Meet the speakers of our Road Safety and Youth in Africa side event!

This Tuesday, 15 February, YOURS - Youth for Road Safety and the Global Youth Coalition with the European Commission are organizing an official side-event for Africa - Europe Week called Road Safety and Youth in Africa. The event will highlight the situation young people face on African roads. Representatives of the Youth Coalition will have a dialogue with high-level decision-makers from the European Union to bring these different issues to light.

Meet the representatives and leaders leading the discussion!

JUTTA URPILAINEN 
European Union 
Jutta Urpilainen is the Commissioner for International Partnerships. As European Commissioner for International Partnerships, Commissioner Urpilainen oversees the European Commission’s work on international cooperation and sustainable development. Before joining the Commission, she served as a Member of the Finnish Parliament from 2003 to 2019. In 2008, she became the first woman leader of the Social Democratic Party of Finland. From 2011 to 2014, she served as Finland’s Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister.

ADINA VALEAN 
European Union
Adina Vălean is the European Commissioner for Transport. Before taking office on December 1st 2019, she was a Member of the European Parliament for 12 years. As an MEP she served as the Chairwoman of ITRE Committee (July-December 2019), Chairwoman of ENVI Committee (2017-2019) and as Vice-President of the European Parliament (2014-2017). She was also a Member of the Romanian Parliament between 2004-2007. Adina Vălean holds a master’s degree in European Integration Studies.

DR. ETIENNE KRUG 
World Health Organization
Dr. Etienne Krug is the Director of the Department of Social Determinants of Health at the World Health Organization in Geneva, Switzerland. He leads global efforts to prevent violence and injuries to address social determinants of health. He oversees the development of inter-governmental resolutions and global reports, the implementation of multi-country development projects, and advocacy campaigns.

DR. OMNIA EL OMRANI 
EU Youth Sounding Board
Dr. Omnia el Omrani is a member of the European Youth Sounding Members and is a medical doctor at Ain Shams University. She has led and contributed to a total of eight research publications in the Lancet Planetary Health, the Medical Teacher, and other distinguished journals. As a EU Youth Sounding Board member, she plays an advisory role to both Commissioner Urpilainen and the Directorate-General for International Partnerships. 

SIMON PATRICK OBI 
Global Youth Coalition for Road Safety 
Simon Patrick Obi is a Youth Leadership Board Member of the Global Youth Coalition for Road Safety. He is a committed and passionate road safety advocate with more than six years of experience.  He has led and championed several interventions aimed at improving health, safety, and the environment. He also founded and serves as the executive director for GreenLight Initiative - a road safety organization based in Nigeria.

MATTHEW BALDWIN
European Commission
Matthew Baldwin is the Deputy Director-General and Transport Coordinator for Road Safety and Sustainable Mobility and the European Coordinator for Road Safety/Sustainable mobility of the European Commission. Matthew Baldwin has been Deputy Director-General of the European Commission's Directorate-General for Transport and Mobility since 2016 and was appointed as European Coordinator for Road Safety and related aspects of Sustainable Mobility.

OLIVA NALWADDA 
Global Youth Coalition for Road Safety 
Oliva Nalwadda is a young activist on a mission to recourse the traffic experiences of children and youth in Uganda and Africa, at large. She is the founder of UZIMA ARI, a youth-led organization working to empower young people to lead, advocate, and implement local actions geared towards achieving global health. She also serves as a youth leadership board member to the Youth Coalition and is one of the Local Actions winners who are implementing road safety projects in their communities.

LINDA NEKASA MASIBO
Global Youth Coalition for Road Safety 
Linda Nekesa has a masters degree in transportation sciences with a specialisation in road safety in the global south. She is an official member of the Global Youth Coalition for road safety and serves as the regional leader for Europe. She has previously done an internship with the world resources institute supporting electric mobility research and road safety work in Africa. She is currently completing a local actions project supported by the coalition working on road safety education and awareness at Hasselt University. 

MOHAMED EISSA
International Federation of Medical Students' Associations
Mohamed Eissa is a sixth-year medical student from Alexandria, Egypt. He currently works as the liaison officer of the International Federation of Medical Students’ Associations (IFMSA) and a youth leadership board member of the Global Youth Coalition for Road Safety. During his years of medical school, he discovered that his passion was not just for clinical medicine but also for public health and road safety.

MAXWELL CHANGOMBE
Restless Development
Maxwell Changombe currently works as the Programmes Coordinator for Restless Development Zimbabwe Hub. He is also leading a project called #GenEndIt Youth Ambassadors, a UNAIDS program that consists of diverse groups of young people leading the fight to end AIDS as a ‘global pandemic’ by the end of 2030. He believes that, given the platform and opportunity, young people can be the best drivers of achieving the 2030 Agenda.

ROBERT LISINGE
United Nations Economic Commission for Africa
Robert Tama Lisinge is the Chief of the Energy, Infrastructure and Services Section of the Private Sector Development and Finance Division of the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (ECA). He holds a BSc degree in Civil Engineering and an MSc degree in Transportation Engineering. He also holds an MPhil and a degree of Doctor of Business Administration from the Maastricht School of Management in the Netherlands.

Don’t miss the chance to catch our speakers all together! Sign up to join our event happening on Tuesday, 15 February at 14:00 CET! See you there!