Women and girls experience and fear sexual violence in public spaces, including the online space. COVID-19 restrictions have intensified this challenge. UN Women and the United Nations International Computing Centre (UNICC) are working to make these spaces safer by hosting local thinkathons, forums for ideation and design thinking.

In December 2020, they organized a Safe Cities Thinkathon in Guadalajara, Mexico, to amplify women’s voices and needs for access to safe and inclusive public spaces. Using the collaborative problem-solving thinkathon, participants identified a set of issues based on their own experiences to come up with creative solutions using digital tools. They will use this event, included in UN Innovation Network’s ‘Best of 2020’ initiatives, as a best practice model to develop a series of thinkathons around the world.

The organizers teamed up with local partners: girls, young women, civil society organizations, academic organizations, private sector and local governments participated in the session, with the goal to inform investment in public safety with a gender perspective at the local level. As more cities participate, UN Women and UNICC envision building a playbook to scale solutions and assist to build a prototype of the best idea.

https://www.unicc.org/in-focus/2020/12/14/un-women-and-unicc-sponsor-safe-cities-for-women-thinkathon/

• France
• Mexico

• Youth
• Women
• People with disabilities

Safe Cities for Women Thinkathon is not only replicable but apt for virtual collaboration in these times. This model has the potential to develop into a series of hackathon across different cities.

The only resource needed in these project is participant’s access to online collaboration tools, making it a fully sustainable project.

Safe Cities for Women Thinkathon promotes the creation of safe and accessible public spaces for women and girls, including the digital space, through the use of digital technologies and ICTs. This initiative has an impact on various of WSIS’s action lines, including C6. Enabling Environment with protection of women and girls online, and C7. ICT applications, with proposed solutions such as an app to map safest routes, a digital platform for reporting issues requiring rapid response and a one-touch access to an emergency helpline with video surveillance. Safe Cities for Women also contributes to the achievement of at least four Sustainable Development Goals.