Safe School Journeys for Adolescents
Summary
In September 2023, FIA Foundation made a commitment to support implementation partners to scale-up proven injury prevention measures for children and adolescents with a focus on school zones. FIA Foundation will invest in Safe School Journeys in Africa and Latin America, working with implementation partners to scale up activity as a contribution to the 1.8 Billion Young Voices for Change campaign.
Approach
The FIA Foundation commits to support implementation partners to scale-up proven injury prevention measures for children and adolescents with a focus on school zones. Advocacy is a central part of our strategy. Through demonstration projects, and the deployment of tools to measure and highlight the road traffic dangers to children and adolescents on the school journey we aim to encourage the expansion of safe and healthy school streets.
FIA’s funding will support the capacity and activities of civil society implementation partners deploying tools and methodologies to enable this advocacy. Key metrics include reduction in speed of traffic; reduction of conflicts or near misses between traffic and pedestrians/vulnerable road users; reduction in injury.
Advocacy will be directed at Governments and relevant authorities to further implement road traffic injury prevention measures focused on school streets, and school journeys.
Building on years of research, implementation and advocacy, the FIA Foundation is making a commitment to invest in Safe School Journeys in Africa and Latin America, working with implementation partners to scale up activity as a contribution to the 1.8 Billion Young Voices for Change campaign.
Action Plan
Advocacy: work with and support national authorities to deliver SDG commitment, specifically by encouraging improved data collection on adolescent traffic injury (Botswana and South Africa) and implementation of national 30km/h legislation into State practice (Mexico) .
Demonstration projects: Deploy iRAP’s Star Rating for Schools tool in target countries and across wider regions through training activities for policymakers, engineers and schools, assessments and implementation of full demonstrations including infrastructure change. Deploy AMEND’s SARSAI (School Area Road Safety Assessments and Improvements) methodology at target schools in partnership with local government.
Scale: With Safe Schools Africa, identify World Bank-financed corridors in Sub-Saharan Africa where mass action programs can be developed to implement SARSAI approaches.
Draft Implementation Timeline:
2024 Q1 – 2:
Assist governments in developing their SDG commitments on injury data mapping, building on data from new WHO Global Status Report on Road Safety (due to be published December 2023) Policy development with implementation partners of safe schools interventions.
Identify new road schemes for SARSAI input and work with World Bank and client governments to integrate SARSAI into designs – involves advocacy from Amend/SARSAI partner to these institutions to encourage adoption and scale-up.
Q3: Identify demonstration projects that translate new policy guidance into direct implementation
Q4/Q1 2025:
Policy workshops combined with demonstration events.
Engagement with project countries with aim for further commitment strengthening/announcements at 4th Global Ministerial Conference on Road Safety (Marrakesh, February 2025) .
2025 Q2-3:
Support delivery including promotion during UN Youth Summit, September 2025. The steps here are likely to include: knowledge exchange on results of the work undertaken with support from this commitment; presentation by implementation partners and young advocates; highlighting examples, and success stories; working with partners and governments to present further commitments.
Q4: Evaluation and next steps. Critical success indicators: Evidence of policy integration and prioritization in two of the three target countries. At least three new corridor projects under way.
Background
Road traffic crashes are the world’s leading cause of death for children, adolescents and young adults between the age of 5-24. As many as 250,000 children are estimated to die every year, up to 2 million are estimated to be seriously injured. More than ninety per cent of these casualties occur in middle-and low-income countries. (WHO Road traffic injuries (who.int) ) The adolescent age group is particularly at risk as pedestrians, cyclists, motorcycle riders and as users of public transport, which is often informal and poorly regulated. Many incidents occur during the journey to or from school. Much attention has rightly been focused on securing education for children, much less on safe travel to and from education.
The journey to and from school should be a focus for remedial measures – it is a well-delineated daily journey for hundreds of millions of children and youth. Proven, peer-reviewed, injury prevention measures include provision of safe infrastructure (sidewalks, protected crossings) combined with traffic speed management limited speeds to below 30km/h and, where possible, removal of traffic from school areas at peak points of the day: so-called ‘school streets’. (BMJ Injury Prevention 2019;25:414-420) Implemented as mass action programs beginning with the immediate school area and spreading along key routes, these infrastructural and speed control measures can improve safety and livability for the whole community, of all ages, and create conditions for increased walking and cycling, vital for tackling climate change. (Designing Streets for Kids Guide – Global Designing Cities Initiative)
Progress Update
Partnership Opportunities
Additional funding partners would be welcome, as additional resources can allow increased commitment delivery, scaling up the number of schools that can be supported under the Commitment and allowing for greater capacity support to policy processes. Outreach for media awareness and community engagement would also be valuable. This can include financial resources, policy commitments by governmental authorities, capacity and expertise allocated by key target organizations such as Multilateral Development Banks.,The FIA Foundation coordinates the Child Health Initiative (CHI) , bringing together leading UN agencies and NGOs working on the impacts of motorized transportation on child and youth health. Capacity and resources are available to help convene interested partners through the CHI, bringing in other partners from different organizations working in similar and related areas in different geographies, to hold workshops to exchange knowledge on successful practices. We would also deploy resources to support joint advocacy on this agenda with UN agencies, those organizations working on related areas such as urban development and environmental issues, youth organizations.