Women's Personal Safety, Participation and Employment Linkage in Urban Public Transport FINAL REPORT October 2022 Long Distance Strategic Road and Rail Transport and Urban Transport for Climate Change Mitigation, Adaptation and Inclusive Transport: HVT/11271.01 Inclusive Transport: HVT/039 This research is funded by UKAID through the UK Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO) under the High-Volume Transport Applied Research Programme, managed by DT Global UK. The views expressed in this report do not necessarily reflect the UK government's official policies. Reference No. HVT/039 Lead organisation/ Consultant ALERT Engineering Plc. Partner organisation(s)/ Collaborator(s) Mekelle University, Mekelle City Administration Title Women's Personal Safety, Participation and Employment Linkage in Urban Public Transport in Mekelle Type of document Project Report Theme Gender, inclusion, vulnerable groups Sub-theme N/A Author(s) Alemgena A. Araya, Gebremariam G. Feleke, Azeb T. Legese, Tsegai B. Gebretekle, Haftu G. Gebremeskel, Daniel H. Gebre, Kelemework T. Reda Lead contact Alemgena A. Araya Geographical Location(s) Mekelle, Tigray, Ethiopia Abstract The research study is aimed at examining gender inclusiveness in urban public transport with particular reference to women's personal safety and security; their participation in planning, decision making and job creation in the urban public transport. The study employed both primary and secondary data using mixed quantitative and qualitative research methods. For the primary data in the process of identifying the target population for the study, women aged 18 and above (stratified into female students, working women and housewife) who used public transport at least once a day were considered. The qualitative survey was based on an ethnographic approach, namely Key Informant Interview (KII), In-depth interviews (IDI), Participant observation (PO) and Focus group discussion (FDG). Exploratory and confirmatory data analysis trajectories were applied for quantitative data while the qualitative data was analysed using thematic phenomenological methods. The findings reveal that public transport service provision in Mekelle city remains largely gender insensitive. Women's safety and security is often compromised due mainly to cultural norms and values that reflect in their daily trips. Harassments in the form of verbal and psychological abuse become rampant especially inside Mini-bus taxi. Women in the city are reported to have been very well represented at a political level, but their role in regulatory and leadership positions in the sector is constrained; almost all the respondents never participated in any transport planning process. The practice on the ground demonstrates poor functional integration in addressing the issues of inclusiveness and women's empowerment in the sector. Despite modest progress on legal protection, women's overall satisfaction with this aspect still remains at the lowest possible level. To ensure safe and secure public transportation for women in the city continuous awareness campaigns are needed to bring women's transport-related rights to the attention of the general public. State legal machineries have to carefully and promptly address women's harassment cases with earnest in timely and forceful manner zeal and high impacts. Building the capacity of women and the community in general will help to bring behavioural change especially for the service providers (minibus conductors and drivers) who are the main perpetrators of the harassment on public transport. Keywords: Women, Inclusion, Safety, Participation, Employment, Urban, Public Transport Funding: UKAID through the UK Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO) Acknowledgements: The authors wish to gratefully acknowledge the support and funding of High Volume Transport (HVT) for this project, and in particular, the guidance and encouragement of the HVT team. Issue Status Author(s) Reviewed By Approved By Issue Date 1 Draft G.G. Feleke, A.T. Legese, T.B. Ghebretekle, H.G. Gebremeskel, D.H. Gebre K. T. Reda A. A. Araya 15-09-22 2 HVT 10-10-22 3 Revised G.G. Feleke, A.T. Legese, T.B. Ghebretekle, H.G. Gebremeskel, D.H. Gebre K. T. Reda A. A. Araya 14-10-22 i FINAL REPORT: Women's Personal Safety, Participation and Employment Linkage in Urban Public Transport TABLE OF CONTENT LIST OF TABLES iii LIST OF FIGURES iv ABBREVIATIONS/ACRONYMS vi EXECUTIVE SUMMARY vii SECTION 1:INTRODUCTION 1 1. Project Overview 1 1.1 Background and scope 1 1.2 Aim of the study 1 1.3 Research project objectives and outcomes 1 SECTION 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 3 2. Review of Relevant Literatures 3 2.1 Urban public transport conditions and services in Mekelle 3 2.1.1 Urban public transport conditions in Mekelle 3 2.1.2 Urban public transport service and administration in Mekelle 5 2.2 Global perspectives and experiences on gender inclusiveness in public transport 7 2.3 Global trends in women's safety and security 8 2.4 Women's participation in planning, decision making and job creation 10 2.4.1 Women and public transport 10 2.4.2 Levels of community participation 12 2.4.3 Women's participation in transportation: The case of Sweden 