Making Cities and Urban Spaces Safe for Women and Girls: Safety Audit Participatory Toolkit

As part of its Sexual Autonomy & Bodily Integrity (SABI) Initiative, the International Women’s Rights team at ActionAid International piloted work in 2011-2012 on guaranteeing women’s safety in cities and other urban spaces in five focal countries: Brazil, Cambodia, Ethiopia, Nepal and Liberia. The goal of the work is to guarantee women’s safety and mobility in their continuous movement between public and private spaces. As part of this pilot, each country has selected a particular focus area (e.g. safety issues concerning women factory workers and market traders at their place of work or when using public transport to travel between home and work). During the pilot, country offices and their partners carried out a participatory safety audit to understand women’s key safety concerns in particular urban spaces and steps that can be taken to improve their safety in these areas.

The following are widely recognised as the benefits of safety audits (WICI, UN Habitat, SIDA, 2008):

1. They can help to bring about improvements to physical environments such as improving lighting, cleaning up an area, removing hazards and adding security; 
2. They can also identify programmes, policies, and practices needed to enhance safety;
3. They can increase awareness and understanding of people’s concerns and provide important information for planners and elected officials;
4. They are an excellent tool for including people in community decision-making processes. They may also prompt other groups to act on the concerns identified.