The Global Assessment on Women Safety

Many women and girls face domestic violence not only in their homes and in relationships, but also in public spaces due to poor choices in urban design and poor management of those spaces. In practical terms this can relate to factors such as inadequate street lighting, unsafe underpasses, ineffective community policing and lack of rehabilitation programmes for those involved in antisocial use of public spaces. During times of conflict or social unrest, those factors can further exacerbate the risk of gender-based violence.

UN-HABITAT takes an active role in the documentation and exchange of best practices and lessons learned to improve safety and security in cities. To this end, UN-HABITAT has collaborated with the Huairou Commission, Women in Cities International and Red Mujer y Habitat to conduct this Global Assessment on Women’s Safety, which is an extensive review of tools and strategies promoting women’s safety on the global, regional, national and local levels. This has resulted in the creation of a database of over 200 institutions, local authorities and grassroots initiatives working on women’s safety. This helps with information sharing and building of global and regional networks.