13 2.4.4 How to involve women in the planning and decision-making process for transport 13 2.5 Job creation 14 2.5.1 Recruitment and wage 14 2.5.2 Conducive working place and career development 15 2.6 Global, regional, national and local policies and regulatory frame works 15 2.6.1 Global perspective 15 2.6.2 Regional and National perspective 17 2.6.3 Gender issue in Tigray region 18 SECTION 3:APPROACH AND METHODOLOGY 20 3. Research Design and Project Approach 20 3.1 Study methods 20 3.2 Data collection procedures and strategies 21 3.2.1 Women's inclusiveness Survey 23 3.2.2 Ethnographic observations 23 3.2.3 Sampling strategies/techniques 24 3.2.4 Systematic reviews 25 3.3 Data analysis 25 3.4 Stakeholder engagements and dissemination plan 26 3.4.1 Stakeholder engagement 26 3.4.2 Dissemination plan 27 3.5 Impact of COVID-19 and security issues in Tigray 29 ii FINAL REPORT: Women's Personal Safety, Participation and Employment Linkage in Urban Public Transport SECTION 4:RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS 30 4. Results and Findings 30 4.1 Demographic characteristics 30 4.2 Safety and security 31 4.2.1 Choice and reason 31 4.2.2 Perpetrators of harassment, time and location 33 4.2.3 Reaction to harassment 36 4.2.4 Women's level of satisfaction with urban public transport 37 4.2.5 Suggestions for improvement 39 4.3 Women's participation in planning and decision making 40 4.3.1 Women's participation in leadership and decision making 40 4.3.2 Women's participation in planning, design and implementation 41 4.3.3 Suggested supporting mechanisms 42 4.4 Job creation 45 4.4.1 Recruitment 45 4.4.2 Wages and benefits 49 4.4.3 Work environment 50 4.4.4 Capacity building 53 4.5 Policies and regulatory frameworks 55 4.5.1 Women's personal safety and security 55 4.5.2 Women participation in planning decision making 57 4.5.3 Job creation 57 4.5.4 Women's awareness and satisfaction with state policies and laws 58 SECTION 5:CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS 60 5. Conclusions and Recommendations 60 5.1 Conclusions 60 5.2 Recommendations 62 SECTION 6:RESEARCH UPTAKE 66 6. Research Uptake 66 6.1 Research uptake activities carried out 66 6.1.1 Stakeholder engagement 66 6.1.2 Dissemination and Awareness 69 6.1.3 Paper publication and conference presentations 70 6.2 Research uptake activities planned 70 6.2.1 Stakeholder engagement and capacity building 70 6.2.2 Publication and Dissemination 71 6.3 Possible research uptake consideration beyond the project 72 6.3.1 RISE - Reaching public awareness on gender Inclusive, Sensitive and Equitable urban public transport service 72 6.3.2 Enhancing safety of women public transport users from Origin to Destination 73 REFERENCES 75 APPENDICES 78 iii FINAL REPORT: Women's Personal Safety, Participation and Employment Linkage in Urban Public Transport LIST OF TABLES Table 1: Proportion of women respondents from Mekelle city.......................................................................... 24 Table 2: Age group-mode of transport cross tabulation..................................................................................... 32 Table 3: Distribution of reactions of sexually harassed respondents by level of education............................... 37 Table 4: Level of satisfaction with the public transportation services in Mekelle city ....................................... 38 Table 5: Proportion of women in decision-making bodies................................................................................. 40 Table 6: Chi-square test for assessing occupation versus participation planning and decision making............. 41 Table 7: Reasons for low employment opportunities for women...................................................................... 46 Table 8: Proportion of men-dominated positions .............................................................................................. 47 Table 9: Support of public transport to manage job........................................................................................... 51 Table 10: Problems with urban transport for managing job properly all respondents and employed only....... 51 Table 11: Impact of public transport on daily travel........................................................................................... 52 Table 12: Reason why women are few in Mini-bus taxi driving ......................................................................... 52 Table 13: Chi-square test for assessing participation in capacity building programs and training packages versus occupation............................................................................................................................................... 54 iv FINAL REPORT: Women's Personal Safety, Participation and Employment Linkage in Urban Public Transport LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1: Different type of public transport vehicles and stations in Mekelle...................................................... 4 Figure 2: Share of the various transport modes in Mekelle city [7]...................................................................... 4 Figure 3: Sweden`s performance on sustainable mobility [42], ......................................................................... 