Greenlight Initiative, in partnership with YOURS, and its Global Youth Coalition (GYC), with the support of Total Energies Foundation and FIA Foundation has launched the latest online #ClaimingOurSpace campaign.

The campaign is a rallying call for young people to voice the way in which they currently navigate the world’s roads and cities as well as how they want it to change.

Through an innovative new consultation, the GYC wants to know the way youths think about mobility, the way in which it needs to improve, and the way they envision combating their leading killer road traffic crashes.

The GYC is a diverse organisation that represents more than 1700 young people in more than 120 countries. These young leaders experience unsafe mobility on a daily basis. The GYC aims to understand the realities of youth in road safety to serve their nuanced needs better to influence policy on a local and global level in ways that reflect their experiences on the ground.

In a statement signed by Programme Officer, GreenLight Initiative, Stephen Adebayo, said this will be done through the Global Youth Consultation 2023 – a unique online survey that takes participants on a journey to capture their lived experiences when navigating the world’s roads.

The campaign is initiated by the GYC and YOURS, in collaboration with UNICEF and GreenLight Initiative and 17 other organisations as dissemination partners. It is funded by the FIA Foundation and TotalEnergies under its TotalEnergies Foundation programme, and emphasises that youth engagement is not merely a checkbox but rather the driving force behind innovative solutions in road safety, inviting others to join in building a safer and more sustainable world alongside young leaders.

The campaign invites young people aged 15-35 from anywhere in the world to take part in the consultation by completing an interactive online survey to collate and gather unique insights that will help shape the GYC’s future work as well as formulate policy documents that will empower young leaders to demand and deliver change on a local level.

Executive Director, YOURS, Raquel Barrios, said: “We know that road traffic crashes have been the leading killer of youth for over a decade. At YOURS, we assert that youth must be involved in the design, delivery, and review of road safety policies to tackle this scourge.

“The #ClaimingOurSpace campaign is a tangible example of how youth voices will be collected through innovative tools to better inform all those involved in hearing the youth’s voice. This consultation will once again represent a generation of youth opinions, and we will invite governments, decision-makers, and policymakers to integrate the outcome into the road safety policy process systematically; our efforts of building intergenerational dialogue and reaching #50by30.”

Global Lead, Child Injury Prevention, UNICEF New York, Joanne Vincenten, said: “UNICEF believes that when young people contribute to social change, entire communities’ benefit. Young people have the right to be heard and the right to influence matters that affect them – including rights to safer roads and journeys.

“The #ClaimOurSpace campaign and youth consultation will attain views and inputs of young people worldwide that global leaders can prioritize as part of their strategies and commitments to #RethinkMobility, road safety, and the sustainable development goals.”

The valuable insights gathered through the consultation will be used to influence and advise global and local policymakers in strategies to #RethinkMobility. This effort will further call upon global leaders to install mechanisms that recognise the power of youth perspectives and their unique role in reshaping the mobility landscape.

Youth leaders, who complete the consultation will be challenged to see mobility in a different light, connecting the road safety issue with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the Safe System Approach, and other key strategic global plans. The outcome of the consultation process will inform a set of policy change recommendations for policymakers that put the road safety needs of young people and other vulnerable road users at the forefront.