3 år sedan
The Her City toolbox enables sustainable and inclusive cities together with girls. Involving girls in urban development will contribute to better cities for everyone, because girls plan and design with diversity and different needs in mind. If we let citizens that are rarely heard be the experts, our cities will become more inclusive, equal and sustainable. On the occasion of International Women’s day 8th of March 2021, the independent think tank Global Utmaning together with UN-Habitat, are launching the Her City Toolbox.
People increasingly live in cities. Urban areas are already home to 55 percent of the world’s population, and that figure is expected to grow to 68 percent by the year 2050. Urbanisation brings enormous challenges, not least in terms of inequality. When cities are poorly- or unplanned, it is often followed by widened gaps between the city and rural areas, urban centres and outskirts, and between different groups in society.
To address these challenges the think tank Global Utmaning and UN-Habitat (United Nations Human Settlements Program) have jointly initiated the Her City Toolbox – an open-source digital platform that guides urban actors and decision makers in strengthening girls’ participation in urban planning and design processes. The project supports cities to scale up and mainstream girls’ perspectives and participation as a part of their long-term strategies to build sustainable cities and societies.
“On the occasion of International Women’s Day, we are proud to launch the Her City Toolbox. With this digital toolbox we wish to highlight the values of increasingly involving women and girls in urban planning processes. Her City has great potential to change the urban landscape globally”, says Tove Ahlström, CEO Global Utmaning
Her City is the digital next step of the think tanks initiative #UrbanGirlsMovement. The #UrbanGirlsMovement gathered global best practices in participatory urban planning and design and created collaboration platforms for urban actors that focus on development from girls’ and young women’s needs and perspectives in urban development. In order to mainstream and share the result globally, the Her City toolbox was developed together with experts and stakeholders in urban development. The toolbox follows a unique process containing nine building blocks as a digital guideline on how to co-plan cities from a girl’s perspective. Tools such as checklists, agendas, manuals, forms, apps, surveys, and visualization services such as Minecraft, will help you on the way to reach the expected results and enable a cost-efficient process to be incorporated within cities and communities.
“To ensure sustainable cities that will work for everyone, we are convinced that involving vulnerable groups in urban development is key. The Her City Toolbox is a way of guiding urban actors to facilitate an ongoing dialogue between professionals and citizens and implement inclusive projects through a step-by-step methodology”, says Elin Andersdotter Fabre, Project Manager for Her City at UN-Habitat
The toolbox provides local municipal leaders, actors and decision-makers with a solid toolbox for youth and gender sensitive urban planning and design with the potential of long-term institutional change at a system level supporting the delivery of the Sustainable Development Goals and the 2030 Agenda as a whole.
“Our experiences show that the Her City approach does not only promote a handful of SDGs but in fact contributes to all Sustainable Development Goals on the local level. Our plan is to share the method and tools of Her City worldwide, as a long-term strategy for cities to implement the 2030 Agenda”, says Thomas Melin, senior urban advisor to Global Utmaning.
Her City is a joint initiative and has been developed by a multitude of partners. The project is funded by the Swedish Innovation Agency (Vinnova) with contributions from our partners White Architects and Swedish Union of Tenants. It contains tools from our partners Block by Block Foundation, Methodkit, visual identity and development by Malin C/O, Happen and I Love Internet as well as a tutorial and visual illustrations made by Lovisa Burfitt.
Interested in learning more about the initiative, past experiences and upcoming projects? Visit hercity.unhabitat.org
Contact information:
Tove Ahlström, CEO Global Utmaning
tove.ahlstrom@globalutmaning.se, +46 761 640611
Elin Andersdotter Fabre, senior advisor Global Utmaning
elin.fabre@un.org, + 46 70 223 32 47
Thomas Melin, senior advisor Global Utmaning
thomas.s.melin@gmail.com, + 46 70 755 59 66
Global Utmaning (Global Challenge) is an independent think tank based in Stockholm that promotes long-term solutions to ecological, economic and social challenges through collaboration between research, business, politics and civil society. The think tank is a node within international networks, working with strategic analysis, policy solutions and advocacy by producing policy dialogues, seminars and publications.
Read the press release here.
