United Nations Human Settlements Programme

ELIMINATING VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN IN WEST BANK AND GAZA STRIP –  programme led by UN Women and including UNFPA, UN Habitat and UNODC. The partnership aims at reducing vulnerability of women and girls in West Bank & Gaza to all forms of violence against women and from the threat of such violence.

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SUSTAINABLE AND INCLUSIVE URBAN PROSPERITY IN THE STATE OF ALAGOAS – UN-Habitat partnership with the government of Alagoas, Brazil, in which UN-Habitat is going to conduct a local safety diagnosis and public spaces use, with a special focus on women, and elaborate an urban safety and crime prevention strategy, giving a special focus on violence against women and on how to promote a culture of peace.

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In Cairo, Egypt, UN-Habitat conducted women’s safety audits in the 3 selected areas for intervention and prepared situational analysis reports and recommendations which were submitted to government. Place-making participatory planning workshops have been conducted in each of the 3 areas and the implementation of women-inclusive management of public spaces model has been approved by government. Progress has been made in highlighting safety concerns of women and girls through the “Because I am a Girl Urban Programme” jointly implemented by UN-Habitat, Plan International and Women and Cities International. A set of 5 tools have been developed and situational assessments conducted in 5 cities (Kampala, Delhi, Cairo, Lima and Hanoi). In each of the cities, girls shared similar experiences of insecurity, of sexual harassment and of feelings of exclusion as well as visions for safer future cities. Hide

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. Hide

As part of the Strengthening Community Safety through Local Government Capacity-Building project being implemented in Kingston, Jamaica in partnership with UN HABITAT-UNDP, a two-day women’s safety audit training for local government community workers and other key stakeholders was organised in October 2010. The trained community workers are conducting safety audits with women in the communities in partnership with Huairou Commission and the University of Technology, Jamaica. With the aim to support and strengthen the capacity of the Nigerian National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP) in countering organized crime groups involved in trafficking of minors and young women for sexual exploitation from Nigeria, UNICRI submitted a project proposal based on current assessment of NAPTIP’s requests and operational needs. Hide

Within the joint MDG funded project on “building social cohesion” UN-HABITAT has conducted a training needs assessment, also on women’s safety UN-HABITAT is just embarking on the safety assessment of 13 municipalities, results to be presented during a restitution workshop in mid-October. In conjunction with the restitution workshop, a training will also be conducted on safety tools and women’s safety audits. Training of trainers on conducting women’s safety audits was conducted in October 2010. Hide

UN HABITAT continues to support the NGO Jagori in the implementation of the project called “Youth and Girls Safety”.UN-HABITAT and WICI developed the background document on girls and urbanization for the Plan International Publication “Because I am a Girl”. UN-Habitat attended the launch of the PLAN report “ Because I am a Girl” in Nairobi and Kampala. An expert working group on “girls’ safety in cities” will be based on the recommendations of the publication.The Third International Conference on Women’s Safety: Building Inclusive Cities was held in New Delhi, India in November 22nd to 24th 2010, with the participation of stakeholders from 41 countries and 60 cities. The conference was co-organised by Women in Cities International and Jagori, in collaboration with UN-HABTIAT, UNIFEM, and the Huairou Commission with the support from the Department for International Development of the United Kingdom, the Canadian Government, the Interchurch organisation for development co-operation (ICCO), the Evangelischer Entwicklingsdienst (EED), UNICEF, the German NGO Freidrich Ebert Stuftung, CITYNET, the Australian Government, Red Mujer y Habitat America Latina, and Plan International. The conference resulted in the Delhi Declaration. Hide

UN-HABITAT and Women in Cities International developed a background document on girls and urbanization for the publication “Because I am a Girl”, of the NGO, Plan. Hide

UN-HABITAT is implementing, in partnership with the NGO “Jagori”, a project on Youth and Girls Safety, in one of the settlement communities in New Delhi. Project activities include: the sensitisation of young girls and boys to prevent and end violence against women and girls; and the re-examination of masculinities and gender identities by young men. The Core Strategies deployed are:- mapping and training of a team on Safety Audit methodology;- critical sensitization of a broad range of key stakeholders, to ensure their collaboration with the youth in the development and creation of a gender-equitable safe environment;- developing competencies of the youth to demonstrate leadership and ownership in the community.UN- HABITAT and UNESCAP have been jointly implementing the project “promoting urban safety for the poor in the Asia Pacific” and the final workshop ' Putting Safety First for the Urban Poor on the Local Agenda" was held in the Philippines, in June 2010. One of the concerns raised was women’s safety in the region and in the on-line Safer Cities toolkit for Asia and the Pacific women’s safety features prominently.UN-HABITAT is conducting safety assessments of 13 municipalities in Southern Serbia. Hide

UN-HABITAT also published the “Global Assessment on Women's safety.” This assessment was completed in collaboration with the Huairou Commission, Women in Cities International and Red Mujer y Habitat, with a review of tools and strategies promoting women’s safety at the global, regional, national and local levels. This has resulted in the creation of a database of close to 200 institutions, local authorities and grassroots initiatives working on women’s safety. Hide