We have initiated global road safety campaigns as well as joined campaigns from around the world to promote road safety. It is important that people are aware what evidence-based actions can be taken to prevent road traffic injuries among youth. Read about some of our campaigning efforts below.
The Fourth UN Global Road Safety Week focused on speed management. It promoted the tagline #SlowDown from the perspective of safe road users, safe vehicles and safe roads. Thousands of people pledged to slow down all around the world and thousands more organized #SlowDown Day events. These events set political momentum for slower roads all around the world with a view to permanently slow down roads around schools and in neighbourhoods. These events reached hundreds of thousands of people and set about a global movement to #SlowDown roads all around the world.
The #SaveKidsLives campaign has gathered more than 1 million signatures in support of the Child Declaration for Road Safety calling on decision makers around the world to make road safe for children.
During the Week, hundreds of events were hosted by governments, international agencies, civil society organizations, and private companies, including the delivery of the “Child Declaration for Road Safety” to policy-makers. These events highlight WHO’s package of ten key strategies for keeping children safe on the road. After the week, the campaign continues to generate action around the world throught the 2020 Action Agenda for Road Safety.
The Second UN Global Road Safety Week was held on 6-12 May 2013 and was dedicated to pedestrian safety. The Week drawed attention to the urgent need to better protect pedestrians worldwide and generate action on the measures needed to do so. More than 270,000 pedestrians lose their lives on the world’s roads each year accounting for 22% of the total 1.24 million road traffic deaths. The World Health Organization called on governments to take concrete actions to improve the safety of pedestrians.
Pedestrians are among the most vulnerable road users. Studies indicate that males, both children and adults, make up a high proportion of pedestrian deaths and injuries. In developed countries, older pedestrians are more at risk, while in low-income and middle-income countries, children and young adults are often affected. Both children and adults with disabilities suffer higher rates of injury as pedestrians compared to their non-disabled peers.
2007 marked the first United Nations Global Road Safety Week. The theme for the week was youth and road safety. Each year nearly 400,000 people under 25 die on the world’s roads – on average more than 1000 a day. These statistics make road traffic injuries the leading cause of death worldwide among young people aged 10-24 years.
The first Global Week culminated in an event titled: The World Youth Assembly for Road Safety. The Assembly brought together over 400 young people from more than 100 countries to help tackle this crisis. They adopted the Youth Declaration for Road Safety and were committed to take practical measures to improve road safety and called on adults to play their part as parents and leaders.
The First Caravane for Road Safety took place in countries part of the West African Economic and Monetary Union (UEMOA) and aimed to officially launch the "Decade of Action for Road Safety 2011- 2020" in the UEMOA and to promote youth participation in road safety and preventing road crashes in seven African Member States!
The road safety 'Caravane' travelled through Niger, Benin, Togo, Burkina Faso, Ivory Coast, Mali and Senegal spreading a message of youth and road safety in each country. Our role in the campaign was to manage its online presence, capture what was happening on the ground in each country online. In addition we were involved in kicking off the campaign in Niger and helped the African youth involved with writing the 'African Youth Declaration for Road Safety'. We also trained local youth leaders on how to capture the event both through the eyes of a camera as well as through written blog posts and reporting.
The Caravane claims to have reached over a million young people in Africa. Watch the full video highlight from the Caravane project:
The Embrace Life Campaign was a successful road safety campaign powered and initiated by YOURS. This campaign was all about appreciating life and recognizing that our actions to keep safe on the road has enabled us to live and enjoy life, while many have been taken on the road. The campaign brought together young people from all across the world to unite behind road safety from a unique perspective and raised the profile of YOURS' mission; to make the world's road safer for young people.
The result of our Embrace Life Campaign, a unique photo exhibition that illustrates participation from around the world. Young people have sent in their photos of how and why they embrace life. Check out the photo gallery. Check out the WDR gallery mosaic.
Around a quarter of the 1.3 million people killed on the world´s roads are pedestrians. Many are children. YOURS was involved in the Long Short Walk initiated by the Zenani Mandela Campaign and the Road Safety Fund, which aimed to capture 'short walks' in your community and collect these captures from around the world and combine it into one 'long walk'. The campaign contributed towards the the Sustainable Development Agenda for Road Safety and iniatied public support from the wider road safety community. Our involvement encouraged our global youth network to participate in the campaign with hundreds of young people taking walks through their areas and seeing areas of improvement for safety.
The World Crossing Campaign was our very first global advocacy campaign in 2010. The concept of the campaign was to get youth advocates around the world crossing streets in a creative but safe way. The end product of this campaign was to produce one ´molded video´ that shows young people from around the world taking part in a road safety action. This video raised awareness about road safety as a serious global issue for young people and showing the global youth movement for road safety!
The campaign engaged our global youth network from all around the world, giving them an opportunity to unite behind road safety as a global issue. See the video:
UNICEF Director & Senior Advisor Post-2015 Development Agenda
