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TRANSCRIPT
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REPORT
Preparation and delivery of:
December 2015
Contact information YOURS -‐ Youth for Road Safety Contact person: Manpreet Darroch Director of Communications
E: [email protected] W: www.youthforroadsafety.org Date: 08/12/15 © All rights reserved. Requests for permission to reproduce or translate this document should be addressed to YOURS, e-‐mail address: [email protected]. Nothing from this document may be reproduced, making public or being implemented without written authorization or with the collaboration of YOURS.
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Introduction On the 18th November, the 2nd High Level Conference on Road Safety convened with the world's road safety leaders, including government ministerial delegations, academia, civil society, and the private sector and beyond. Within the context of the Second High Level Conference on Road Safety, a number of side-‐event took place, which focused on a range of key thematic road safety topics. In the evening of the first day of the conference, a side-‐event of Road Safety for Children and youth brought much needed critical focus to the plight of children and youth on the world's roads. A ‘full-‐house’ of delegates attended the event to learn about how and why children and young people should given the opportunity to participate in the road safety crisis they face, as well as highlighting some key good practise examples from around the world.
Organizing Committee and Collaborating Partners The side event was organized by YOURS – Youth for Road Safety and the Child Injury Prevention Alliance (CIPA) along with a collaboration of partners. FedEx sponsored the event. Collaborating Partners included:
• AAAM – The Association for the Advancement of Automotive Medicine • AIP Foundation • Amend • FIA Foundation • Fundacion MAPFRE • CIPA – The Child Injury Prevention Alliance • Michelin • RTIRN – Road Transport Injury Research Network • Vida Urgente • Safe Kids Worldwide
A Broad Coalition of Partners The multi-‐sectorial coalition was scoped to offer their expertise from a range of perspectives both in terms of organizational setting and framework, thematic focus within the child and youth road safety agenda and global geographic representation. Involvement from sectors would include the participation of: children-‐focused organizations, several youth and road safety organizations, (inter)-‐governmental organizations, research networks, road safety foundations and private sector organizations committed to youth/child road safety. This coalition was successfully created with aforementioned partners representing every region of the world as well as all mentioned sectors with the addition of academia. It was noted that this broad coalition of partners would bring an element of their own knowledge to the session and call for action on children and youth road safety issues within context the meeting and beyond; by kick starting partnerships.
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Preparation of the Side-‐Event The concept of the side-‐event was proposed in late June 2015 by YOURS – Youth for Road Safety with the objective of mainstreaming child and youth road safety issues into the conference agenda. Rationale Globally, 1000 young people under the age of 25 die every day on the roads. Road traffic injuries are the biggest killer for young people aged 10-‐24 years. The side event had the aim of offering delegates to the conference the opportunity to delve deeper into the road safety crisis facing children and youth. It’s aims were to explore the actionable steps that Ministers, civil society, foundations and the private sector could and should take to create a future generation of road safety conscious young people to ultimately save lives. Objectives By the end of the side-‐event participants were able to: 1. Identify key road safety problems facing children and youth globally 2. Understand good practices for preventing road traffic injuries among children
and youth 3. Explain the benefits of involving children and youth in road safety 4. Kick-‐start their own children and youth road safety initiatives
Creating the Programme Agenda The organizing committee took the time to map the most pertinent issues facing children and young people in road safety and chose to undertake a global and regional perspective in painting the picture of the current reality facing the world’s youth. The recent momentum of the #SaveKidsLives Campaign as well as advancement in the involvement of young people in road safety since the First Ministerial Conference on Road Safety in Moscow, Russia offered a loose benchmark in which to illustrate progress. However, a key priority would remain the focus on the stark reality that road traffic crashes remain the single biggest killer of children and young people for over a decade. With a range of sectors and actors invested in action for children and youth in road safety; an opportunity arose for the aforementioned partners to place a spotlight on their proven good practises in preventing road traffic crashes amongst the child and youth demographic; with the view to inspire action from the participating delegates. It was also noted that while the conference as a whole offered the formal opportunity of presentations and addresses, this particular side-‐event should reflect some of the ‘youth-‐friendly’ approaches used in workshop training as well as an interactive approach to offer a unique setting within the wider conference. The final programme offered the following context, explorations and interactive learning:
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Monday 18th November 2015
18:15
Welcome and introductions • Mansour Elimane KANE -‐ Minister of Infrastructures and Ground Transportation,
Government of Senegal • Floor Lieshout -‐ Executive Director, YOURS -‐ Youth for Road Safety • Dr. Gary A. Smith -‐ President, Child Injury Prevention Alliance
18:25
From a global perspective: the importance of involving children and youth in road safety 10 minutes presentations on:
• Children Campaigning for Road Safety -‐ #SaveKidsLives Avi Silverman -‐ Director of Advocacy and Communications, Fia Foundation
• Youth as Road Safety Advocates and Peer Educators Manpreet Darroch -‐ Director of Communications, YOURS -‐ Youth for Road Safety
• Importance of Supporting the Next Generation of Researchers Dr. Olive Kobusingye -‐ Board Vice-‐Chair, Road Traffic Injuries Research Network
19:05
From a regional perspective: the continent carousel Each continent and country has its own dynamics and challenges. Selected organizations from each continent will present a ‘good practice case’ on various thematic areas. As this is a carousel, you will rotate three times. This allows you to hear three presentations of the six below: Continent Organization Theme / project Speaker Africa Amend Walking to School Tom Bishop, Deputy Director Asia AIP Foundation Children Helmets Kim Pagna, Country Director
Cambodia Europe Michelin Young Drivers Rodrigo Santiago, Public Relations Latin America Vida Urgente Youth
Engagement Diza Gonzaga, President
Latin America Mapfre Foundation
Education in Schools
Jesus Monclús, Road Safety Director
North America
Safe Kids Worldwide
Child Restraints Lorrie Walker, Technical Advisor
20:00
The way forward Information will be presented about how your organization can stay connected with others and receive mentorship support to develop new initiatives. Dr. Gary A. Smith -‐ President, Child Injury Prevention Alliance
20:10 -‐ 20:15
Closing remarks The Honorable T. Bella Dinh-‐Zarr, PhD, MPH -‐ Vice Chairman, United States National Transportation Safety Board
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Promotional Materials YOURS – Youth for Road Safety took the lead in creating a set of promotional materials for partners to distribute before and during the event. These included the following:
A promotional A5 leaflet booklet presented the case for child and youth involvement in road safety, the proposed objectives and context, an invitation to attend the side-‐event and an opportunity to meet and interact with some of the leading actors in the field from both a global and regional perspective.
