Road Safety and Youth in Africa

Nelufar Hedayat is a multi award-winning journalist, documentary maker and Digital Correspondent for the Doha Debates. An Afghan, who moved to the UK as a refugee, Nelufar has gained the trust of a world-wide audience through her authenticity and ability to unite people in meaningful conversations.

As European Commissioner for International Partnerships, Ms Urpilainen oversees the European Commission’s work on international cooperation and sustainable development. She is a strong advocate for gender equality, social justice, and youth participation.

Adina Vălean is the European Commissioner for Transport. Before taking office on December 1st 2019, she was a Member of the European Parliament for 12 years. As an MEP she served as the Chairwoman of ITRE Committee (July-December 2019), Chairwoman of ENVI Committee (2017-2019) and as Vice-President of the European Parliament (2014-2017). She was also a Member of the Romanian Parliament between 2004-2007. Adina Vălean holds a master’s degree in European Integration Studies and Security and a bachelor’s degree in Mathematics.

Dr. Krug has been a leader for injury prevention for many years, and is especially known for his efforts in road traffic injury prevention. Appointed in 2000 as the first ever Director to WHO’s Department for Violence and Injury Prevention, his strategic vision has been key to placing road safety on the global public health and development agenda.

Omnia is a medical doctor at Ain Shams University. She has led and contributed to a total of eight research publications in the Lancet Planetary Health, the Medical Teacher, and other distinguished journals. As a EU Youth Sounding Board Member, she plays an advisory role to both Commissioner Urpilainen and the directorate-general for International Partnerships. She is also a member of the Global Youth Coalition for Road Safety and was co-chair of the 2nd World Youth Assembly for Road Safety in 2020.

Linda is leading the #MovingSafe2Hasselt University project. Born and raised in Kenya, and studying and living in Brussels, she understands the differences between both regions. With her local action winning project in 2021, she is trying to overcome the road safety challenges faced by international students face when arriving at Hasselt University in their first weeks.

Matthew Baldwin has been Deputy Director-general of the European Commission's Directorate-general for Transport and Mobility since 2016 and was appointed as European Coordinator for Road Safety and related aspects of sustainable mobility on 1 October 2018, and in 2021 as Mission Manager of the Mission for 100 climate neutral and smart cities by 2030. Previously in the Commission, he has worked in DG Trade and DG Move, and he has served in the cabinets of Commissioner Pascal Lamy, President Jose Manuel Barroso and Commissioner Jonathan Hill.

Oliva is a young activist on a mission to recourse the traffic experiences of children and youth in Uganda, and Africa at large. She is the Founder of Uzima Ari, a youth-led organization working to empower young people to lead, advocate, and implement local actions geared towards achieving global health. She also serves as a Youth Leadership Board Member to the Youth Coalition.

Simon Patrick Obi is a committed and passionate road safety advocate with more than six years of experience. He has led and championed several interventions aimed at improving health, safety, and environment. He serves as the Executive Director for Greenlight Initiative, based in Nigeria.

He is a sixth-year medical student from Alexandria, Egypt. During his years of medical school, he discovered that his passion was not just for clinical medicine but also for public health and road safety.

My name is Maxwell Changombe. I am currently the Programmes Coordinator for Restless Development Zimbabwe Hub. Restless Development is all about youth leadership and  I have worked with Restless Development for the past 8 years building young people's leadership skills to be able to respond to the most urgent issues affecting themselves, families, communities, countries, and the world at large. Currently, l am also leading a project called #GenEndIt Youth Ambassadors, a UNAIDS program which is a global program consisting of diverse groups of young people from across the world leading the fight to end AIDS by 2030 as a global pandemic. I started at my local church volunteering to help the elderly which led me to join different groups and organizations including Restless Development. I volunteered with Restless Development as a peer educator conducting sexual reproductive health and rights/ comprehensive sexuality education (CSE) sessions with young people in and out of school. I then became the Assistant Programmes Coordinator working in the rural areas of Zimbabwe and then became the Programmes Coordinator from 2018 till now. My journey has taught me the importance of intersectionality for the work we do since young peoples sexual rights interface with a whole lot of issues ranging from Climate change to education, poverty and so many other SDGs which has given me more drive to meaningfully engage young people in decision making spaces and increasing their agency. I have gained vast experience and skills in digital campaigning and advocacy, communications, leadership, managing young people from diverse backgrounds and multicultural environments which have built a lot of self-discipline within myself. I believe in youth power that young people given the platforms, opportunities, and spaces can be the best drivers of SDG which will help achieve the agenda 2030. It is high time to meaningfully engage young people and development initiatives and take them as partners not participants in development processes.

Robert Tama Lisinge is the Chief of the Energy, Infrastructure and Services Section of the Private Sector Development and Finance Division of the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (ECA), based in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. The Division focuses on crowding-in private sector investment in African countries, particularly in the area of infrastructure. He holds a BSc degree in Civil Engineering and an MSc degree in Transportation Engineering. He also holds an MPhil and a degree of Doctor of Business Administration from the Maastricht School of Management in the Netherlands. Prior to his current position, he was the Chief of the Operational Quality Section of the Strategic Planning and Operational Quality Division of ECA. He has over 20 years of experience in undertaking research and advising African countries and organisations on infrastructure policy as well as transport and trade facilitation issues. He delivers courses on transport infrastructure development at the African Institute for Economic Development and Planning in Dakar, Senegal. 

Benacer BOULAAJOUL is the General Director of the National Road Safety Agency in the Kingdom of Morocco since May 30th, 2019. In this new position, Benacer BOULAAJOUL leads efforts to develop sustainable Road safety Strategy in Collaboration with all stakeholders from Public and Private sectors and NGO’s. This New Agency is under implementation and will start officially in January 1st, 2020 and will be responsible of all jobs related to Road Safety in Morocco. 

Prior to this appointment, Mr. BOULAAJOUL served for six years as Permanent Secretary of National Committee for Prevention of Traffic Accidents (CNPAC) in Morocco, where he was responsible of Communication, Road education and Research and Development on all Topics linked to Road safety. A passionate advocate for Road safety at national and International levels mainly in Africa, he organized the first African Road Safety Forum in Marrakech in November 2018 together with the African Transport Policy Program – SSATP and pushed for greater regional collaboration to establish the first African Road Safety Observatory (ARSO). His the Chairman of the transitional Steering Committee of ARSO.

Mr. BOULAAJOUL is also the President of PRI since November 2015 (La Prévention Routière Internationale) a global road safety organization created in 1959 with more than 60 organization members from the 5 continents. He brings to the post a deep level of experience and understanding of complex road safety challenges. His prior experience includes serving as Director for Studies and Information Systems at CNPAC from 2005 to 2012 where he would have led several projects and studies on Road Safety in Morocco.

Mr. BOULAAJOUL is an Engineer in Statistics and Applied Economy and holds Master degrees in Public Management.