Three road safety NGOs have been presented with the FedEx Road Safety Award. The awards are presented biennially to NGO members of the Global Alliance of NGOs for Road Safety (the Alliance).
This year’s awards celebrate three organizations that have significantly grown their capacity to achieve national and international significance, influencing national policies and public perceptions of road safety. Their impacts and approaches make them role models for other NGOs.
The awards were presented by Rock Sherman, Vice President, Road Network Operations Europe, FedEx Express, during a symposium on road injury prevention and the Sustainable Development Goals, which was held during the Sixth Global Meeting of Nongovernmental Organizations Advocating for Road Safety and Road Victims (the Global Meeting).
The winners of the 2019 FedEx Road Safety Awards are:
• Ambassadeurs de la Sécurité Routière (ASR), Tunisia. Afef Ben Ghenia who leads ASR, has grown the NGO from a small grassroots organization to one of national and international significance. ASR’s breakthrough moment was a campaign to improve seatbelt usage in Tunisia. Through a media strategy that targeted public opinion by engaging celebrity ambassadors from different fields, mobilizing journalists to support the campaign, and advocating with government decision makers, ASR was able to reactivate a dormant seat belt law. The law was implemented in April 2017, and in the two months after it was passed, road deaths fell by 35% from the same months the previous year. Afef Ben Ghenia said: “The 2019 FedEx Road Safety Awards represent a big jump for ASR. It will give us more responsibility and a deep motivation to aim for more achievements in road safety and to maintain the work we are already doing in Tunisia.”
• The Eastern Alliance for Safe & Sustainable Transport (EASST), UK, with members across Eastern Europe and Central Asia. EASST and its local partners have achieved impressive results at local, national, and regional levels, using evidence-based approaches to address road safety issues that make a difference. Examples include a project in collaboration with the Automobile Club of Moldova that saw fatalities on public transport fall by 85% and a pilot project with the Young Generation of Tajikistan and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development that increased seat belt use in Dushanbe from 13% to 21% in six months and brought the issue to the attention of decision makers. EASST Founder and Director, Emma McLennan, said: “We are delighted and honored to receive this award, which we dedicate too to all our partners. This year marks EASST’s 10th anniversary—to be recognized by our peers and FedEx for all that we have achieved is a great source of pride and a wonderful way to top off our celebrations.”
• Safe Kids Philippines. Safe Kids Philippines has built partnerships with helmet manufacturers and motorcycle dealers to increase the affordability and distribution of safe helmets for children. Alongside this, it was at the forefront of a push to implement a law to make helmets mandatory for children on motorcycles. Safe Kids was the only NGO to serve as a regular consultant on the law. In addition, Safe Kids Philippines has been active with the global, FedEx-sponsored Walk This Way child pedestrian safety campaign for 15 years, reaching more than a million children with lifesaving and injury-preventing education and training. Safe Kids Philippine’s Amy Rolloque said: “The FedEx Road Safety Award 2019 is a big honor for our organization and also to my work as road safety advocate. The award will help Safe Kids Worldwide Philippines to push more forward our programs in the country, especially on child road safety. This award is for Filipino children and to all our partners from schools, government, and non-governmental agencies in the country. Thank you FedEx and the Global Alliance of NGOs for Road Safety.”
The awards highlight FedEx’s commitment to road safety and support of the NGO community around the world. In addition to the awards, FedEx is also a main sponsor of the Global Meeting, the Alliance Safer Cycling Advocate Program, and the Alliance Empowerment Program, an innovative capacity-building program for NGOs that includes the Alliance Advocate training. Both Afef Ben Ghenia of Ambassadeurs de la Sécurité Routière and Amy Rolloque of Safe Kids Philippines were part of the 2016 cohort of Alliance Advocates and attribute much of their success to the evidence-based techniques that they learned in the Advocate training.
The Global Alliance of NGOs for Road Safety’s Executive Director, Lotte Brondum said: “We are extremely proud of the NGOs in our Alliance community. They are effective, they are committed, and they are making a noise in their countries: pushing for safer streets and better laws. The FedEx Road Safety Award recognizes their achievements and raises their profile.
We are grateful to FedEx for their support to our members through the awards.”