The National Government of Vietnam has endorsed the AIP Foundation Safe School Zones Guide, supported by the FIA Foundation, in a milestone step towards ensuring safe school journeys for every child across the country.

The Safe School Zones (SSZ) Guide is a scalable blueprint to address the road safety challenges around Vietnamese school zones. The Vietnamese Ministry of Transport has issued an official recommendation for the SSZ Guide as the first national reference material on safe school zones. The aim is to build an evidence base to support legislation to establish a legal definition of school zones and the minimum safety standards they would need to meet, aligned with the SSZ Guide.

A national workshop on the SSZ Guide for transport stakeholders, including 63 Department of Transportation representatives from across the country, was hosted by the Ministry of Transport, in collaboration with the AIP Foundation. Participants were introduced to the SSZ Guide and explored its potential application. In addition, experiences of piloting and implementing the school zone improvements were shared to demonstrate impact and lessons learned.

The endorsement of the SSZ Guide is a meaningful and crucial step in saving lives on Vietnam’s roads. Over 17 million children in Vietnam make daily journeys to school on roads where traffic speeds frequently and significantly exceed internationally recommended school zone speed limits.

“The Safe School Zones Guide Vietnam is a significant milestone in the work of AIP Foundation to ensure every child has a safe and healthy journey to school,” said Aggie Krasnolucka, FIA Foundation Programmes Director, who spoke during the event. “The national roll-out of the guide supports every province to embed the safe-system approach and youth participation into transport design, making journeys safer for all.”

“We are so proud to collaborate with the Government of Vietnam to enshrine the right of every student to travel to and from school safely,” said Mirjam Sidik, Chief Executive Officer at AIP Foundation. “This is our biggest achievement since the Helmet Law passed in 2007. This SSZ Guide marks a monumental shift toward safeguarding our future generation.”

Read the full story here.