FISEVI draws focus to protecting children on roads in Colombia

FISEVI 2022, the most important forum on children’s road safety in Latin America, has provided an important opportunity for Star Rating for Schools collaboration with iRAP regional partners to reduce the human and economic cost of road crashes – the leading killer of children and young people worldwide.

The fourth edition of FISEVI, hosted by the Government of Colombia, brought together more than 1700 attendees in person and virtually. More than 60 experts from 12 countries, including iRAP, shared their experience and best practice over 3 days, to build local capacity and encourage action to eliminate deaths and serious injuries of children in traffic.

In Colombia, according to figures from the Observatory of the National Road Safety Agency, 471 minors died in road crashes in 2021, which represents an increase of 5% compared to the average of 2017 – 2020.

During the event, Colombia mentioned Star Rating for Schools lead partner iRAP’s Methodology as one of the most important tools of its road safety framework, and ViDA Investment Plans as a key guide for shaping public policy.

In Colombia, iRAP and local partners have undertaken safety assessments on nearly 11,500 km of roads, and 22 schools. Nearly 1,600 people have been trained in how to make their roads safer in events delivered locally.

FISEVI aims to facilitate the exchange of knowledge, experiences and good practices for the development of road safety management, from the creation and implementation of public policies to actions led by civil society organizations and private institutions. Previous editions of FISEVI, held in Uruguay 2014, Chile 2016 and Argentina 2018, have established excellent results and articulated work with the governments of those countries, aimed at protecting the lives of children on the roads.

Maria Fernanda Rodriguez, Founder and President of the Gonzalo Rodríguez Foundation and Star Rating for Schools Lead Partner said, “We work with the governments of different Latin American countries and for the realization of FISEVI we chose those in which we noticed commitment to work on this issue, because the need is very great. That is why we are in Colombia, because there is political will to work on child road safety. What we want is to generate public policies in a transversal way in all the government entities that can interact, and try a more holistic approach, which not only sees the child as a passenger, but also looks at infrastructure, hospital care, the rights of minors, regulations, safety elements, education and control,” she said.

The Minister of Transportation, Ángela María Orozco said, “We have worked in the last three and a half years to leave a Road Safety plan for the next 10 years, based on advanced international guidelines to guarantee safe mobility not only for children and adolescents but for all Colombians. Road safety is a collective construction, of road actors, the transport sector, unions, companies, educational institutions, and for this reason we are gathered here working together to save lives on the roads, this time of the most vulnerable at the time of an accident”.

iRAP Lead for Colombia and General Director of the National Road Safety Agency said, “We are very happy to welcome in Colombia a new chapter of the International Forum on Child Road Safety – FISEVI. This Forum reflects the commitment not only of the National Road Safety Agency but of the entire transport sector to work together and articulate all the different actors in a comprehensive vision of road safety. This meeting is evidence of Colombia’s progress towards the safe system vision, which includes road safety from different components such as infrastructure, speed management, type of vehicles and the behaviour of the road actor,” he said.

FISEVI is also configured as a peak moment in the commitment of the government of Iván Duque for the protection of children and adolescents; and reaffirms the actions that have been advanced since its inception as the signing of the National Pact for Child Road Safety signed in 2019 by the Ministries of Transport, Education, the ANSV and the United Nations.

For more information on iRAP partners’ work to make school journey’s safer in Latin America supported by Star Rating for Schools see:

Thanks to the Gonzalo Rodríguez Foundation for some of the content of this article.