Security audits of territories and communities will become one of the mechanisms that will significantly affect the processes of post-war restoration of many settlements in Ukraine.
It is an innovative tool that radically changes the approach to spatial planning of cities and villages, civil protection and social integration, especially in conditions of martial law. It already covers deep social and infrastructural factors.
This is understood in the Kulikiv and Minsk communities in Chernihiv region, which participate in the project "Detection, prevention and response to security challenges in territorial communities of Chernihiv region", which is implemented by the NGO "Association for Democratic Development", and it is a component of the "Impulse" project, which is implemented by the International Renaissance Foundation and the Eastern Europe Foundation.
Audits of territories in today's conditions prove:
- Safe for women — safe for everyone. After all, many modern Ukrainian security audits are based on feminist and inclusive approaches. Research shows that if urban space (lighting, underpasses, roads, transport) is safe for a woman with a child in the evening, it automatically becomes safe for men, the elderly and people with disabilities.
- Participatory activity as an indispensable condition for conducting security audits. Not only representatives of the police or the State Emergency Service, but also the residents themselves must be involved in the working groups on the audit of territories: women, internally displaced persons (IDPs), people with disabilities. Since the authorities often see the situation through crime statistics, it is the residents who highlight the zones of "subjective fear".
- It is a progressive tool for the modernization of cities, towns and villages. Based on the results of audits, communities do not just receive reports, but create step-by-step change plans. This directly affects the allocation of budget funds for the installation of "smart" lighting, the arrangement of safe intersections, the cleaning of abandoned parks, the creation of barrier-free shelters and the adaptation of public transport.
The material was prepared within the framework of the project "Empowerment of civil society for the stability and restoration of Ukraine ("Impulse")", implemented by the International Renaissance Foundation" Міжнародний фонд "Відродження" спільно з МБО "Фонд Східна Європа" Фонд Східна Європа funded by Norway (Norad) and Sweden (Sida).