On 7th-8th October, YOURS co-hosted the African Youth Assembly for Road Safety in Niamey, Niger. This historic event was the first of its kind and was undertaken with the primise of building regional capacity in the African Region and facilitate concerted effort for youth and road safety throughout Africa. The event was reported to be high with motivation and participants left feeling energized for road safety action.
With a packed agenda and over 25 countries in attendance, The African Youth Assembly for Road Safety 2011 took place in Niger, Niamey on 7-8th October. After a busy two days of information sharing, road safety awareness and the chance for African youth delegates to have their say on all things road safety in Africa, participants left feeling energized and motivated to create real sustainable change in Africa. The event, coordinated by our coordinator of the Region for French speaking countries Mr Aliou Oumarou and supported by one our founding members Michelin.
YOURS co-hosted the event and although our staff could not be there in person, YOURS Director Mr Floor Lieshout presented a video statement to the Assembly calling for delegates to ‘get to know each other and work together’ to challange the massive problem of road safety in Africa. He expressed that ‘This assembly is a great opportunity for road safety action in Africa’ and commented that his expectations for the assembly were very high and he was not surprised how well it went. The video statement is available to view on the right.
After each delegate introduced their work and organization, information sharing and the technical aspects of the forum began. Many organizations presented best practise for effective road safety work in Africa. With the development of a common action in Africa, members of the Assembly left with tangible goals and aims aswell as a wealth of new information and ideas for road safety action.
Although an official report is due to be published very soon, YOURS can report that delegates felt that the event was incredibly worthwhile and much neeeded. The agenda was well constructed giving delegates not only an open platform on which to air their nation’s own road safety situation and challenges but also offered the chance for collective problem solving for Africa as a whole.
For YOURS, this event is an enormous milestone with the planning of the African Youth Assembly in the pipeline for several years. We congratulate the tiresome work of Mr Aliou Oumarou and his team at ONG Fond Ma Bori. Coordinator of the Global Youth Network for Road Safety Mr Manpreet Darroch said, ‘Without the professional coordination and dedication of Mr Aliou and his team, this assembly would not have been the success that it was, this is a great time for Africa’s youth to make real change in their nations and not only bring extra attention to road safety in this region but also save a multitude of young lives’.
A full report will be published in due course.