PLEIKU, Vietnam – December 30, 2021

To prepare for a new year of protecting our children’s lives on the road, local government partners, representatives of program schools, and Program Technical & Strategic Steering Committee (TSSC), with Global Road Safety Partnership (GRSP) representatives, gathered with AIP Foundation – in Pleiku City and online – to assess progress and upcoming activities for theSlow Zones, Safe ZonesPhase II program.

Supported by Fondation Botnar, GRSP, Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile (FIA), International Road Assessment Programme (iRAP), as well as by the National Traffic Safety Committee (NTSC), the Ministry of Education and Training (MoET), the Traffic Safety Committee and local stakeholders of Gia Lai province,Slow Zones, Safe Zonesprogram aims to reduce road crash injuries and fatalities in school zones in Vietnam.

Mrs Hong Bui, AIP Foundation Program Manager, was proud to announce that 29 primary schools in Pleiku – our model city for Safe School Zones in Vietnam, already underwent safety infrastructure modifications. School teachers present at the meeting shared their high appreciation of the support from donor, AIP Foundation and Local government to make their schools safer.

In addition, the program’s Traffic Safety e-curriculum has also been tested by 1,485 students from geographically diverse regions, with a statistically significant difference between the mean knowledge scores of all grade levels, when comparing the Control schools and the Intervention schools.

Along with this great news, the Technical & Strategic Steering Committee unveiled the first draft of a school zone definition for Pleiku City. It will be submitted to the Pleiku People’s Committee for passage of a Pleiku Decision in February 2021.\nThe COVID-19 pandemic led to some delays in the project implementation. The Police enforcement plan, as well as measurement of the project effectiveness, will be carried out when the students get back to school.

Mr. Kim Beng Lua, GRSP Senior Officer, shared “WHO has published the [Global Plan] for the Second Decade of Action for Road Safety. The plan highlights the importance of including safe mobility and youth engagement. [Thus] GRSP is working with AIP Foundation to extend the project to improve safe sustainable mobility and encourage [multimodal] mobility, especially walking and cycling. [This aligns] with other United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, such as reducing greenhouse gas emissions, improving equity, and sustainable development.”