How German Cities Are Rethinking Women's Safety — With Taxis

Komfot Health operates a technology-driven network providing post-abortion care and sexual reproductive health services across Nigeria. The organization trains healthcare providers to address biases, uses a chatbot system for patient triage and connects women to verified medical facilities in six states, acting as intermediaries between women seeking care and trusted healthcare providers. Since launching in 2024, Komfot Health has served over 1,790 women.

Shared electric cargo bike programs like CargoB and Re:Ciclos offer affordable, sustainable transportation alternatives that can significantly reduce urban car dependency; however, their long-term success hinges on overcoming infrastructure, cultural, and economic barriers.

The Kanyashree Prakalpa conditional cash transfer scheme helps support economically marginalized unmarried girls between the ages of 13 and 18 so they can stay in school and delay child marriage. Since launching, the scheme has helped increase enrollment in school and reduce the rate of child marriage in the region.

Getting to public transportation can be difficult for commuters. Microtransit is easing that burden and reducing emissions by replacing individual car trips. Partnerships between cities and companies ensure shared, on-demand scooters, bikes, or vehicles are available to help people reach public transportation.

Chalk Back is a youth-led street art initiative that encourages women to write sexist remarks said to them onto pavements in chalk to raise awareness about street harassment. The public art is then shared on Instagram to further its reach and prevent street harassment from being normalized. Since Chalk Back started in 2016, it has become a global initiative with more than 1,000 women participating and more than 150,000 followers on social media.

With the help of funding from foundations and charities, Indian women’s groups such as the Dooni dairy cooperative are leveraging solar power to simplify their work and help their businesses grow. Since purchasing solar-powered fridges to store extra milk, most women in the dairy cooperative have seen their profits double.

Brazil’s Federal Police created a database of gold samples from different regions of the country to help confirm the origins of gold suspected to be illegally traded. Each sample is analyzed to understand its molecular composition, atomic structure, and morphological features. That information can be cross-referenced for matches with suspicious gold during investigations.

A small North Carolina city replaced its bus system with on-demand minivans to better serve residents. In a collaborative effort with the company Via, which provided software, vehicles, and drivers in exchange for city funding, the service runs about 3,700 trips a week and covers 100% of the city, increasing accessibility for residents.

The San Francisco Bay Area's Transit Ambassadors program deploys unarmed personnel and crisis intervention specialists to respond to conflict and harassment on public transportation. The ambassadors speak multiple languages representing the broader community and work to resolve issues without involving transit police, with officers called to less than one percent of the 14,000 interactions ambassadors had with riders in the first half of 2020.

The Woloo mobile app helps women locate and access clean and hygienic restrooms at restaurants and cafes. The app partners with 10,000 restaurants and cafes across 50 cities that allow women to use their restrooms free of charge. “Hygiene officers” from the app also evaluate the restrooms to ensure their clean and suitable for use. There are currently about 1,200 certified restrooms on the app and 30,000 users.