The International Road Assessment Programme (iRAP) today announced that Prudence Foundation, the community investment arm of Prudential Plc, has become a Global Programme Partner in the Star Rating for Schools (SR4S) programme. In this collaboration, Prudence Foundation will contribute funding to the SR4S programme to make streets safer for children to travel to and from school.
iRAP is a UK-registered charity which aims to promote road safety improvement and road quality. With a vision for a world free of high-risk roads, iRAP developed the SR4S system and tools as an evidence-based approach for measuring, managing and communicating children’s exposure to risk on a journey to school.
Road crashes are the major cause of death of young people aged 5-24 years old[1]. Around the world, 500 children die on the roads every day[2], many of them on their way to schools. The SR4S programme supports quick interventions that help save lives and prevent serious injuries.
“Every child deserves the opportunity to travel safely to and from school. Road environments that are safe not only save lives and prevent injuries, but they can also encourage more walking which is the healthiest and cleanest form of mobility,” said iRAP Global Programme Director, Greg Smith.
“Thanks to the support of Prudence Foundation and the SR4S donors and Global Programme Partners, the SR4S tools are free for use worldwide and are continuously being improved. We can also support partners using the tools in their road safety projects to maximise their life-saving potential.”
Marc Fancy, Executive Director of Prudence Foundation said, “At Prudence Foundation, we aim to create a better future for our communities by making them safer and more resilient to life’s risks. Our flagship SAFE STEPS Kids Road Safety programme increases awareness around road safety among children, reaching more than 35 million households every day. Through our partnership with iRAP to support the SR4S initiative, we want to motivate practical actions including the construction and modification of roads to ensure a safer journey for children.”
SR4S has been already used to assess the level of safety in a total of 1,028 schools worldwide, 161 of those in Africa and 332 in Asia. For each of the assessed roads, a Star Rating is calculated, where 1-star is the least safe and 5-star is the safest. These road assessments help guide and measure the implementation of appropriate safety enhancements around these schools, such as having crossing facilities and sidewalks to enable children to cross the road safely, as well as safe speeds and traffic calming for drivers to slow down as they approach these crossings.
The SR4S programme was officially launched at the 3rd Global Ministerial Conference on Road Safety which took place in Sweden in February 2020. Prudence Foundation joins 3M as Global Programme Partners that will support the SR4S Programme, along with the Founding Sponsor FedEx and Major Donor FIA Foundation.
About iRAP
iRAP is a registered charity with the vision for a world free of high-risk roads. The charity is active in over 100 countries and works with governments, development banks, mobility clubs, industry, research organisations and road safety NGOs to provide them with the free methodology, tools, training and support to make their roads safer. iRAP’s Star Rating Methodology provides a simple and objective measure of the level of safety which is ‘built-in’ to the road for vehicle occupants, motorcyclists, bicyclists and pedestrians. A 1-star road is the least safe and a 5-star road is the safest. iRAP’s Vaccines for Roads is a valuable online resource unlocking the potential of the world’s largest road infrastructure safety database to explore the human and financial impact of road injury, how safe the world’s roads are and provide the Business Case for Safer Roads. iRAP and its partners have influenced the safety of over USD$95 billion dollars of infrastructure investment, Star Rated over 1.4 million kilometres of roads and designs, plus 1,028 schools, Risk Mapped over 1.7 million kilometres, and trained nearly 60,000 people globally. iRAP is the umbrella programme for regional road assessment programmes including EuroRAP, ChinaRAP, AusRAP, usRAP, KiwiRAP, IndiaRAP, BrazilRAP, South Africa RAP, ThaiRAP, TanRAP and MyRAP and is financially supported by the FIA Foundation and Global Road Safety Facility.
For more information please visit: irap.org
About Prudence Foundation
Prudence Foundation is the community investment arm of Prudential plc in Asia and Africa. Its mission is to create a better future for communities by making them safer and more resilient to life’s risks. The Foundation runs regional programmes as well as local programmes in partnership with NGOs, governments and the private sector in order to maximise the impact of its efforts. Prudence Foundation leverages Prudential’s long-term mindset and geographical scale to make communities safer, more secure and more resilient. The Foundation is a Hong Kong registered charitable entity.
For more information please visit: www.prudencefoundation.com
About Star Rating for Schools
Star Rating for Schools (SR4S) has, thus far, assessed 1,028 schools across 63 countries and was awarded a Prince Michael International Safety Award in 2018. There are more than 150 locations where improvements have already been made and post-improvement assessments completed, increasing the average rating at locations from 2.7 stars to 4.4 stars (with 5 stars being the safest rating). Interventions include traffic calming measures, improved delineation and sidewalks and crossing facilities.
SR4S is a technical tool, and its application will be delivered through the Lead Partner network, world-leading NGO’s involved in school road safety that have been involved in SR4S’s development. These expert NGOs will support those organisations seeking to become delivery partners by undertaking the Star Rating of roads around a school and integrating the approach into their engagement with a school community.
AIP Foundation, Child Health Initiative, Eastern Alliance for Safe and Sustainable Transport (EASST), Federation Internationale de L’Automobile (FIA), Gonzalo Rodriguez Foundation, Global Alliance of NGOs for Road Safety, Global Road Safety Partnership (GRSP), International Road Federation (IRF), Safe Kids Worldwide, Youth for Road Safety (YOURS) and the World Resources Institute (WRI)
Governments, Road Safety NGOs, Corporations and local organizations focused on child safety and school road infrastructure can get involved by visiting starratingforschools.org. Ways to make a positive difference include:
- working with your local Education Department and Road Authority to assess and improve the Star Rating for Schools where you live or work
- using the SR4S approach to demonstrate the safest route to school
- advocating for 3-star or better journeys to school for all kids in support of the Global Road Safety Performance Targets agreed by World Health Organisation Member States
- sponsoring a Lead Partner to develop a targeted programme of engagement, engineering and education for high-risk schools
- using the SR4S tool to assess before and after road infrastructure improvements to quantify the safety gain linked to investment and to celebrate and ribbon-cut success (e.g. new 5-star crossings).
- becoming a SR4S programme delivery partner
- becoming a SR4S donor to support global action and
- following the SR4S success stories by signing up to the newsletter
The Global Programme Partners will ensure the SR4S programme sustainability, allowing partners around the world to benefit from the tool exempt of fees. With this generous contribution, the SR4S Global Programme Coordination will be able to offer free supporting activities such as programme advice, training, quality assurance, software help-desk and ongoing software enhancements and maintenance.
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