EASST Coalition for Safe Routes to School
The EASST Coalition for Safe Routes to School is a regional initiative supported by the FIA Foundation, working to make the journeys children take to and from school safer across Eastern Europe, Central Asia and the Caucasus.
Building on five years of success (2021-2026), including the delivery of more than 1,000 reduced-speed school zones and significant policy change across a number of countries, this new phase aims to go further by strengthening links between school safety advocacy and the large-scale road and transport investments made by multilateral development banks and other international financial institutions (IFIs).
Launched in 2026, the initiative works across two areas:
- At a policy level, EASST aims to engage with IFIs to explore how child road safety principles can be more systematically reflected in major road investment projects, drawing on existing Bank protocols, tools and assessments to help maximise the safety value of road investments.
- At a project level, EASST will work with national partners to help strengthen the enabling environment needed for safe school zone measures to be included in how roads are designed, funded and delivered — supporting governments in translating existing commitments into safer streets by addressing practical barriers around standards, procurement and local delivery capacity.
To ensure the work is locally owned and sustainable, the initiative operates through a network of NGO partners and national focal points, supported by a regional Technical Forum that provides strategic guidance and supports policy change across the region.
Child-Centred Street Design
EASST has developed a Toolkit to assist EASST partners (and other interested NGOs) in identifying, assessing, and reporting on school zone safety from a child-centred perspective.
The document is designed to help them evaluate the immediate area around schools – to assess the key risks and consider interventions that could be made to improve safety for vulnerable and young road users. It signposts partners to additional resources such as iRAP Star Rating for Schools, GDCI ‘Designing Streets for Kids’, and the Child Health Initiative ‘Traffic Conflict Technique’ toolkit.
The toolkit is helping EASST partners to select priority schools and work through a series of structured topics and questions (including issues such as speed management, parking, and infrastructure to name but a few) to produce a standardised written report on the current safety around an individual school to help identify areas for improvement and develop recommendations.
Join the Coalition
We are inviting individuals and organisations who share our commitment to safer journeys for children to join us by signing up to our EASST Safe Routes to School Coalition Register.
Whether you are an NGO, government body, research institution, development finance professional, or simply someone who cares about child road safety, signing up to the Coalition register is free and signals your support for the initiative’s goals.
Registered members will be kept informed of the Coalition’s activities, publications and opportunities to get involved.
ADVANCING 30KM/H SCHOOL ZONES
Between 2021 and 2026, EASST implemented a multi-year regional initiative with the support of the FIA Foundation Advocacy Hub to advance 30km/h speed limits around schools in Eastern Europe, South Caucasus and Central Asia. Working with national NGO partners, this initiative has targeted seven countries: Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Mongolia, and Tajikistan.
Through our efforts, 30km/h school speed zones are being increasingly recognised, supported, and funded by government stakeholders across the region as an essential intervention for reducing child road casualties.
Government officials in Georgia, Kyrgyzstan and Moldova all made commitments to supporting 30km/h school zone policies. In Georgia and Moldova, 30km/h school zones have been included in their national road safety plans, and both countries are in the process of rolling out new school zone road safety standards.
Over the five-year project, more than 1000 schools had speed limits reduced to 30km/h, making journeys safer for around 800,000 children across the region. It is estimated that approximately $2.7 million was invested in infrastructure by local public authorities to reduce speed limits around schools.
Children’s Road Safety News
This week, EASST joined our local civil society partners, Partnership for Road Safety in Georgia (PfRS) and the Automobile Club of Moldova (ACM), to explore opportunities for advancing the EASST Coalition for Safe Routes to School in their respective countries.
EASST and the Automobile Club of Moldova launch Beyond the Gate with the Football Federation of Moldova to improve road safety around football clubs.
On 5 August 2026, the Georgian government approved the National Road Safety Strategy 2026–2030 and the Action Plan which sets out concrete measures for the implementation of its aims.
EASST is pleased to announce the formation of the Regional Safe Routes to School Technical Forum.
Legacy for the Future: New partnership aims to address children’s road safety through sport and play
EASST is delighted to join the UEFA Foundation for Children’s Legacy for the Future initiative, enhancing road safety for girls’ access to sport and play in Georgia and Moldova.
We are pleased to spotlight the work of the Automobile Club of Moldova (ACM) for their Youth for Safe Roads project which was launched in May 2026 with the support of Moldova’s National Youth Agency.
On 6 June, EASST organised a networking event to support the public launch of our EASST Coalition for Safe Routes to School in Riga, Latvia.
A five-year campaign to implement 30km/h speed limits around schools in Georgia has been recognised with a prestigious Prince Michael International Road Safety Award.
Tatiana Mihailova of the Automobile Club of Moldova travelled to Mongolia to support our Global Shapers Ulaanbaatar Hub in delivering road safety training to the Traffic Police Department of Mongolia.
Beyond saving lives, this project has been groundbreaking as a capacity building exercise for local authorities, police, engineers, and designers.
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