Safe and Inclusive cities

Safe and Inclusive Cities (SAIC) seeks to contribute to the development of a diverse and strong civil society in Ethiopia, Uganda, Kenya, and Zimbabwe, which influences urban governance, development processes and contributes to making cities safe and inclusive for young women and men.

The programme is part of our 2018-2022 strategic partnership with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Danida). The programme is in collaboration with local civil society organisations who focus on:

Reducing urban violence and conflict affecting young women and men
Increasing young women and men’s access to decent work
Increasing youth influence in urban governance and planning, particularly in regard to safety and economic opportunities

Impacts:
Our collaboration in SAIC has led to results that have been robustly measured with comparison groups: young women and men and their organisations have increased their participation in local civil society, with a 21% increase in joint action; young people have improved their engagement with local authorities through evidence and documentation, with a 13% increase in reporting and 10% increase in actual change resulting from engagement.

Our joint effort has also significantly increased young women and men’s economic opportunities in fragile urban areas, characterised by extremely weak local economies, where we have observed an 18% increase in access to work. We have also seen a 14% increase in young women’s feeling of safety in the most insecure informal urban settlements in Nairobi, Kampala, and Harare.

Based on SAIC findings, we recommend:

City governance authorities should establish open fora for communication with young people. Challenges relating to safety and violence, as well as youth employment could be discussed here. Law enforcement involvement in these fora is especially vital.
Civil society and city-level authorities should involve young people in safety initiatives in their communities and for public transport.
Civil society and city-level authorities should raise awareness on decent employment conditions and on how self-employment can be pursued.
This includes guidance on how to apply for funds and register businesses.
For cases where young people lodge complaints, law enforcement officials should put in place communication mechanisms for updating young people on the status of said complaints. Furthermore, campaigns to show the responsiveness of law enforcement to complaints could also strengthen trust in police.

SAIC Summary Brief