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750 copies of this leaflet were printed and distributed during the conference as well as acting as the agenda for delegates attending the side-‐event. In addition, a set of 4 roll-‐up banners (2ft x 1ft) were also created to ‘furnish’ the side-‐event room:
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Delivery of the Side Event The side event kicked off at 18:15 with an overwhelming response; a full-‐house with delegates representing an array of sectors. Approximately 120 delegates attended the side-‐event. His Excellency Mr. Mansour Elimane Kane made opening remarks: Minister of Infrastructures and Ground Transportation, Government of Senegal. The remarks focused on the importance involving children and youth in road safety and the benefits of reaching young people earlier with key economic and social benefits. The Minister also drew on his experience with NGO LASER International in Senegal illustrating key youth based initiatives that have worked in the country. Subsequent presentations offered participants an insight into the global perspective on road safety for children and youth. Avi Silverman -‐ Director of Advocacy and Communications, Fia Foundation presented: Children Campaigning for Road Safety -‐ #SaveKidsLives. This presentation focused on the power of children and youth to take the reigns on road safety campaigning as well as mobilizing their peers for effective youth messaging. The presentation focused on the success of the #SaveKidsLives campaign and the milestone of reaching 1 million signatures in support of the Child Declaration for Road Safety. A range of advocacy efforts and approaches undertaken by youth were also discussed such as the YOURS’ involvement in the Global Partnership on Youth 2015, which acted as the youth arm for consultations on the Post-‐2015 Development Agenda. The presentation ended with a call to invite young people to participate in road safety campaigning. Dr. Olive Kobusingye -‐ Board Vice-‐Chair, Road Traffic Injuries Research Network subsequently focused on: Importance of Supporting the Next Generation of Researchers. This presentation gave an insight into the RTIRN young researcher programme and focused on how the next generation of academia based road safety researchers will be pivotal in addressing and assessing future road safety risk factors, attaining targets and working with local and national government to offer evidence based research, The RTIRN’s programme was touched on whereby young people are given support and mentorship to help them develop their skills to become road safety researchers. Manpreet Darroch -‐ Director of Communications, YOURS closed the global perspectives with a presentation on Youth for Road Safety Youth as Road Safety Advocates and Peer Educators. This presentation built the case for youth involvement in road safety as decision makers as well as activators of creativity, strong peer-‐to-‐peer education and advocacy for road safety initiatives spearheaded from the ground up. The presentation gave an insight into a ‘rights based’ approach which should be embedded in governmental participation with youth on road safety issues and presented the YOURS approach to engaging youth in road safety. A case example was shared in the form of the Belize Training of Facilitators, which illustrated the power of young people to initiate change, work closely with their
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peers in interactive workshops and youth’s creativity in translating a road safety message on a national level. From a global perspective, the side-‐event then shifted its focus to a regional perspective in the form of the continental carousel. This interactive session offered participants a chance to hear good practices taking place on different continents of the world. The premise of this activity was to enable participants to hear ‘real life’ case studies of evidence-‐based activities, projects and initiatives taking place around the world with a view to kick-‐start ideas, meet the stakeholders involved in such activities as well as offer a networking opportunity. The carousel worked to promote movement in the room whereby six ‘stations’ located on the periphery of the room were set up by collaborating partners and participants were given time to visit each station for a ten minute presentation from road safety organizations. After ten minutes, the participants moved to another station of their choice and witnessed another presentation. This was undertaken a total of three times and each presentation offered gave an insight into road safety action taking place with children and youth as well opening the opportunity to ask questions, give feedback and reflect on potential ‘importation’ of such activity in the participant’s countries of operation. Six collaborating partners presented their work a total of three times, each to a new set of participants. The carousel partners focused on their organization’s particular topic of operation and represented both a thematic, organizational and geographic representation: Continent Organization Theme / project Speaker Africa Amend Walking to School Tom Bishop, Deputy Director Asia AIP Foundation Children Helmets Kim Pagna, Country Director Cambodia Europe Michelin Young Drivers Rodrigo Santiago, Public Relations Latin America Vida Urgente Youth Engagement Diza Gonzaga, President Latin America Mapfre Foundation Education in
Schools Jesus Monclús, Road Safety Director
North America Safe Kids Worldwide
Child Restraints Lorrie Walker, Technical Advisor
