ΝΕΑ από την Global Alliance of NGOs for Road Safety

H ΕΥΘΥΤΑ-Παρατηρητήριο Οδικής Ασφάλειας Ρόδου,  είναι ενεργό μέλος της από το 2011

ALLIANCE HIGHLIGHTS 2021 In 2021, the Alliance celebrated its 10th anniversary. What has been achieved by the Alliance’s 290 members in 98 countries this year is an indicator of the growth and increasing strength of the road safety NGO community over the past decade. In particular, the continued momentum and impact of the #Love30 UN Global Road Safety Week (UNGRSW) campaign and the handovers of the Global Plan for the Decade of Action for Road Safety 2021-2030 (Global Plan) demonstrate how NGOs have increased their engagement with key decision makers and are being effective in influencing policy at local and national levels. Some of our highlights from this year: Networking and Sharing 34 new members in 2021, including 17 new Associate members Three new Friends of the Alliance Five FedEx Award winners Advocacy 112 million people reached, 21 SMART commitments, and more than 100 endorsements made by decision makers through member NGOs' UNGRSW campaigns in May. The campaign received a Prince Michael International Road Safety Award. 35 countries where member NGOs personally handed the Global Plan to their decision makers, including to 20 Ministers and one President Meaningful Participation guide Research on the COVID-19 transport response in seven African countries conducted and published in collaboration with IRF and supported by the High Volume Transport Applied Research Programme and UK Aid Capacity building 41 participants in the Alliance Incubator, through 10 individual NGO projects and seven coalitions 13 training sessions with a total of 367 participants Three joint action plans in three countries developed through the LEARN program See more of our 2021 highlights in infographics, videos, and pictures HERE.

TOWARD THE HIGH-LEVEL MEETING: PREPARATORY MEETING On Friday 3 December, the President of the UN General Assembly hosted a preparatory meeting ahead of the High-Level Meeting on Global Road Safety (High-Level Meeting), which will be held in July 2022. The purpose was to discuss two key topics: sustainable financing for road safety and the role of different stakeholders in implementation of the Global Plan. Summing up the meeting in the final session, Dmitry Mariyasin, Deputy Executive Director, UNECE, said, “Today's session was about finance and multi-stakeholder engagement. This was on purpose because these are the two critical areas where not enough progress was seen in the first Decade of Action for Road Safety.” Key messages through the two sessions included: the need for more financial investment for road safety to achieve the 2030 goals: it is an economic investment and an indicator of political will the need for governments to involve other stakeholders, including NGOs, youth, academia, and private sector the need for accountability for road safety at national level and a whole of government approach between different Ministries, coordinated by Heads of State a call for governments to use the safe system approach recommended in the Global Plan, putting people first and a modal shift toward the most sustainable forms of transport a call for Heads of State to attend the High-Level Meeting and for governments to use the meeting as a platform to announce how they will channel finance toward road safety Speaking on behalf of the Alliance, Lotte Brondum pressed on the need for Member States to demonstrate accountability for road safety through annual reporting that shows what has been spent on road safety, what it has been spent on, and the sources of funding. She called on Heads of States to demonstrate commitment and action for the 2030 targets by attending the High-Level Meeting themselves and signing the Declaration that will come out of it.  Read more and find links to the recordings of the meeting HERE.

Call to action for 2022

PREPARING THE 2022 NGO AGENDA Based on the Global Plan and the member survey at the beginning of 2021, the Alliance has defined three advocacy priorities in the run up to the High-Level Meeting in July 2022: evidence-based action that puts people at the center investment to put commitments into action involvement of NGOs in decision-making as the eyes, ears, and voices of their communities To prepare our call for action, the Alliance is planning a series of events to ready NGO for advocacy and engage global stakeholders and decision makers.  In the spring, we will hold regional member meetings, culminating in the Seventh Global Meeting of Nongovernmental Organizations Advocating for Road Safety and Road Victims (Global Meeting). This Global Meeting will be a bit different from previous years due to ongoing and changing COVID-19 restrictions. It will be a hybrid event, enabling many more members to attend online. These events will lead into a week-long #CommitToAct week of action in May ahead of the High-Level Meeting in July. Stay tuned for more details and check out our video ABOVE to see the call to action set in the context of the Global Plan handovers.

APPLY FOR THE INCUBATOR “The Alliance Incubator allowed us to deepen our joint work as a coalition of four organizations from three Latin American countries to learn from each other and share experiences,” says Martin Galanternik, Asociación MiNU. “It has accompanied us in these complex times and helped us implement activities in each of our countries.” Applications are now open for the 2022 Alliance Incubator. The program was piloted in 2021 with a cohort of 41 NGOs (including 10 individual Alliance member NGOs and seven coalitions). Through the Incubator, ambitious NGOs receive tailored support to strengthen their advocacy and build their capacity. They receive mentoring and coaching, training tailored to their needs, and the opportunity to apply for small seed grant funding. To find out more about the Alliance Incubator and apply by submitting your Expression of Interest, read HERE. Closing date is 6 January 2022. Read success stories from 2021 Incubator NGOs below.

ARGENTINA: INCUBATOR COALITION FOR SAFE CYCLING SAFETY AND 30 KM/H LIMITS A coalition of two Alliance members in Argentina, Asociación Madres Del Dolor and Luchemos Por La Vida, working through the Alliance Incubator, has successfully engaged 29 cities and municipalities in its safer cycling project. So far, nine of them have made specific commitments to implement new cycle lanes and/or 30 km/h speed limits and five have already implemented them. The coalition now has its sights on a national law to limit speeds to 30 km/h, vastly exceeding its initial objective to achieve commitments in two cities. Of the role of the Alliance Incubator in achieving this success, Viviam Perrone of Asociación Madres Del Dolor says “The Alliance Incubator program helped us to improve our work and the results of our work. Argentina is a big country where there are several NGOs working on road safety. Working as a coalition with other Alliance NGO members amplified our work.” She continues, “Moreover our participation in the training sessions was important because we learnt about statistics, data, and the way to present the issues, which were fundamental to communicate with authorities.” Read more HERE.

UGANDA: INCUBATOR FOR SAFE SCHOOL ZONES AND 30 KM/H LIMITS  “Prior to the Incubator, we thought that sensitizing and training school children was enough, but this has not yielded much result,” says Sam Bambanza, Hope for Victims of Traffic Accidents (HOVITA). “But with the Incubator, we have learnt that we can further empower school children to demand for their rights.” HOVITA and fellow Alliance member the Uganda Road Accident Reduction Network Organization (URRENO) are working together in coalition on an Incubator project that is targeting speed reduction around school zones to reduce the rate of road deaths and injuries among school-age children in Uganda. The Alliance Incubator has enabled them to build stronger engagement with decision makers through stakeholder mapping, leveraged public support and media attention, unlocked funding sources and led to government commitment to review urban speed limits. Read more HERE.

UPCOMING EVENTS AND DEADLINES

Alliance Incubator Program Expressions of Interest: Applications close 6 January 2022. Read more HERE.

High-Level Meeting of the UN General Assembly on Global Road Safety: 30 June–1 July 2022.