agreed to form a regional network that will feed into the global youth network of YOURS
- adopted the Muscat Youth Declaration for Road Safety, including 11 recommendations
Before the official Assembly started, the participants spent two days in the Wahibi Sands together. Under the guidance of Anthony Lewis, a road safety consultant of the UK Army, the youth were trained on several road safety issues during several workshops. On top of that, working together in the desert as a team, the participants became friends and got to know each other. Different cultures and languages were saw a common goal and united into one team for road safety.
During the Assembly the participants were divided several times into five main groups for discussions and workshops under the lead of YOURS and GRSP facilitators. Among the issues that were highlighted during these sessions were ‘Youth Advocacy for Road Safety´, the importance of ´Networking and Sharing´ and ´Capacity Development´.
The delegates stressed the importance of common solidarity and connectivity with each other. They discussed how one can benefit from the experiences of others in relation to reducing road traffic injuries. The participants emphasised on how communities can contribute together to avoid past mistakes through the modernisation of information and data available, and also via raising awareness among youngsters through modern means such as Facebook, modern media, visual and audio media.
Participants also talked about the importance of having different views from various cultures, and the power of youth and their real power and ability on influencing and inspiring any nation to change. They also discussed the ways to increase awareness and knowledge among youths. They assured that effective communication can be achieved only if it was built on potent schemes for the future.
After five days of hard work, deliberations and networking the Regional Youth Assembly for Road Safety came to an end with an announcement of the 11 recommendations of the assembly and the adoption of the Muscat Youth Declaration on Road Safety. Young delegates from the Asian Co-operation Dialogue (ACD) countries and the Middle East and North Africa region, with the participation of observers from five other countries, strongly recommend the empowerment of youth of in the region.
In order to make road safety a reality, young people must be part of the solution and not only part of the problem. All those who participated in this Assembly are to be given the status of Road Safety Youth Ambassadors.
The assembly resolved that the road safety youth ambassadors of the region will collaborate and unite to reduce human toll resulting from road traffic injuries. They also concluded to work together to formulate programmes to improve and increase advocacy for youth and road safety issues, develop youth capacities and skills to plan effective road safety initiatives and facilitate sharing of knowledge and experience.
The delegates determined that the Regional Youth Road Safety Assembly will meet annually and the Regional Youth Council for Road Safety will work closely with the global youth movement for road safety; YOURS –Youth for Road Safety.
In addition, the Assembly endorsed the Decade of Action for Road Safety 2011-2020. “The Road Safety Youth Ambassadors are to be actively involved in their countries in planning the launch of the Decade on May 11, 2011 and also in implementing initiatives that will contribute to the objectives of the Decade of Action.”
YOURS was proud and humbled to be part of this Regional Youth Assembly for Road Safety in Oman. Floor Lieshout said, “ Together we ensured that this region now has a great starting point for young people that want to be part of the change they want to see in road safety. It is important that all this energy, good intentions and momentum are channelled into one direction that is aligned with the global youth movement for road safety. I think we can conclude that we have succeeded in this.”
Finally YOURS would like to thank all participants and co-organizers for making this assembly a successful one, great things are ahead of us.