Global Campaign: International Awareness Day for Avoidable Deaths
By Mr Abdullahi O. Umar
The Avoidable Deaths Network (ADN) marked two years of its global campaign, the International Awareness Day for Avoidable Deaths (IAD4AD), and continued its mission to raise awareness of disaster-related deaths and missing persons. Launched on March 13, 2023, this initiative offers a crucial platform for researchers, practitioners, policymakers, and the affected population to enhance disaster preparedness and response, ultimately aiming to reduce fatalities through swift interventions and improved governance.
The 2025 IAD4AD campaign demonstrated robust geographic expansion, successfully delivering activities in more than 20 countries and meeting the Network’s ambitious 2025 goal. This achievement represents a dramatic increase from the 2024 campaign, which reached 11 countries. Crucially, the campaign still generated 43 diverse activities, showcasing a broader, more decentralised approach, even with a slight drop of 10 activities compared to the previous year. At the same time, some of the campaign activities ran for several days, such as the extreme heat campaign in Oman, the road traffic accidents campaign in Pakistan, and the challenges faced by coastal people in Bangladesh.
Key Themes and Activities
The 2025 IAD4AD campaign encompassed a range of activities, including awareness programmes, training sessions, creative advocacy campaigns (anthology), academic discussions, and community and student engagement initiatives. This year’s primary focus areas were road safety, drowning prevention, heatwave awareness, the causes of avoidable deaths, and snakebite response. The activities were conducted under the leadership of a substantial team consisting of five Operations Members, fourteen Regional Coordinators, three Advisory Board Members, three Future Leaders, and twenty-two Affiliates/Partner Institutions.
Notable Highlights from the 2025 Campaign:
Road Safety Focus: Significant efforts were made to decrease road accidents, particularly in Pakistan, where initiatives were launched in partnership with the Punjab Emergency Services Department. Activities included:
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Figure 1: Training of Student Volunteers on Road Safety by the Punjab Emergency Services Department Parents’ counselling on road safety for young motorcyclists, raising awareness among 470 participants to discourage risky practices that can lead to fatal accidents.
- Training student volunteers on road safety, with 20 students recruited as ADN Ambassadors after intensive training by the officer in charge of the Punjab Emergency Services (see Figure 1).
- An awareness walks on road safety for young motorcyclists, involving 360 participants, including ADN ambassadors and local government officials, to maximise the visibility of this urgent issue.
A Road Safety Awareness Campaign was also held in Nigeria, involving 100 participants, including drivers, commuters, and road safety officials.
Creative Advocacy: The “Art 4 Life Campaign” was a significant initiative in Sub-Saharan Africa. It employed poetry, flash fiction, and photography to raise awareness about social justice issues related to preventable disaster-related deaths. The campaign received 104 submissions from young creatives across five African countries: Nigeria, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Kenya, and Uganda. It concentrated on four major public health concerns: snakebite, Maternal Mortality, Drowning, and Silicosis.
Drowning Prevention: A dedicated focus group discussion, “Voices from the Lake: Fisherfolks Speak on Drowning Prevention,” was held at Gaba Landing Site in Uganda to examine the persistence of drowning risks and the effectiveness of current interventions.
Snakebite Response: Strategies to Reduce Avoidable Snakebite Deaths were discussed in a webinar held in India (Gurgaon/New Delhi), attended by over 100 participants globally, including leading scientists and policy experts.
Symbolic Awareness: The University of Leicester’s iconic Attenborough Tower was illuminated to mark the ADN’s global campaign.
Through strategic engagement with global audiences and local stakeholders, the ongoing momentum of IAD4AD 2025 highlights ADN’s dedication to improving disaster risk governance, informing policy decisions, and encouraging community-led interventions that save lives. For more details on the IAD4AD global campaign, please visit: International Awareness Day for Avoidable Deaths – Avoidable Deaths Network
References
Avoidable Deaths Network (2025) International Awareness Day for Avoidable Deaths (IAD4AD) 2025. Available at: https://iad4ad.avoidable-deaths.net/ (Accessed: 19 November 2025).