Celebrating International Women’s Day on March 8^th 2022, Connective Cities was seeking the opportunity to address the issue of safer public spaces for women and girls in cities. The Insight Session “Urban Safety for Women and Girls – Strategies for safer public spaces in Cities” featured three speakers on the topic of participatory planning with women and girls as well as design and policy strategies.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, the importance of public spaces as places for recreation and community life has noticeably increased. Raising awareness for the voices of women and girls that were often unheard in urban planning in the past, is crucial to ensure public spaces are safe for them to play, meet, walk and work. Urban public spaces as well as public transport were mostly designed by and to accommodate the needs of men. A lot of them are not fit for women’s needs or pose a threat to women's safety, their design complicates everyday lives and reduces possibilities to engage in community life. Therefore, if possible, a lot of times these urban areas are avoided by women. The COVID-19 pandemic has exposed and exacerbated these existing gender inequalities in various aspects. At the same time, this crisis can be an opportunity to make urban planning more equitable and sustainable. Participatory approaches provide great opportunities to include voices and their ideas in urban planning that might have been unheard in the past. A rich community life and democratic urban societies can only thrive if public spaces are safe and functional for all citizens to meet and engage. 

The three speakers of the event introduced valuable insights on gender sensitive urban planning tools and shared practical experiences from Latin America, Europe and the MENA Region.

Sara Ortiz Escalante, Barcelona is a sociologist and urban planner. As part of the feminist planning collective Col·lectiu Punt 6 in Barcelona, Spain she has a wide range of experience in gender sensitive urban planning methodology and tools. In her Keynote, she introduced the audience to a feminist perspective on urban safety. She introduced the 6 principles of Women’s safety that were introduced by Anne Michaud in Montreal in the 1980s, yet are still of utmost importance today. In order to create safer public spaces, participatory planning is key. Ortiz Escalante introduced the tools of explanatory walks and safety audits. Her presentation features the examples of Cali, Colombia and Tétouan, Morocco. 

The Her City Toolbox was presented by Tove Andréasson Derner, Stockholm. Her City is a joint initative of Global Utmaning, a Swedish Think Tank and UN Habitat that provides municipalities as well as civil activists with a toolbox for participatory planning with Women and Girls. The Toolbox follows a process of 9 blocks that guide the user from Stakeholder Engagement to Implementation of specific projects. The design phase of the toolbox uses the Minecraft Tool which is accessible and fun for both kids and adults. The platform Her Cities – #HerCity (unhabitat.org) is open to the public and free of charge. So far, 315 cities are undertaking the process.  

The Minecraft Tool was also used for the design of Al-Gwheirieh Neighbourhood Park in Zarqa, Jordan. Like many other municipalities in Jordan, Zarqa is home to a lot of Syrian refugees. The city is one of the densest cities in the world. Therefore, the establishment of parks was an enormous challenge, yet became even more important regarding the COVID 19 pandemic. Mohammad Zawahreh, former head of the local development unit of the city of Zarqa, shared his experiences on establishing neighbourhood parks in inclusive planning processes in the city. Women and Men of different backgrounds were working together and established functional, safe, and green public spaces.

The presentations were followed by a Q&A Session that addressed common challenges and solutions in urban planning with women and girls worldwide. The speakers noted, that women and girls all over the world were putting an emphasis not only on safe but also green public spaces. Therefore, gender sensitive urban planning often leads to the establishment of sustainable green spaces. Another point of discussion was the inclusion of men in feminist urban planning. Depending on the cultural context, different approaches have proven to be most effective. While the set- up of female only exclusive groups proved to be an important factor in designing gender sensitive urban spaces, it is important to encourage the male population to support the inclusion of women and girls in urban design.  Because, safer public spaces for women and girls are safer public spaces for everyone.

Videos

Her City Toolbox – From Botkyrka to Johannesburg - YouTube

Rehabilitation of Jana Park : Zarqa/Jordan with AVSI Jordan - YouTube

Presentations

Urban Safety from a feminist perspective, Sara Ortiz Escalante, Collectiu Punt 6, Barcelona

Her City Toolbox, Tove Andréasson Derner, Her City, Stockholm

Al-Ghweirieh National Park - Designing an inclusive public space using the Minecraft tool, Mohammad Zawahreh, Zarqa

The recording of the event can be found here: Insight Session: Urban Safety for Women and Girls - Strategies for safer public spaces in Cities | Connective Cities Network (connective-cities.net)