Today we are celebrating International Women’s Day 2023. The theme this year is #EmbraceEquity. The aim of the IWD 2023 #EmbraceEquity campaign theme is to get the world talking about Why equal opportunities aren’t enough. People start from different places, so true inclusion and belonging require equitable action.
Gender inequity in transport remains one of the key challenges to ensuring a safer and more equitable future for our children, and as such, we need to do something about it.
iRAP’s road safety assessment method, which gives a road a safety Star Rating, aims to address infrastructure-related risk by giving roads individual Star Ratings for four road user groups—pedestrians, bicyclists, motorcyclists, and vehicle occupants. This method, which has now been used in over 100 countries, makes it very hard to ignore the safety of other road user groups in the design of our roads and streets.
iRAP’s method uses a data driven approach to assess the safety of road users. But like anything that relies on data, it is essential we look at this from a gender perspective to better understand the safety of transport for the modes women use. To find out more about how iRAP is using its data to better understand safety for women’s mobility, see our blog post written by Monica Olyslagers – iRAP’s Global Innovation Manager and Cities Specialist.
iRAP’s Training and Accreditation Programme continues to #embraceequity – building capacity around the world
Last year we were incredibly proud to announce 30 recipients for the iRAP International Women in Engineering Day Grant from 19 countries, including Thailand, Uruguay, Brazil, Mexico, India, Philippines, Kenya, Australia, Colombia, Malaysia, Ecuador, Slovak Republic, Cameroon, Romania, South Africa, Peru, Tunisia, Bangladesh and El Salvador.
Algunos de los aspectos más destacados que los ganadores mencionaron sobre cómo planean utilizar sus conocimientos incluyen:
- Utilizar la metodología iRAP para evaluar la seguridad de las carreteras e incorporar medidas de seguridad en la fase de diseño en Kenia.
- Evaluar las carreteras de la ciudad de Quito (Ecuador).
- Dar prioridad a las inversiones en India.
- Evaluar las carreteras en Tailandia y Laos.
- Para mejorar la seguridad vial en El Salvador y reducir los terribles accidentes que ocurren a diario. Con este conocimiento, podría brindar un apoyo más eficaz a mi empresa en nuevos proyectos viales que requieran el sistema de calificación por estrellas de iRAP.
- Integrar las medidas de seguridad vial adecuadas y apropiadas que sin duda abordarán los problemas de seguridad y movilidad en la red vial nacional de Filipinas.
- Para darme la oportunidad de desarrollar un trabajo de promoción más integral para crear calles más seguras para los niños en particular (Sudáfrica).
Of those who were successful recipients of the IWED 2022 Grants, 55% have already completed their training in the Elementos esenciales de la clasificación por estrellas y Start Rating for Designs courses (since August 2022).
Over 56% of those who completed the courses and chose to obtain accreditation have either received Acreditación iRAP already or are in the process of doing so.
2022 was our second year of offering the IWED grants – we will continue to work with past and present recipients to encourage training and accreditation and identify what hurdles they may face to continue building capacity. Collectively we can all #EmbraceEquity.
See how we have celebrated International Women’s Day in previous years below.