INVOLVE US! SDG Champion calls on leaders to partner with youth

Photo from Global Alliance of NGOs for Road Safety

Our SDG Champion, Soumita Chakraborty, called on leaders and other stakeholders to involve young people in the implementation of the Global Plan during a live session about the new Decade of Action for Road Safety 2021 - 2030 last 18 May at Leipzig, Germany. The session was led by our friends from the Global Alliance of NGOs for Road Safety, Global Road Safety Partnership, and Johns Hopkins.

The event featured different leaders and representatives from the road safety and sustainable mobility sector. Each speaker emphasized the challenges that would come with implementing the Global Plan while raising the importance of each sector’s role in changing the system.

Jessica Truong from the Toward Zero Foundation called on governments and manufacturers to join the road safety movement as part of our “shared responsibility” so that the task to improve the road safety and mobility systems does not fall on the road users.

Photo from Global Alliance of NGOs for Road Safety

In his intervention, Ricardo Pérez-Núñez from the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO WHO) shared that one of the biggest challenges in improving road safety was political commitment. He said “there is a significant gap between the information available and the information we need to inform country decision-making” 

The speakers also talked about the importance of research, elaborating on its role to apply “rigorous methodologies” to improve actions different stakeholders can take for road safety and sustainable mobility.

Soumita joined a panel that highlighted the role of non-government stakeholders in the implementation of the Global Plan. She was onstage with Lotte Brondum from the Global Alliance of NGOs for Road Safety and Nicolas Beaumont from Michelin.

Photo from Global Alliance of NGOs for Road Safety

Lotte gave her insights about the necessity of involving and engaging with all stakeholders saying; “we must enable people to exercise that right [to be involved] and we must help people to understand that this is their right”. 

Talking about meaningful youth engagement, Soumita calls on all stakeholders to involve young people. “Decision-makers need diverse voices and youth [have the most to contribute because] we are the most affected group [when it comes to road crashes].”