Ms. Managa Pillay, HEAIDS’ Technical Advisor in the CEO’s office is currently attending the 2018 UN Women Safe Cities and Safe Public Spaces Global Leaders Forum in Edmonton, Canada. Edmonton is co-hosting the event with the United Nations, which connects more than 250 people from 25 countries in an effort to make public spaces safer around the world. Managa Pillay is representing HEAIDS with the aim to strengthen our organisations’ continuing work in the field of women empowerment and gender based violence (GBV). She brings her technical expertise from her extensive work in managing the drafting of the first ever GBV policy for institutions of higher learning.
The keynote speaker at the conference, author and facilitator Jay Pitter, spoke about the connections between urban planning and social justice. Her key recommendations outline that:
- Statistics need to be linked to the real life stories and experiences of women
- There needs to be sustainable bridging of domestic and public spaces
- She emphasised that street based public education is effective as opposed to closed boardrooms.
The conference will be wrapped up today.
