News & Blog
The theme for International Youth Day 2018 is Safe Spaces for Youth
Youth need safe spaces where they can come together, engage in activities related to their diverse needs and interests, participate in decision making processes and freely express themselves. While there are many types of spaces, safe spaces ensure the dignity and safety of youth. Safe spaces such as civic spaces enable youth to engage in governance issues; public spaces afford youth the opportunity to participate in sports and other leisure activities in the community; digital spaces help youth interact virtually across borders with everyone; and well planned physical spaces can help accommodate the needs of diverse youth especially those vulnerable to marginalization or violence. In addition, we at YOURS believe that safe spaces should include a safe journey to those safe places.
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Distracted driving, everyone hates it but many people do it - new study
Insurance company Esurance has a new study out on distracted driving in the USA, and it makes for interesting reading. Almost everyone agrees distracted driving is bad, yet it's still remarkably prevalent. Even drivers who report rarely driving distracted also report that they engage in distracting behaviors. The study also raises some questions about the growing complexity of modern vehicles, particularly the user interfaces they confront us with.
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The safe system approach: an example in action in São Paulo Brazil
Each year, around 38,000 people die from traffic-related crashes in Brazil. Most of the victims are pedestrians, cyclists and motorcyclists. The staggering number is a direct result of the lack of road safety precautions in Brazilian cities, which are growing quickly both in size and population but also the number of vehicles on the road. Recognizing this as a serious problem, two of Brazil’s largest cities, São Paulo and Fortaleza – home to 12.1 and 2.6 million people, respectively – have become the first to adopt new road safety policies and protocols. To save lives, these cities are turning to what’s called a “ Safe System ” approach.
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Reporting from Leipzig - International Transport Forum session summary
The 2018 Summit on “Transport Safety and Security” is addressing issues ranging from terrorism and cyber-security to road safety and extreme weather disruption, including the risks and benefits of automated driving. Safety and security are core concerns for transport. A transport system that is safe and secure enables passengers to travel without fear and allows businesses to ship goods reliably and efficiently. Enhancing transport safety and security is also an essential element in the implementation of two major international agreements, the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the Paris Climate Agreement.
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Brian's Column: Traffic cops being killed on the road should be a concern
Our regular columnist and Anglophone Africa CORE Group Representative Brian Bilal Mwebaze is back with another feature on road safety happenings in Africa. This time he focuses on crashes in Africa with traffic cops and the wider need for road safety to be translated to the local level.
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We will be live from Leipzig, Germany for the International Transport Summit
The 2018 Summit on “Transport Safety and Security” will address issues ranging from terrorism and cyber-security to road safety and extreme weather disruption, including the risks and benefits of automated driving. Safety and security are core concerns for transport. A transport system that is safe and secure enables passengers to travel without fear and allows businesses to ship goods reliably and efficiently. Enhancing transport safety and security is also an essential element in the implementation of two major international agreements, the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the Paris Climate Agreement.
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Read about our ground breaking multi-award winning workshops!
We use our years of expertise in workshop delivery to develop the capacities of young people in the field of road safety. With global experiences from Belize, Cambodia, Kenya, Niger, Oman, Saint Lucia, South Africa and the USA, YOURS is able to provide youth-friendly, highly interactive and dynamic workshops for young people. These workshops have big impact on the lives of young people are create robust youth action to reduce road traffic crashes amongst 15-29 year olds.
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"Heroes drive in pajamas" - youth campaign wins Golden Award in Solvenia
We recently featured the campaign, "Heroes drive in pajamas", a campaign targeting young drivers in Solvenia. The campaign focuses on encouraging young people to be picked up from nights out, even if their parents are in pajamas. The innovative campaign shared the responsibiity of young people getting home safely, focused primarily on youth who have been drinking or are under the influence of other substances.
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New UN Resolution: Improving Global Road Safety specifically mentions youth
Stressing that road traffic deaths and injuries remained a major public health and development problem with broad social and economic consequences, the United Nations General Assembly adopted a draft resolution titled “Improving global road safety”, cautioning that, if left unaddressed, the current situation could affect progress towards the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals. The Assembly also recognized the economic toll such deaths had on developing countries, with costs for some countries adding up to 5 per cent of their gross domestic product (GDP) per year, making the reduction of road traffic deaths and injuries both an economic and a social priority.
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Brian's Column: The voices of youth and survivors at African symposium
Did you think we had all unanimously retired from bringing you the voices of youth and road safety from Africa? Probably…but no. There has been a lot going on! You may have read about our successful participation in delivering of the Alliance Advocates African region training in Nairobi, Kenya but you haven’t read about the East African Injury Symposium that took place in Kampala, Uganda yet right? Our Anglophone Africa Region Coordinator Brian Mwebaze Kanaahe, as always brings us to speed on what took place.
