The Her City Toolbox is the result of the Urban Girls Movement launched in 2017, then financed by the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida), with the purpose to map efficient methods and tools that contribute to increased equality and inclusion in urban development. The ambition was to highlight the values of increasingly involving women and girls in urban development processes.
Her City is a joint urban development initiative by UN-Habitat (the United Nations Human Settlements Programme) and the independent think tank Global Utmaning (Global Challenge). It is financed by the Swedish Innovation Agency (Vinnova) with contributions from our partners Block by Block Foundation, White Architects, Swedish Union of Tenants and MethodKit. Her City has been developed in close collaboration with a range of multi-stakeholders from public sector, private sector, research, civil society and citizens.
The purpose of Her City Toolbox is to further develop, publish, and implement methods and tools that contribute to increased equality and inclusion in urban development. Her City’s ambition is also to contribute to a range of the 2030 Agenda Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs): SDG3 on health and well-being, SDG5 on gender equality, SDG10 on reducing inequality, SDG11 on sustainable cities and communities, SDG16 on peace, justice and strong institutions and SDG17 on partnerships. However, previous projects have shown that this approach also contributes to implementing other SDGs on the local level.
The objective is to provide a digital platform in order to increase capacity of end users (politicians, city planners, real estate companies etc.) to create accessible, inclusive and equal public places. The expected effect is that a significant number of municipalities see the need to implement new approaches to public space planning and design and use the toolbox for creating public places that fulfil the needs of everyone, regardless of gender, age, ethnicity or background.
In the short term, the toolbox will facilitate the work of politicians, municipalities, planners, architects, and other actors. The long-term result indicators are better school results, higher education levels, better physical and mental health and higher employment rates in vulnerable areas.
Explore the digital Her City Toolbox.
Project targets for implementation:
- Evaluate methods and tools from #UrbanGirlsMovement, Global Public Space Programme and Block by Block, and further develop these methods and tools in order to scale up and test;
- Develop digital solutions based on innovative visualizations and ’mixed reality’;
- Develop a digital platform (open source, open code) to gather knowledge, experience, and Urban Girls Toolbox;
- Test and implement Her City Toolbox in three municipalities;
- Communicate, monitor and evaluate the project continuously.
Project management: Elin Andersdotter Fabre (UN-Habitat).
Team: Tove Julin (Global Utmaning), Tove Derner (Global Utmaning), Christelle Lahoud (UN-Habitat), Chiara Martinuzzi (UN-Habitat).
Advisors: Laura Petrella (UN-Habitat) and Thomas Melin (Global Utmaning).
Sources:
Tutorial: Her City Tutorial
Guidebook: Her City – A Guide for Cities to Sustainable and Inclusive Urban Planning and Design together with Girls
Brief: Urban Girls Toolbox presentation
Film: Voices on Urban Girls Movement
Publication: Urban Girls Catalogue – How cities planned for and by girls work for everyone
Handbook: Urban Girls Handbook – A global guide to participatory public space planning & design
Pilot: Urban Girls Movement Botkyrka
Meet a Minecrafter: Urban Girls Movement
Activities:
Launching Her City Toolbox – International Women’s Day 2021
World Urban Forum – Launch UrbanGirlsToolbox
