Road safety in Thailand: engaging young people

Elevating the call for meaningful youth participation: YOURS - Youth for Road Safety representatives again joined the Standing Committee on the Transport of the House of Representatives of Thailand in their seminar on road safety and youth involvement. The event, titled “Towards the 2nd Decade of Action for Road Safety: Safety for Children and Participation of Young People”, happened on July 18 at the Miracle Grand Convention Hotel in Bangkok. 

YOURS advocacy director Stefania Minniti and YOURS junior project manager Sana’a Khasawneh spoke on behalf of the team, highlighting the importance of meaningful youth participation. 

The Thai Government-Led meeting brought to the center the importance of creating spaces for young people’s participation in the development and implementation of road safety policies, especially in Thailand. The Meeting also sought to gather information from multiple sectors with regard to the implementation of their Land Traffic act, collect input from young people for the development of Thailand’s Road Safety Master Plan, and initiate a pilot project to reduce speeds in school zones. 

From the Meeting, the Standing Committee aimed to see more youth representatives engaged in the development and implementation of road safety policies and activities in Thailand. They were also looking to get more input from young people to include in Thailand's Road Safety Master Plan 2022-2027. 

During the YOURS intervention, our representatives talked about our upcoming Policymaker’s Toolkit that guides policymakers, practitioners and other organizations on how to meaningfully engage and involve youth. 

The Toolkit, created with the support of FIA Foundation, offers the road safety community evidence-based practices to systematically integrate meaningful youth participation into policy design, financing, implementation, monitoring and evaluation for road safety and sustainable mobility.

“Our definition of meaningful youth participation is that young people’s experiences, ideas, expertise and perspectives are systematically integrated into programmatic, policy and decision-making institutions.”