Local Actions Winners join IRF Professional Talks Series

Global Youth Coalition for Road Safety Local Action Winners Stephen Kome Fondzenyuy, Paola Becerra García, and Laura Daniela Gomez joined International Road Federation - IRF and Youth Coalition Members Tendekayi Marapara and Shashank Misra in the IRF Podcast, Young Professional Talks Series, titled “Next Generation on the Move: Integrating Road Safety and Active Mobility for Better Health”.

The IRF Young Professional Talks Series is a new initiative launched by the IRF Young Professionals Programme in preparation for the upcoming IRF World Congress 2024, scheduled for the 15th to 18th of October 2024 in Istanbul, Türkiye.

As part of this series, a lineup of webinars will be hosted in collaboration with various organisations to explore key themes that will be central to the discussions at the congress, with a particular focus on the development of land-based transportation and roads.

The members of the Youth Coalition discussed the importance of having safer spaces to facilitate active modes of transport to create cleaner and more liveable spaces.

These three representatives have all led Local Actions projects with a specific focus on cycling especially from the gender perspective. To aid their discussion of these projects, they also presented the Youth Coalition SDG Policy Briefs that can help young people advocate for road safety and sustainable mobility at the local and global levels.


During her intervention, Daniela talked about her project, Youth Influencing Bike Policy Change in Bogota, which is about the integration of youth voices in designing safe and sustainable cities.

Through the project, Daniela and her team from Despacio developed road safety, gender, and mobility capacity-building workshops for bicycle representatives, implementing symbolic interventions (tactical urbanism or mural painting interventions) and providing support for the formulation of a specific request to decision-makers.

Paola, in turn, talked about her Local Actions project, Entornos Amables or “Friendly Environment” Her project is working to to develop in the city of Mérida, Yucatán to address the needs of children, young women, adult women, and urban cyclists (regardless of gender) who use cycling as a mode of transport or as a means to live a healthier life.

Meanwhile, Stephen talked about the Youth Coalition Policy Briefs that were created by the SDG Champions, highlighting the evidence-based research that went into writing the documents so that they can be used as advocacy tools to help encourage decision-makers and policymakers to invest in youth and road safety.