Rethinking Public Transport: Inclusive Urban Mobility for Female and Indigenous Youth

UN Economic and Social Council Youth Forum 10th Anniversary

CONCEPT NOTE

IDENTIFICATION

Session title as per Rethinking Public Transport: Inclusive Urban Mobility for Female and programme Indigenous Youth

Date, time and April 6th, 9.00am-10.30am EDT (New York time), via Zoom platform

Registration Link http://bit.ly/2OS5jVDECOSOCTransportEvent

● Douglas Ragan, UN Habitat ([email protected]) Session co-lead UN ● Lander Bosch, UN Habitat ([email protected]) ● Olga Tsaplina, UN Habitat ([email protected])

● Regine Guevara, Committee for ASEAN Youth Cooperation (MoveHER Coalition) [email protected] Session co-lead Youth ● Anish Shrestha, Global Indigenous Youth Caucus (YFEED Foundation) [email protected] ● Sharifah Norizah, Major Group for Children and Youth - RCC [email protected]

Session co-organizers ● Dr. Roman Chukov, Friends of Cities - Friends for Leadership [email protected]

Regine Guevara Session moderator(s) Lander Bosch

℅ Kate Ramil - Save A Trike Philippines Session note-taker(s) ℅ Friends of Cities ([email protected])

BACKGROUND & KEY ISSUES (approx. 750 words)

Rapid urbanisation has left cities worldwide struggling with the demand for safe and inclusive mobility services and infrastructure that meets the needs of all to access places of work, education, healthcare, leisure, government and other critical urban services. This has become ever more pressing during the COVID-19 pandemic, where efficient operations and quality of services have become more vital, yet often more restricted, by local and national authorities seeking to curb the spread of the virus. Now, more than ever, inclusive mobility is key to the resilience of cities and the wellbeing of its urban residents to access socioeconomic opportunities and ensure livelihoods.

Young people are often confronted with urban environments that are unsuitable to them. Yet they are the ones who will inherit and shape the cities of the future. Mobility is a vital aspect to their social, cultural and economic opportunities, which frequently remains inaccessible and not tailored to their needs. The consequence is that children and youth are ruled out of using transport systems and, consequently, the public space. Moreover, while transport is often seen as ‘gender-neutral’, women and men have different expectations and needs, and experience starkly different challenges when moving around the urban space. Without considering and responding to these challenges, urban planning cannot adequately meet the needs of half of the urban transport users, and ensure the safe and equitable use of transport systems for young women. In a traditionally male-dominated industry, gendered and aged travel patterns, as well as safety and security constraints, need to be carefully studied, with the voices of young women meaningfully reflected and accounted for at all levels.

In addition, while the majority of indigenous peoples worldwide still live in rural areas, they are increasingly migrating to urban areas, both voluntarily and involuntarily. Indigenous peoples in urban areas may experience discrimination and have difficulties in sustaining their language, identity and culture, and grapple with the education of future generations - including the traditional mobility mediums which hamper their settling in and adaptation to urban life. Many young indigenous people find themselves in a ‘no man’s land’ between the urban societies that

2 do not fully accept them, and their indigenous communities that often fail to offer the opportunities they need, have a right to, and desire. These experiences have received little acknowledgement to date, and there is a pressing need to return a voice to these groups in urban environments.

Mobility restrictions and quarantine measures during the COVID-19 global pandemic have significantly added to the challenges for female and indigenous youth, and require significant creativity and innovation from stakeholders to turn loss into opportunity. If urban mobility systems respond to the signs of the times, and are catered towards more inclusive multimodal and intermodal travel for young women and indigenous people and other minorities, everyone could ‘extend their range’ to access jobs, services and other social contacts. These groups should therefore play a pivotal role in shaping the urban fabric.

Striving to unite synergies and explore shared solutions for our cities which can be scaled up from the local to the national and international level and implemented, the Global Indigenous Youth Caucus, Asian Youth Council and UN-Habitat, together with co-organisers, seek to address this topic, and offer a global platform for female and indigenous youth and local and national advocates and authorities to share experiences and solutions to the mobility challenges faced by vulnerable groups. This will be done as a virtual side event during the ECOSOC Youth Forum on April 6th, 2021 from 9am-10.30am EDT, bringing together youth advocates and practitioners from around the world to discuss best practices and policy advocacies around the Sustainable Development Goals under the title ‘Rethinking Public Transport: Inclusive Urban Mobility for Female and Indigenous Youth’.

SESSION OBJECTIVES (approx. 100 words)

The session aims to provide a unique platform for young women and indigenous advocates to share the specific mobility challenges they experience on a globe stage, and, together with representatives of local and national governments and other stakeholders, create a stimulating environment in which solutions and novel approaches can be shared to address these. Bringing this diverse group of key actors together, this topic will be discussed at the ECOSOC Youth Forum for the first time.

EXPECTED OUTCOMES (approx. 100 words)

The side event has several critical expected outcomes: 1) Raise awareness around the unique and often-ignored mobility challenges experienced by indigenous and female youth. 2) Put the topic of inclusive mobility for indigenous and female youth high on the policy agenda of member states, UN Organisations and other partners to tackle these challenges.

