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The Child Health Initiative has highlighted the rights of children to safe and accessible mobility at a high level UN forum.
The New Urban Agenda was the focus of the “Advancing Accessible and Inclusive Urban Development for All” forum held at UN headquarters in New York on 14th June 2017. To better inform and improve urban policy, the event brought together experts in promoting the socio-economic benefits of universal design and accessibility. Their aim was to generate recommendations for actions and partnership at the global and local levels for the implementation of the New Urban Agenda and the SDGs. “66% of the world’s population will live in urban areas by 2050. The way we plan and build our cities matters. It might seem obvious that it’s one of our priorities, but it wasn’t included in the UN agenda until the New Urban Agenda,” said Ms. Ana Moreno, Habitat III Secretariat Coordinator.
Speaking for the FIA Foundation and Global Initiative for Child Health & Mobility, Natalie Draisin (main picture above) discussed the role of mobility in making urban development accessible and inclusive. “Every three minutes, a child dies from a traffic crash. For every child that dies, another four are permanently disabled. 10 more are seriously injured. We cannot allow preventable road traffic crashes to deny our children their right to an education.” She presented the work of partners in making roads safer and more accessible, and said, “One intervention that our partners around the world use to make roads safer and more accessible is speed reduction.” To urge governments, cities, urban and highway designers, policy leaders, and lending institutions to ensure that all roads and streets used by children have traffic speed limits, sidewalks and crossings safe for children, the Global Initiative has launched the Speed Vaccine advocacy campaign. “Ambassadors are invited to sign onto this campaign, to advocate for safe speeds in their countries,” Natalie Draisin said.
The event was hosted by UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs (represented by the Secretariat for the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, Division for Social Policy and Development), and the Habitat III Secretariat/UN Habitat. The FIA Foundation co-sponsored along with UNESCAP, the Habitat General Assembly of Partners, Global Alliance on Accessible Technologies and Environments, International Transport Forum (OECD), Rehabilitation International, Essl Foundation and Governments of Ecuador, Germany, Singapore, Oslo City, and New York City.
