Capacity enhancementCommunity SafetyGBVImplementationProject DesignResilienceStakeholder ManagementTechnical AdvisoryUrban SafetyVictim Support

Safe Women Safer Settlements

emma November 28, 2025

GBV is part of a social system which tolerates and allows opportunities for abuse of women. This project focused on GBV in public spaces which are unsafe, and which are allowed to be so because of social norms relating to women, roles in prevention, and informal settlements which are often severely unsafe environments for women.

Client

Partnerships for Prevention of GBV in Southern Africa II, Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ)

Year

2024-2025

Partners

Integrated Sustainable Urban Development Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) (ISUD), Rehoboth Town Council, Rehoboth Police Public Relations Committee, Helping Souls (a volunteer women’s group and other stakeholders), Block Home (community leadership structure established during the project)

Safe Women Safer Settlements (SWSS) was a project aimed at prevention of Gender Based Violence (GBV) in Block H, an informal settlement outside Rehoboth in Namibia.

SWSS was led by Fixed in partnership with Indian women’s safety tech developer and safety process facilitator, Safetipin. The project entailed capacity enhancement, data generation and action planning by an inclusive group of crucial Block H role players: the Rehoboth Town Council, police and other crime and safety role players, social services and civil society organisations working to improve living conditions in Block H and other informal settlements in Rehoboth.

A data-driven project, the capacity enhancement and social norms campaign and shared action plans developed through the process were all designed in response to the data generated during a safety audit, where community members, government officials, civil society representatives all traversed the settlement at different times of the day, in the dark and during daylight hours, to understand the challenges and opportunities for women’s safety, and the roles of the various actors in responding to them.

Wonderful relationships were developed, unexpected challenges and opportunities were integrated into the project (including the establishment of Block Home as a community leadership structure) and a place for Rehoboth and its openhearted people was worn into the hearts of the Fixed facilitators.