The Second African Road Safety Conference takes place today (9-11 November 2011) in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. YOURS is very happy to see the attendance of Mr Aliou Oumarou (Coordinator of the French Speaking African Countries) as well as Mr Brian Mwebaze from Uganda attending. They bring their youth experience in road safety to the conference which will bring a much needed attention to youth and road safety issues to an African decision making delegation.
Mr Brian Kanaahe Mwebaze Bilal reports:
Following on from the 2007 Conference where the Accra Declaration committed African ministers to work together to stop the growing epidemic of deaths and injuries on African roads, a second conference has been organized jointly by ECA, SSATP and the Government of Ethiopia, IRF, in collaboration with, AUC, AfDB and the World Bank and will take place from 9th-11th November 2011 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. It is expected to bring together around 200 participants composed of officials from ministries responsible for road safety; representatives of RECs, Research institutions, NGOs as well as private sector who are involved in road safety activities.
As you might be aware, when YOURS enabled me and other participants to the first African Youth Assembly on road safety in Niamey, Niger,October 2011, among the outcomes was the formation of ‘African Youth Network on Road Safety’. This would work as an umbrella of youth organisations in Africa that work in road safety. While we recommended, participants to make sure they are on the national road safety working groups of their respective countries, we wanted this network to also provide a better platform for road safety advocacy in Africa.
When I heard about the conference, especially that there would be each african country’s decision makers, I talked to the organiser Mr Bekele of United Nations Economic Commission to Africa. He was impressed with the whole idea and told me ‘We most definately have been scratching ourselves on how we can work with youths’. So, bottomline, he accepted me in.
We (Youths) have been given a slot in the Plenary 2 to present/ some talks on mainstreaming road safety in Africa. I l will also look
forward to consolidate and contribute to the Decade Plan of Action, and will make possible discussion between NGOs & relevant Road Safety stakeholders on different topics from all over Africa concerning experiences, policies and programs on Road Safety.
- Examine and validate the African road safety action plan 2011-2020 which will serve as guiding document for the implementation of the Decade;
- Propose and validate a Resources mobilization strategy and a follow up mechanism.
The agenda of the conference can be found in the attachments and a report from Mr Mwebaze along with pictures can be expected soon.