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A webinar titled ‘Safety and Public Spaces: Integrating Gender and Leveraging Participatory Design for Inclusive Cities’ took place on June 9, 2023. Starting at 10:00 am and during two hours, this virtual workshop involved local councillors, aiming to encourage participation from the Chaguanas Borough Corporation and relevant community stakeholders, fostering greater collaboration between state officials and community actors to promote safe public spaces.
The opening remarks were delivered by Faaiq Mohammed, Mayor of Chaguanas. Then Adriana Plata, Program Specialist from UN-Habitat Andean Countries HUB, discussed on public spaces and presented perspectives and innovations in city planning.
She also introduced UN-Habitat’s application ‘Her City Toolbox’, which offers various tools to ensure gender equality in public space design and urban planning, enabling women’s participation through law enforcement, legal policies, and social prevention. The topic of public spaces was also addressed by Renelle Sarjeant from the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction, as well as by Architect, Urbanist, and Research Fellow Safaa Charafi. Andrew Seepersad, Director at Business Design Initiative, covered the understanding of participatory design and conducted a brief exercise on the topic. The workshop concluded with a feedback and comments session from all participants.
The event proved to be highly useful, facilitating fruitful dialogue among various stakeholders on how community leaders can promote safe public spaces and enhance the community’s sense of belonging and safety through future engagement activities. The webinar also provided a deeper understanding of tactical urbanism and various approaches to it.
