The Urban Book process is led by community volunteers who have been trained on issues of sexual and gender-based violence, gender responsive public services (GRPS) and leadership. Subsequent to trainings volunteers organise urban forums (with support form local government/authorities, partners and ActionAid) to map areas that are ‘safe’ and ‘unsafe’, conduct detailed issue analysis, chart solutions and develop community based action plans. After the forum, volunteers lead monthly meetings to map progress on action points. Urban forums are held annually and during which tools such as scorecard and report card are used to rank services and improvements.

By working through community volunteers and with local authorities, the ultimate aim of the Urban Book process is to institutionalise Gender Responsive Public Services that positively impact women’s safety.

Problem mapping

In this first step of the process, problem mapping, community members visualise their community and map areas that are safe and unsafe for women.

Tools to support problem mapping for safer cities

1. Safety walk - to identify safe and unsafe areas in the community
2. Urban safety map - a map of the area created as part of the safety walk exercise and indicating issues and safe and unsafe areas. 
3. Traffic light - to prioritise the issues identified according to severity.
4. Safety walk report card - created at the end of each safety walk and showing the issues identified and their severity (using the traffic light tool).

Resources

• Making Cities and Urban Spaces Safe for Women and Girls: Safety Audit Participatory Toolkit. Developed for ActionAid International by Social Development Direct (SDD), January 2013.
• Urban Book for Women: GRPS and safety mapping. ActionAid Myanmar, 2016.