EASST presented with a Prince Michael International Road Safety Award for “outstanding success” of Road Safety Education Pack
EASST is delighted to have been recognised by HRH Prince Michael for the “outstanding success” of our EASST Road Safety Education Pack.
Locally adaptable and available in sixteen languages, the EASST Road Safety Education Pack is a free resource for teaching basic road skills to children and a tool for leveraging support for road safety activities among key stakeholders. It focuses on age-appropriate examples that children can relate to in their daily lives, reflecting risks and challenges in low and middle income countries (LMICs).
At least 25,000 children have received training, and we estimate that through partnership-working and downloads, we have reached many thousands more.
In addition to its primary objective of improving road safety education, the Pack is an extremely useful advocacy tool for leveraging support for road safety from key stakeholders as part of a Safe System approach. The focus on children has been a means of engaging with public authorities previously uninterested in road safety. Bringing them into contact with schools, parents and teachers has enabled deeper engagement and led to further projects including improvements to road engineering and acceptance of traffic calming.
The Pack has been welcomed by Ministries of Education and road police in every country where we work and by a range of other stakeholders. For example, in Moldova, the Pack caught the attention of the Speaker of the Parliament, who, working with EASST partners advocated for its integration into the National Curriculum. This enabled close collaboration with local and national authorities and ensured their focus on children’s road safety. Our partners built on these links which have helped in securing new infrastructure and lower speeds around a number of schools in Chisinau. Further advocacy work has also seen 30km/h speed limits in school zones included in amendments to the national Road Regulations earlier this year.
On recognising the Education Pack’s success, the judges noted that the pack built on existing materials and adapted them so that they could be tailored to meet local needs. Although they knew of several other free-to-use road safety education packs in use in LMICs, many of high quality and in some cases moulded around national education frameworks, they appreciated our significant reach and achievement. They also appreciated the innovative use of evidence-based and effective materials by the THINK! campaign and others being translated for use in other countries.
We are extremely honoured that our work in this area has been recognised by HRH Prince Michael of Kent.
Prince Michael International Road Safety Awards recognise outstanding achievement and innovation world-wide. Each year the most outstanding examples of international road safety initiatives are given public recognition through the scheme.
https://www.roadsafetyawards.com/
Photos: Chris Fossey Photography Commercial/Prince Michael International Road Safety Awards
