Safety Audits and Beyond
Presenter:
Anna Mtani
Facilitator: Sophie
Paquin
Secretary:
Caroline Andrew
Presentation
An initial Safety Audit was conducted with a group of women in Manzese, a densely populated ward that is a business centre in Dar es Salaam (Tanzania). Findings and recommendations were presented to the municipal director, environmental and economic planners, and engineers who then suggested that another Audit be conducted with other key municipality staff and Manzese women. This was the first time the municipality had worked so closely with community residents to discuss matters affecting their livelihood and development of the area.
Women need to demonstrate, especially to men, their ability to initiate necessary changes that will benefit everyone's safety. By bringing women's safety concerns to the municipality's attention, it was subsequently possible to involve municipal staff in the second safety audit which resulted in better understanding and consideration of women's needs and the allocation of funds to implement some of women's suggestions.
Women's participation in safety audits should be encouraged
as a way for them to unite and to promote their involvement in urban decision-making
and safety planning and design. In Tanzania, local leadership allows for
women's participation in grassroots-level decision-making. Such encouragement
of women's participation should be integrated into national policies of
good governance.
Discussion
A safety audit is an adaptable tool that identifies local
concerns and helps develop context-specific solutions that are tailored
to a particular community's priorities. The vision of women involved in
Dar es Salaam's safety audit included concerns such as inadequate transportation,
poor lighting, little open space, high unemployment, and domestic violence.
However safety audits must realistically consider the root causes of inequality
and violence and the challenge of getting a patriarchal system to implement
women's recommendations for improvement. For change to be enduring, change
must be made within entire patriarchal institutions and systems rather
than only developing "band-aid" solutions that do not comprehensively
consider the roles that all actors can play.
Conclusions
- Safety audits are an excellent tool for uniting women
and allowing them to share their experiences of abuse with each other
and to identify common safety issues. These functions are themselves
important and productive as they empower women.
- Women need to demonstrate, especially to men, their
ability to initiate necessary changes that benefit everyone's safety.
- Awareness-building must be done with local government
to help them better understand violence against women issues.
- Actions must consider all forms of abuse and violence
against women: physical, sexual, psychological, emotional, and economic.
- It is important to follow up on and evaluate the impact
of safety audits in order to convince governments to provide financial
support. At the same time, such monitoring and follow up themselves
demand financial, human, and material resources that many communities
simply do not have.
- It is not enough to demand that international organizations and networks and the United Nations consider the violation of women's human rights. Groups of women around the world need to unite in their efforts to defend women's rights, promote gender equality, and pressure government and legal institutions to be more sensitive to gender considerations.
Recommendations
- Women's participation in safety audits should be encouraged
as a way to empower them and promote their involvement in urban decision-making
and safety planning and design. Such encouragement of women's participation
should be integrated into national policies of good governance.
- Cities and municipalities must work closely with citizens
and use their power to incorporate women's concerns in basic daily planning.
Local government budgets must allocate resources for implementing women's
recommendations for action.
- Local administrations should work to engage other levels
of government in ongoing dialogue on how to coordinate women's safety
efforts and avoid offloading of responsibility.
- Women must discuss with men their reasons for violent
behaviour. Awareness-building work must be done with men to sensitize
them to how their violent actions create fear.
- Schools should incorporate human rights and equality
education into course syllabi.
- Schools should conduct safety audits and develop anti-violence
programs with young children.
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© 2002, Women in Cities International
Last update : November 28, 2003 |