With the aim of fostering new international alliances to propose solutions to the challenges of accessibility, safety and inclusion faced by women and other vulnerable groups in mobility, one of the 15 roundtables promoted by the Hamburg Sustainability Conference (HSC) was held  in Mexico City on Tuesday, February 27, 2024. 

The edition in Mexico was organized by the German Development Cooperation (GIZ), through the bilateral project, Transition towards an Integrated and Intelligent Public Transport System (TranSIT) in partnership with the Urban Mobility Transformation Initiative (TUMI) and Women Mobilize Women. The Secretariat of Agrarian, Territorial and Urban Development (Sedatu) and the National Women’s Institute (Inmujeres) in Mexico also participated as co-organizers. 

The event was attended by 85 people representing the public, private, academic, civil society and international cooperation sectors, as well as from Chile and Colombia. The activity was divided into an exhibition of photographs that highlighted good practices around gender and inclusion, four panels and three round tables on the topics of safety and comfort; mobility patterns; and inclusive policies and strategies. 

“In the German government, both in the Chancellery and in the Ministry of Cooperation, we have committed ourselves to a feminist foreign or development policy, and that fits very well with what you are doing (in Mexico). So, I see many ways to exchange, whether with other countries, with other regions, with the private sector or with civil society.”
Gunnar Schneider, Head of the Department of Economic and Global Affairs at the Embassy of the Federal Republic of Germany in Mexico

 

At the safety and comfort table, the highlighted proposals were about data analysis to identify the points of greatest insecurity to continue preventing cases of sexual harassment, the construction of strategies to guarantee greater comfort with a care approach, and to enhance shared responsibility between men and women around the issue of care. 

“For us, the use of women’s time is essential, and so is safety (…). So, this forces us to consider these two issues for the planning of transport systems and the mobility package, and it is something that we have done hand in hand with Sedatu, in a very constructive and innovative way, where a line of action to incorporate the gender perspective has been reflected in the strategies.”

Nadine Gasman Zylbermann, President of Inmujeres

While at the mobility patterns table, proposals stood out for dealing with data disaggregation for the integratiion of gender perspectives, the promotion of more training, and the inclusion of both women users and operators in the value chain. It was also emphasized that it is important to think of solutions that respond to the differentiated needs of women and men without limiting the discussion to public transport.  

“The priority of the federal government, and which has been established in the national mobility system, is public transport, for social justice and closing gaps of social and gender inequality. We have to recognize that people in Mexico are different, and that in order to access the characteristics of mobility, we have to recognize the enormous diversity among people in Mexico. Men, women, children, because of their social status, where they live, the space where their home is located, their work, the type of activities they carry out. This is the challenge that we have pushed in this government, we have the full and absolute support of civil society.”

Daniel Octavio Fajardo, Undersecretary of Urban Development and Housing, of Sedatu

 

Among the highlighted proposals of the inclusive policies and strategies table were the development of differentiated policies to solve particularized security issues, the allocation of a specific budget for inclusive strategies, as well as the promotion of training mechanisms and the definition of competency standards in the sector. 

These and other proposals will be systematized and assessed by an HSC team to be shared with leaders from other regions of the world during the Hamburg Sustainability Conference to be held at the end of the year, in Hamburg, Germany. 

“This event is not a success of GIZ. We work together, successfully, with honest cooperation, with direct cooperation, and also this vision that we have of leaving no one behind. We at GIZ have committed to that and we live it. I am proud and happy to see that they are satisfied with our cooperation on this issue.”

Director of GIZ’s Sustainable Cities and Transport programme in Mexico, Johanna Beate Wysluch