Mar 2012 - Feb 2013 | UN-Habitat

UN-HABITAT, in collaboration with UNICEF and UN-Women, developed a global programme “Safe and Sustainable Cities for All”. During 2012, the programme was launched in eight pilot cities ─ Greater Beirut (Lebanon), Dushanbe (Tajikistan), Metro Manila (Philippines), Marrakesh (Morocco), Nairobi (Kenya), Rio de Janeiro (Brazil), San José (Costa Rica) and Tegucigalpa (Honduras). Some city-level results of the programme include: a rapid assessment in 7 neighborhoods in Beirut, revealing interrelated challenges of poverty, overcrowding, and lack of safe public spaces for women, girls and children; the establishment of a permanent Safe Cities Committee within the Municipality in Marrakech which helped to increase resources for the Municipal Committee on Equity and Gender Equality; engagement of community members in participatory mapping of violence and safety conditions for women and girls in nine communities, in Rio; dialogues with informal settlers in Mandaluyong City, Manila, to design collaborative interventions and mainstream ‘safety’ into the city’s planning and budgeting processes.Some results of the global rogramme on “Safe Cities free from violence for women and girls”, led by UN Women, in collaboration with UN-Habitat, include the approval of an Amendment to the City Ordinance on Eliminating Violence against Women by the Quito Municipality to also target violence in public spaces; Safe Cities’ models and approaches are being integrated into a new government scheme in New Delhi aimed at enhancing women’s safety and policing services; the Mayor's office in Kigali is advocating for Safe Cities measures to be included in its city plan and budget and for legal reforms to also address sexual harassment and violence in public spaces; mainstreaming of Women’s Safety Audits into the planning processes of the Egyptian Ministry of Housing, Utilities and Urban Development.The Plan International, Women in Cities International and UN-Habitat joint programme “Because I am a Girl – Urban Programme” was launched in Hanoi (Vietnam), Delhi (India), Cairo (Egypt), Kampala (Uganda) and Lima (Peru). A rapid situational assessment (RSA) has been conducted to assess safety of girls in each of the five cities.UN-Habitat and local authorities of the Kupang and Belu districts in Indonesia, spearheaded a “Local-to-Local Dialogue“ for women, aimed at improving responses by local authorities to crises impacting women and empowering women, both from ex-refugees and host communities. UN-Habitat is supported by the Huairou Commission and by the local NGO CIS Timor. Such dialogues also offer the opportunity to exchange experiences among different grassroots female leaders from other post-conflict areas, in Southeast Asia. By supporting the role of organized women’s leadership in community development processes, the “Local-to-Local Dialogue provides a foundation to prevent and reduce existing practices of discrimination, marginalization and violence against women in post-conflict areas.