•This partnership kicked off in 2017 with the launch of the "Rights of Way" project to promote safer and more sustainable mobility among the most vulnerable children and young people.

•Since then, the alliance has also been backing a Mexican programme designed to help girls and teenagers between 12 and 16 years old from high-poverty municipalities to access STEM education, so as to empower female talent in areas such as infrastructure and road safety.

10th December 2024.- The Abertis Foundation has been working closely with UNICEF since 2017 as part of its firm commitment to fighting one of the main causes of death among children and teenagers in the world: traffic accidents. Their partnership, embodied by the Rights of Way project, has already positively impact the road safety of 1.9 million children and young people in Brazil, Jamaica, the Philippines and India, where, as in many low- and middle-income countries, road accidents are a public health problem.

"We are working with and through UNICEF to advocate for road safety regulations and laws in high-risk countries, improve driver and pedestrian behaviour and encourage safe and sustainable mobility for young people in the world's major cities," said the president of the Abertis Foundation, Elena Salgado. "Efforts are now focusing on Brazil and India and on launching the STEM programme in Mexico."

Every year, 1.19 million people of all ages worldwide die from road traffic injuries, which are the leading cause of death among children and teenagers aged 5-19 years (World Health Organization, 2023). As well as impacting public health, traffic accidents directly impact a country's development and are estimated to represent a cost of 3% of GDP, with economic losses equivalent to 5% in low- and middle-income countries. In this regard, the Abertis Foundation-UNICEF alliance is geared to alleviating the lack of safe infrastructures in school zones, improving driver behaviour and promoting safe and sustainable mobility for children in cities, reinforcing available resources, as well as legislation in high-risk countries, promoting its dissemination and compliance.

An eight-year strategic partnership 
The programme promoted by the Abertis Foundation and UNICEF kicked off in Jamaica, the Philippines and Brazil. In phase one of its implementation, from 2017 to 2022, efforts focused on improving road safety on children and young people's journeys to school and reducing road traffic injuries and impacted around 267,000 children and young people in the three countries.

Phase two of the project, which will run until 2025, features different actions in Brazil such as the "Geração que Move" scheme, designed to enhance safe urban mobility in poorly connected areas and neighbourhoods in the cities of São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro through youth participation. A total of 10,600 young people have led the urban mobility debate, giving nearly 166,000 teenagers advice and practical information on how to improve road safety.

In India, a road safety project is underway in collaboration with the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, the Ministry of Education and the Traffic Police Department in the states of Telangana, Maharashtra and Gujarat. Nearly 8,000 Indian schoolchildren have been involved in school-based road safety awareness activities and an additional 1.5 million children and teenagers have received mobility improvement tips under the national School Health and Welfare programme.

And Mexico is rolling out a new project to facilitate access to STEM education (science and technology-related studies) for girls and teenagers aged 12 to 16 who study in schools in high-poverty municipalities. This programme aims to foster a positive perception of STEM disciplines among more than 9,000 female schoolchildren, encouraging them to participate in the classroom and nurturing female talent in areas such as road safety and infrastructure.

Two leading organisations in prevention and road safety
Road safety is one of the Abertis Foundation’s cornerstones and mirrors the group's experience around the world. The Foundation works with a wide range of public and private institutions, like the Guttmann Institute, the Red Cross and the Directorate General of Traffic to design, develop and finance road safety-awareness and training programmes, mainly for the most vulnerable people (children, teenagers, the elderly and people with disabilities). It also supports road safety research at seven leading universities around the world through its network of academic chairs, which has been organising the Abertis Chair Awards since 2003.

UNICEF, for its part, plays a leading role in road safety worldwide as an expert organisation of the Working Group for the involvement of the private sector in the United Nations Road Safety Collaboration (UNRSC) and co-chairing the United Nations Road Safety Fund (UNRSF), in which the Abertis Foundation also participates. 

Press release