3 3) Share best practices and solutions from different geographic settings around the globe, and create an intergenerational network of stakeholders to foster the upscaling and implementation of these solutions following the event. 4) A post-event report prepared by UN-Habitat and all the youth co-leads.

APPROACH USED TO GENERATE CONCRETE CONTRIBUTIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS (approx. 200 words)

Bringing together youth representatives, both from indigenous communities and women, with representatives from local and national governments and other stakeholders, will create a vibrant atmosphere that will result in a novel sharing of experiences and joint discussions on pathways forward in search of scalable and tailor-made mobility solutions for various contexts around the globe. The awareness-raising and building of networks is expected to grow and foster autonomous multi-stakeholder partnerships and commitments after the event, supported by the co-leads and co-organisers of the session.

Moreover, the report following from the event can provide a starting point and reference document for best practices, stakeholders and interested parties in recognising and addressing the mobility challenges of vulnerable youths in urban environments around the globe.

OVERALL STRUCTURE AND FLOW (approx. 300 words)

The proposed event will take the shape of a 90-minute virtual talkshow on Zoom in which individuals or groups are invited to share their experiences of and solutions to urban mobility challenges in a comfortable setting, allowing for the development of personal stories and further questioning by moderators, participants and audiences. This ensures a less formal, more freely-flowing, yet in-depth discussion of the theme which keeps audiences engaged.

Introductions and welcome message (UN) Douglas Ragan, Children & Youth Lead, UN-Habitat

Inter-generational Panel - Exchange of best practices/projects Proposed speakers: Youth speaker - Indigenous/Women in Transport Xiye Bastida (Mexico-Chile, female) Xiye is a climate activist and member of the indigenous Mexican Otomi-Toltec nation. She is one of the major organizers of Fridays for Future New York City, and has been a leading voice for indigenous and immigrant visibility in climate activism.

4 Anish Shrestha (Nepal, male) Anish represents the Young For Environment, Education and Development Foundation (YFEED), as well as the Global Indigenous Youth Caucus (GIYC) Licypriya Kangujam (India, female) Climate change activist, World Children Peace Prize recipient, widely recognized for her clean air initiatives

Young Experts Leah Namugerwa (Uganda, female) Leah is a youth climate activist from Uganda, leading the Fridays for Future initiative in her home country. She is also well-known for leading tree planting campaigns and starting a petition to enforce the plastic bag ban in Uganda. Kalpana Viswanath (India, female) Kalpana is the founder of Safetipin, awarded the ‘Best Women's Public Space Safety NPO - South Asia’ by Corporate Vision Giulia Marzetti (Belgium, female) Giulia is one of the driving personalities behind ‘European Footprints’, a European project raising awareness of environmental issues and SDGs while engaging communities and connecting them with local sustainability initiatives

With the participation of UN Member State Republic of the Philippines Represented by: Dr Asec Sheila Napalang, Assistant Secretary, Department of Transportation Chairperson Sandra Sanchez Montano, Philippine Commission on Women (TBC)

Moderators: Regine Guevara, Committee for ASEAN Youth Cooperation Lander Bosch, Urban Mobility Expert, UN-Habitat

Q&A session

Recap and closing remarks (youth) Friends for Leadership-Friends of Cities

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS (approx. 300 words)

Questions for representatives of women and indigenous youth groups include:

- Why is mobility important for you and the group you represent? - What are the major mobility challenges you face in your local urban context? - Does this differ in various geographic contexts for different members of the group you represent? - To what extent does this hamper the day-to-day life and access to socioeconomic, cultural and leisure opportunities? - What solutions do you envision in your local context to tackle these challenges? - How can these be shared and upscaled? - What does it take to implement these solutions?

Questions for representatives of local/national authorities and member states include: - What do you think are the main challenges for female and indigenous youth in your local context related to transport and mobility? - How can you contribute to solving these challenges? - To what extent can the beneficiaries be involved in this process, and how can those exchanges be facilitated in practice? - What support do you require to address mobility for female and indigenous youth in your local context? - How can this be matched with inclusive recovery in a post-pandemic world? - How can we ensure inclusive, accessible, safe and clean public transportation for the next generation, and particularly young women and indigenous people?

PREPARATORY EVENTS (approx. 200 words)

Exploratory meeting with youth x women groups and SOLUTIONSplus October 7,2020 Through the facilitation of the UN-Habitat’s Urban Mobility team, members of the MoveHER coalition initiated discussions with the SOLUTIONSplus team from Nepal and the Philippines, working towards global e-mobility solutions. The scaling up of electric versions of the traditional 10-seater e-jeepney and 3-seater e-tricycle from the Southeast Asian public transport culture was explored. While diverse stakeholders have been working with local governments in the region to ensure sustainable and resilient public transport systems, it was ascertained that these require more inclusivity, with stronger gender and other minority lenses, especially with the increased risks posed by the COVID-19 pandemic.

6 (Social) media campaigns ● Youth partners will share promotional material of youth-led innovations in the sector (non-speakers) on Instagram and Facebook leading up to the event, supported by all partners. ● UN-Habitat to use social media outreach to advertise and reach out to Global audience.