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Following on from the regional perspective, ways forward were discussed and Dr. Gary A. Smith -‐ President, Child Injury Prevention Alliance (CIPA) presented the work of CIPA as a network of professionals from different sectors working on road safety for children and wider. Dr Smith invited participants to join the network as a means to continue the conversations as well as offer support in ‘incubating’ ideas via mentorships and matching with experienced road safety actors who can help bring ideas and initiatives to life. The closing remarks were given to The Honorable T. Bella Dinh-‐Zarr, PhD, MPH -‐ Vice Chairman, United States National Transportation Safety Board who gave passionate remarks about the involvement of young people as active and invested members of society. Her comments invited participants to build on the collaborations and conversations had in the side-‐event as well as believing in the power youth to unleash their power as active road safety change agents. Challenges Some fundamental challenges arose prior to the side event convening which were predominantly logistical errors made by the Brasilia Conference organizers. These included:
• Size of room The initial quote for room set-‐up was agreed for the size of 250 delegates with 125 seats. This would enable participants to comfortably experience the opening presentations as well as offer plentiful room for the carousel to operate without limitations of space. Unfortunately, the room provided had maximum capacity of 125 chairs with little room for the agreed layout predetermined by the space requirements of the continental carousel. Partners made the collective decision to remove some of the chairs in the
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room to create space for the carousel. This reduced our overall capacity leading to some delegates having to stand during the first presentations. Although the room was undersized, all partners agreed that the carousel still worked well with the space gained from removing some seats.
• Translations Organizers paid for full translations of Portuguese and English so as comments and discussion points could be made without translation barriers. As much of the event was undertaken in English, translation into Portuguese would be beneficial to local leaders, Brazilian delegation and also Ibero-‐American delegates who’s first language is not English. Unfortunately, while translation kits were provided, the frequencies were not operational and translations could not be made. Fortunately, for our carousel partner who delivered her presentation in Portuguese, an English-‐speaking colleague was able to offer the necessary support.
Evaluation Overall, turnout to the side event was a big success, every seat at the event was occupied and ultimately, standing room was the only space left for delegates attending later. This was a remarkable feat considering many side-‐events remained undersubscribed to. In general, the event run to timing and hit each of the objectives set at the start of the event with each partner arriving early to set up their continental station and set up the room accordingly. Participants were offered the chance to provide informal feedback to organizers at the end of the side-‐event. The resounding response was overwhelmingly positive with participants expressing that the side event offered a ‘different setting’ within the wider formal context of the conference and that the side-‐event offered ‘unique insights’ into child and youth road safety activities taking place both globally and regionally. Overall, participants expressed the value of having the chance to meet stakeholders in the field of child and youth road safety in an informal and interactive setting. Participants also expressed that overall, they were able to ‘learn something new’ and network with key road safety actors with a view to kick-‐start their own road safety initiatives. In total, 14 collaborating partners contributed both to the planning and execution of the side-‐event and all partners expressed their overall contentment at the method in which the side event was executed. Despite the logistical challenges, a collaborative effort enabled the event to run smoothly adjusted to the circumstances presented. Organizers of this side-‐event would like to thank FedEx for their financial support in making the event a reality.
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We also thank WHO on their selection of this particular topic as part of the official side-‐event programme and look ahead to future successful collaborations between the partners involved. Testimonials “A pleasure seeing old friends and meeting new ones and hearing about substantive projects in road safety that are saving kids lives. A huge THANK YOU to YOURS and CIPA and all those who helped organize this useful session. I am thankful that you are doing the work you do”. -‐ The Honorable T. Bella Dinh-‐Zarr, PhD, MPH -‐ Vice Chairman, United States National Transportation Safety Board “Great organization, in my opinion. Great session. Great people…Happy to be part of you, as you are part of us Thank YOU, Floor, Manpreet, Daniel, Gary, and all the rest.” – Jesus Monclús, Road Safety Director – Fundacion MAPFRE
“I want to express my deep respect for the dedicated advocates who work around the world to make children and their families safer on roadways. I had a wonderful time in our session, Floor, and enjoyed the freedom to speak directly to the audience about how to keep advancing the field. The session was lively, fun and productive!” Lorrie Walker, Technical Advisor – Safe Kids Worldwide
“Amazing time and great work….” – Rodrigo Santiago, Public Relations – Michelin “Thanks for the opportunity. Despite the glitches the event went very well and I was happy to participate”. Dr. Olive Kobusingye -‐ Board Vice-‐Chair, Road Traffic Injuries Research Network