Urbact - Gender Equal Cities

Safer cities maps [Germany and Spain]

In order to make (large) cities a safer place to live for girls and women, in 2014 Plan International launched the Urban Programme Safe Cities for Girls together with UN-Habitat. The programme is locally implemented in 12 countries and not only aims to make (large) cities safer through various measures, but also to raise awareness of the problem of sexual harassment, question traditional gender role models and eliminate harmful stereotypes. To begin, the programme gathered data about whether girls and young women feel safe in their cities. To explore this, Plan International in Germany, for example, created the Safer Cities Map, on which safe and unsafe places cities could be marked. During so-called Safety Walks , the project participants walked through the streets and recorded the dangers in their neighbourhoods in writing and with cameras. They then created maps on which they marked the places that were potentially dangerous for girls. With this mapping survey, young women and girls had the chance to make their voices heard and thereby initiate positive changes. They approached authorities such as the police, city councils or government representatives to demand improvements. A similar mapping exercise was conducted in Madrid (Spain) as the Free to Be 69 online project using maps and crowdsourcing technologies. This is a good example of how technology is used to make cities safer and increase gender equality (related to data and digitalisation, which are explored in chapters 3D and 3F).

Manuela Carmana, Mayor of Madrid at the time, underlined that while it was important that the streets were safe for girls and women, work had to take place

to eradicate violent behaviour.

The project works both with municipal authorities and governments at all levels to ensure that young people (especially girls and young women) are involved in urban planning and also directly with young people in youth clubs. Activities also include educational campaigns against sexual harassment on buses, trains and taxis. In order to reduce the dangers in these means of transport, young people work out recommendations for action together with public transport companies. For example, bus and taxi drivers as well as travellers are provided with information sheets and posters to help girls in precarious and dangerous situations. The project participants also sensitise their families and communities to the dangers that girls face and engage in facilitated workshops in which they question gender stereotypes.

69 PLAN INTERNATIONAL (2018), City girls digitally map safety with Free to Be , available at: https://plan-international.org/news/2018/04/17/city-girls-digitally-map-safety-with-free-to-be/

Case Study