This paper serves as a background note for the Habitat III side-event ‘Creating Safe and Inclusive Cities That Leave No One Behind’. It brings together research and practice to understand how well-managed urbanisation can revitalise urban spaces that had either been lost to violence or suffered from a lack of access to basic services and neglect.
The contributors to this paper consider the various dimensions of urban safety and inclusivity across fragile, non-conflict and post-disaster contexts, and systematise these into three distinct levels: At the street-level we ask how safety and inclusivity relate to the lived experiences of city dwellers, particularly the poorest and most marginalised. At the city-level we turn our gaze to the city wide socio-political and civic actors and institutions that govern urban security and basic service provision. And, at the national-level we look at how the dynamics of security provision in cities relate to the processes of state building and peace building.