Regional Leaders link road safety with the SDGs during the Youth SDG Summit

Last week, June 10 – 11, UNITE 2030 launched its third SDG Youth Summit focused on mobilizing, empowering, and inspiring young people to take action toward the achievement of the Global Goals.

Regional leaders Mohamed Eissa, Sana’ Khasawneh, Matias Ivan Schulz, and Linda Nekesa Masibo gave a presentation to talk about how road safety connected with the other Sustainable Development Goals. 

The first day of the summit focused on “people” and highlighted youth empowerment and its importance in the movement to meet the SDG targets by the year 2030. Sessions included “Empowering Urban Youth for Active Participation in their Local Communities”, “Education change makers”, “Social Innovators, Youth Entrepreneurs”, and more. The second day of the summit tied together how young people can create an impact in their local communities by highlighting “planet” or the environment. 

The Coalition’s regional leaders led a session called “Speed-dating on Road Safety and SDGs: A Youth-led Overview”. The goal of the session was to help attendees and delegates better understand the link between road safety and the different SDGs. The session also talked about young people’s roles in advocating for road safety in their communities. 

The speed-dating concept of the program was incorporated in the presentation of the message – brief, concise, engaging, and interactive. To begin, Mohamed talked about the importance of road safety in global and local communities. 

Matias talked about how road safety intersects with SDG 3: Health and focused on how safer streets and communities are promoting the well-being of young people and other individuals of all ages. Road crashes are the leading killer of young people aged 15 – 29 worldwide. It is important for youth to grow in a place where they don’t have to worry about getting hurt, getting killed, or losing someone important to them.

On SDG 4: Education, Mohamed talked about how inclusive education can enable upward developments in social mobility that can ensure safer journeys and possibly end poverty. He also talked about the importance of ensuring the safety of students on their journey to get an education by equipping schools and universities with the infrastructure necessary to ensure student safety. 

Talking about SDG 5: Gender Equality, Sana’ brought of the reality of how the mobility system is more designed for men rather than women. From the design of cars to the crash test dummies, there is limited data that covers the safety of women in both private and public modes of mobility. 

Focusing on urbanism, Linda talked about how road safety connects with SDG 11: Sustainable Cities. She emphasized how a huge percentage of the population lives in cities pointing out how it is important to ensure that these spaces are safe for people to live and work. Linda talked about the importance of prioritizing vulnerable road users in city designs by reducing reducing speed limits and redesigning roads to encourage low speeds. 

Finally, Mohamed discussed how road safety connected with SDG 13: Climate Action and focused on how unsustainable modes of transport and mobility contribute to greenhouse gasses, polluted air, and other climate challenges. The presentation supported the need to invest in cleaner and greener modes of transport such as cycling and walking to reduce the carbon emissions in society.

Road safety connects with the other SDGs. Achieving the road safety targets helps achieve the rest of the Global Goals. Help us achieve the road safety targets in the SDGs and Global Youth Statement by joining the Coalition!