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25th meeting of the United Nations Road Safety Collaboration this week in NYC
The United Nations Road Safety Collaboration is an informal consultative mechanism whose members are committed to road safety efforts and in particular to the implementation of the recommendations of the World report on road traffic injury prevention . The goal of the Collaboration is to facilitate international cooperation and to strengthen global and regional coordination among UN agencies and other international partners to implement UN General Assembly resolutions and the recommendations of the world report thereby supporting country programmes.
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What does another year of action look like at YOURS? Annual Report 2017
It has been a decade since the UN World Youth Assembly for Road Safety, which marked the first UN Global Road Safety Week in May 2007. Back then, road traffic crashes were proclaimed to be the number one health concern to young people globally, with over 1000 young lives lost on our road daily. Ten years later, the reality remains and in some places, road traffic crashes have increased. The youth of the world continue to pay the highest price for mobility and it is clear that there are gaps in the road safety system. That is why we are ramping up new efforts to include youth.
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Want to get started in road safety? Use our resources to get you going
Youth and road safety issues are a specialized area of focus but like many social action campaigns, road safety requires a good knowledge base to get started. From statistics to evidence, we host a lot of information about youth and road safety issues on our website that can give you the lowdown on nearly everything you need to know to get started in the field. Feel passionate about road safety but don't know where to start? We have lots of resources on our website that can give you the helping hand to get going. Check out some of our features below.
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Read about our delivery of the First Alliance Advocates African Region Training
Last month, we worked with the Global Alliance of Road Safety NGOs to deliver the first African Region Training in Nairobi, Kenya. The training brought together 20 NGO leaders from across 13 African countries and were trained in a range of advocacy skills with a particular focus on safe school zones. We joined the training as lead facilitators delivering a facilitative workshop alongside iRAP, the World Health Organization and the Global Alliance. The Alliance created the 'Alliance Empowerment Program', an overarching program that has the aim to work with NGO leaders to improve their effectiveness and impact.
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Reporting from Bonn - Child Health Initiative calls for SDG Action @ SDG Festival
The Child Health Initiative (CHI) has played a prominent role in the Global Festival of Action for Sustainable Development, issuing a strong call for safe and healthy journeys to school for every child worldwide. The global festival, held in Bonn from 21-23 March, is the main event set up by the UN Sustainable Development Goals Action Campaign aimed to help drive progress towards the global goals.
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If you love somebody tell them to 'Buckle Up' a new positive ad from USA
Zero Fatalities is a campaign in the USA that is transforming the narrative around saying 'I love you'... tell that loved one to 'Buckle Up'. A tongue-in-cheek, funny take on shifting language around road safety, this new public service announcement (PSA) tells parents, children, teens and adults alike that telling someone to buckle up is the equivalent of telling them you love them. What better way to promote road safety positively?
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Alliance Advocates African region successfully delivered in Nairobi, Kenya
From 12-16th March 2018, we were in Nairobi, Kenya to co-deliver the first Alliance Advocates regional programme for the African region. The training brought together 20 NGO leaders from across Africa to be trained in advocacy and a particular focus on safe school zones across the region. Having some of the highest rates of road crashes across the world, the African region sees a large proportion of the world's road deaths. This training equipped NGO leaders to gain new skills in assessing schools zones using the new iRAP Safe Routes to School app, which helps road safety campaigners identify high-risk roads and advocate for improvement to a minimum 3* star road.
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Letting Teens Live - drawing paralells between gun control and road safety in USA
On the Saturday night of their high school’s homecoming weekend in 2009, four teenagers were driving together in Coral Springs, Fla., when their Volkswagen jumped off the road and plunged into a canal. A 15-year-old in the car escaped. Three 16-year-olds — Anthony Almonte, Sean Maxey and Robert Nugent — drowned .
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See our new infographic - a spotlight on youth statistics in road safety
There is so much data out there on a range of risk factors, death rates and influencing variables when it comes to road safety. From the difference between low and middle-income countries to high-income countries, regional differences to modes of transport. All of this data can be quite confusing, especially for data on youth. That's why we have done the work to segment data from the global statistics and draw a spotlight on youth statistics on death rates facing 15-29-year-olds . We have put the information together in a range of interactive graphs and maps so as you can get a clearer picture of how road traffic crashes affect young people.
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YOURS set to deliver Alliance Advocates Africa in March with Global Alliance
As part of our ongoing partnership with the Global Alliance of NGOs for Road Safety, we have been gearing up to deliver the next Alliance Advocates Training. After successfully delivering two high impact trainings for the Alliance in 2016 and 2017 in Memphis, Tenessee, USA, the Alliance has begun the process of taking the global training to a regional level. A set of regional trainings are being delivered in 2018 with first being an African Regional focus in March. We have been working with the Alliance to plan and design the training curriculum, which we will deliver in Nairobi, Kenya.
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