United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres recently released Resolution A/76/348: Improving Global Road Safety. The report highlights and acknowledges activities carried out in support of the new Decade of Action’s target of reducing road traffic deaths and injuries by 2030. The report was prepared by the World Health Organization (WHO) in consultation with the United Nations.
Road safety report
The report on improving road safety provides a global overview of the progress made toward achieving the objectives in the new Decade of Action for Road Safety. The activities presented in the report include the development of the Global Plan of Action to assist countries in the development of their own plans, advocacy activities to sustain political will throughout the Decade, and support for implementation efforts.
The report also provides information on the avenues to monitor progress on achieving the Decade’s objectives and a list of recommendations for the review and consideration of the General Assembly.
YOURS – Youth for Road Safety is among the organizations acknowledged in the report because of its activities centered around empowering youth.
Our road safety efforts: Youth for Road Safety
The efforts of YOURS – Youth for Road Safety were among the programs hailed that helped improve road safety around the world. The report listed three key activities; the Youth Stars Programme, the Global Youth Coalition for Road Safety, and the Movin’ On Summit.
The Youth Stars Programme is an initiative by YOURS and iRAP – International Road Assessment Programme that seeks to equip young leaders in Belize, Colombia, Kenya, the United States, and Vietnam with the tools and knowledge to conduct star rating assessments of the roads around schools and universities through the Star Rating for Schools application. The young leaders from the initial run of the Youth Star Programme have become Master Trainers and have passed the knowledge to assess roads to the members of the Coalition.
The report also gives a special mention to the Global Youth Coalition for Road Safety, one of the projects of YOURS. The Coalition is unites young people from around the world to address road safety and mobility issues in their different countries and regions. Currently, the Coalition has engaged with over a thousand young leaders and boasts nearly 700 members from over a hundred countries. It provides its members with the resources, skills, knowledge, platform, and everything else they need to maximize the impact of their road safety projects and initiatives.
The report also mentions the Commonwealth Youth Development Index which includes a chapter on the importance of road safety – something added for the very first time in the Index.
Finally, the report lauds the Movin’ On summit where YOURS was one of the organizations that helped launch a new community of interest on safe and healthy streets that provide practical guidance to local authorities.
Read the rest of the report below.