Coalition Round-Up: Our first 6 months!
The Global Youth Coalition was created as a direct action after the 2nd World Youth Assembly after the 160 youth delegates from 74 different countries expressed their interest to join a group where young road safety leaders could connect and work on road safety and sustainable mobility together.
Presently, the Coalition has almost 300 members from all over the world. We are looking back at highlights we shared with members, global organizations, partners, and everyone else who has been involved with our activities!
Launch of the Global Youth Coalition
The Coalition was officially launched on July 7 this year. Members of the youth advisory board – Alex Ayub, Jacob Smith, Maolin Macatangay, and Olivia Nalwadda – talked about what the Coalition will bring for young leaders who want to make a difference in the field of road safety and sustainable mobility.
Leaders from YOURS – Youth for Road Safety – Floor Lieshout, Manpreet Darroch, and Raquel Barrios – expressed the importance of young people in the road safety movement, emphasizing the need to have more young people at the decision-making table.
During the launch, road safety leaders like WHO Director for Social Determinants of Health Dr. Etienne Krug, Restless Development CEO Perry Maddox, and Head of Policy for the Commonwealth Youth Program Layne Robinson showed messages of support for the new organization.
Global NGO Alliance Live Session: Youth, Leadership, and Issues that Matter
On June 23, members of the Coalition’s advisory board – Jacob Smith and Ritu Jain – join the Global Alliance of NGOs for Road Safety in a live session where young leaders from different sectors discussed how NGOs can engage and involve young people more meaningfully in their respective organizations.
Ritu and Jacob joined Amalia Buchweitz Garcez - a climate activist from Brazil and Danish Mohammed from Decent Jobs for Youth.
The group talked about youth leadership and how acknowledging young people as key stakeholders will improve the development of the community. The youth leaders also talked about the importance of providing young people with the opportunity to get educated and to serve according to their skills, abilities, and passion.
The session helped provide a platform for young people to express their desire and commitment to help improve the communities they live in whether it’s about road safety, climate action, gender equality, and more.
International Youth Day 2020
During International Youth Day 2020 held earlier this August 14, the Coalition partnered with organizations like Restless Development, Unite 2030, Adolescents 2030, FIA Foundation, and UN75 for a special live session on meaningful youth engagement for global action.
The Coalition was represented by youth advisory board members, Soumita Chakraborty, who joined Dominica Una and Ari Karp from UNITE 2030, Pauline Anyona from the Organization of Africa Youth Kenya, and Abideen Opeyemi Olasupo from Restless Development.
The session asked youth representatives about how global leaders can better work with young people. It also explored the messages young people wanted to share during the 75th UN General Assembly that happened in September.
75TH UN General Assembly
To mark the United Nation’s 75th anniversary, the United Nations launched the UN75 Dialogues – the biggest global conversation that helped amplify the voices of people in communities, schools, cities, boardrooms, and parliaments across countries and generations.
The information gathered was used to identify the main hindrances toward achieving global goals and determine possible solutions for addressing these problems.
The results of the dialogues were presented to world leaders during the 75h UN General Assembly which was held last September 21.
The Coalition launched a dialogue with its members to identify key road safety issues around some of the global goals, specifically SDG 3: Health, SDG 4: Education, SDG 10: Reduced Inequalities, SDG 11: Sustainable Cities, and SDG 13: Climate Action.
The members were split according to their SDG of interest. Representatives of the youth advisory board led the sessions.
Youth SDG Summit
On September 23, Unite 2030 launched a Youth SDG Summit that aimed to empower young people to continue their work toward achieving the Sustainable Development Goals. The summit ran for two days with the respective themes of “For People” and “For Planet”.
The Coalition joined the first session in the summit with the title Nothing for Us Without Us: Prioritizing Youth in the SDGs. The Coalition was represented by youth advisory board member, Omnia El Omrani who raised awareness on meaningful youth involvement in road safety and sustainable mobility efforts.
“I've seen an increase in youth engagement over the past few months but it is important for the engagement to be meaningful" – Omnia El Omrani.
Road Safety Webinar by the RTMC
The Road Traffic Management Corporation (RMTC) invited the Coalition – represented by youth advisory board member Olivia Nalwadda – to talk about what makes a successful youth coalition in a webinar called Youth and Road Safety: #ClaimYourSpace.
During the session, Olivia talked about how coalitions create good opportunities to engage, connect, and mobilize young people toward a common goal or target. She shared some challenges and struggles that new groups or organizations can face during the beginning of their establishment.
“All it takes is a yes. Say yes to being a part of the road safety movement, say yes to being a stakeholder, say yes to becoming an investor for the global road safety movement, say yes to a world with safer roads and sustainable mobility”. – Olivia Nalwadda
IRF Young Professionals Summit
The International Road Federation partnered with YOURS – Youth for Road Safety and hosted the Young Professionals Summit last September 30. The first session called Youth Coalition for Road Safety: Professional Young Leaders on the Ground featured members of the Coalition.
Youth advisory board member Maolin Macatangay moderated a panel where Coalition members Alison Collard de Beaufort of Vision Zero Youth Council, Bashiru Mansaray of OS Corp., and Tumwine Hosea of the Resilient Women’s Organization shared their experiences with young professionals in their organizations.
During the panel discussion, it became clear that road safety and sustainable mobility is not limited to transportation but also applies to other areas like employment. Bashiru and Tumwine shared how unpaved and unsafe roads limit people’s access to basic needs like food, medicine, education, work, and more. People who live in villages are cut off from the city because traveling is dangerous and transportation is limited.
Commonwealth Youth Action Series
The Commonwealth Action Series raises awareness on issues that affect the nations of the Commonwealth. Its fourth episode entitled Youth Development: Inclusive, Equitable, and Accessible Opportunities featured a sub-session on fighting the biggest killer of youth in the Commonwealth – road crashes. The session was streamed on October 27.
The Coalition was represented by advisory board members Alex Ayub, Grace Willems, and Olivia Nalwadda and Coalition Members Simon Patrick Obi and Nkumbuye Ami. The speakers included Professor Agnes Binagwaho, PhD., M.D. – Vice-Chancellor of the University of Global Health Equity, Jessica Truong – Vice President of Programs and Asia Pacific Region of Toward Zero Foundation, and Raquel Barrios – Project Manager of YOURS – Youth for Road Safety.
The youth panel brought up issues on road safety and sustainable mobility in their respective counties. Olivia talked about how commute is dangerous for both youth and elderly in Uganda saying that “we are seeing children die on their way to school and elderly feeling unsafe to walk in the evenings” and emphasized that “everyone feels unsafe on our roads”.
