Vietnam - August 1, 2022

Mobility has a different definition for every person around the world. Some of us take cars and motorbikes to bring their children to school. Other students can walk or ride their bicycle. No matter how we move, mobility is at the heart of our society and our future generations’ access to education.

Road crashes are the leading cause of death for children and young adults aged 5-29 years globally. In Vietnam, the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation estimated that more than 6,200 children and youth aged 5-29 were killed in road crashes in 2019. This represents a public health crisis that disproportionately affects young people most. Road upgrades, speed management, as well as enforcement of behavioral risk factors are needed to effectively address this crisis.

Building on this, the nonprofit AIP Foundation launched the three-year programAI&Me: Empowering youth for safer roads, supported by Fondation Botnar – a foundation which champions the use of AI and digital technologies to improve the wellbeing of young people in urban environments – co-funded by FIA Foundation, and implemented in partnership with Anditi and iRAP.

The goal of this program is to harness proven and emerging technologies to support governments in focusing life-saving road upgrades and speed management toward the locations where young people have indicated they need it most.

TheAI&Meprogram is now celebrating one year, with many positive achievements accomplished so far, starting with approvals to the program’s implementation by the governments both at national and provincial levels, that have shown their high commitment since then. In addition, Memorandums of Understanding (MoU) were signed with the Traffic Safety Committees and Departments of Education and Training at both National and Provincial levels.

The screening methodology harnesses the power of Big Data with a human approach centered on high-risk communities and urban environments. Thanks to this approach, 1,063 schools in three pilot cities were evaluated, with 106 schools chosen for further detailed assessments in a later stage (56 schools in HCMC, 25 in Yen Bai, and 25 in Pleiku). These schools will now be prioritized for detailed road safety assessments with the iRAP Star Rating for Schools (SR4S).

In January 2022, a Big Data Screening training was held for government stakeholders, staff and representatives from high-risk schools. 86% of participants found theBig Data Screening methodologypresented in training useful/very useful for government stakeholders to identify high-risk communities/locations easier.

In parallel, 28 in-depth interviews were conducted with students, teachers, and parents from secondary school, high school, college/university in three target cities to support the development of a Youth Engagement App (YEA), to offer young people an efficient way to identify and report high-risk road conditions, providing them with a platform for their voices to be heard. AIP Foundation selected eighteen schools for piloting the YEA  based on the following criteria: strong commitment to road safety education, active participation in road safety activities, and the principal’s ability in the effective mobilization of teachers, students, and parents. Per school, 100 students will be chosen to participate in the program activities, mainly piloting the YEA in the second year of the project.

The YEA app is on track to help young people in Vietnam to report unsafe road conditions to their government and effectively prevent road crashes, for all students to have safe and equal access to education and to cultivate safety in the community. It brings us closer to our vision of a world where all neighborhood streets are livable, safe, and sustainable.