17 Figure 4: Training of Enumerators and Supervisors............................................................................................ 21 Figure 5: Four-phased implementation plan of the study setting ...................................................................... 22 Figure 6: Questionnaire survey in progress....................................................................................................... 23 Figure 7: Pictures from the workshop event ..................................................................................................... 26 Figure 8: Project line of events .......................................................................................................................... 28 Figure 9: Distribution of respondents' choice of means of transportation ....................................................... 31 Figure 10: Reasons for using stated mode of transport..................................................................................... 33 Figure 11: Perpetrators of sexual harassment................................................................................................... 34 Figure 12: Locations of women's harassment.................................................................................................... 35 Figure 13: Respondents' time of harassment experience.................................................................................. 36 Figure 14: Distribution of respondents by reaction to harassments................................................................. 36 Figure 15: Proportion of respondents on the impact of daily travel to work or school ..................................... 38 Figure 16: Respondents' suggestion to minimize harassments.......................................................................... 39 Figure 17: Respondent's belief that women are able to participate in transport decision making.................... 41 Figure 18: Women`s participation in the planning and decision-making process in the transportation sector. 41 Figure 19: Suggestions to improve women's participation................................................................................ 43 Figure 20: Model for women's empowerment in urban public transport.......................................................... 44 Figure 21: Encouragement of organisation for women employment ................................................................ 45 Figure 22: Extent of organisational support to women...................................................................................... 46 Figure 23: Women's employment opportunity in urban public transport ......................................................... 46 Figure 24: Means of women recruitment........................................................................................................... 47 Figure 25: Job titles with equal gender representation...................................................................................... 48 Figure 26: Position women believe they can occupy.......................................................................................... 49 Figure 27: Respondents' feelings of benefit gained by women from expansion of public transport................. 50 Figure 28: Reason for women leaving organisation............................................................................................ 50 Figure 29: Respondent belief that skills/developmental training is adequate ................................................... 53 Figure 30: Effectiveness of training given........................................................................................................... 54 Figure 31: Recommended capacity building instruments .................................................................................. 55 Figure 32: Availability of policy and laws............................................................................................................ 56 Figure 33: Job creation effort for women........................................................................................................... 58 Figure 34: Level of satisfaction ........................................................................................................................... 59 Figure 35: Enumerators, and supervisors training.............................................................................................. 68 Figure 36: Pictures from the workshop event .................................................................................................... 69 v FINAL REPORT: Women's Personal Safety, Participation and Employment Linkage in Urban Public Transport Figure 37: Publications developed...................................................................................................................... 69 vi FINAL REPORT: Women's Personal Safety, Participation and Employment Linkage in Urban Public Transport ABBREVIATIONS/ACRONYMS ALERT ALERT Engineering Plc. API Application Programming Interface AU African Union BPFA Beijing Platform of Action BSC Balanced Score Card CBD Central Business District CSO Civil Society Organization DW TV Dimtsi Weyane Television FCDO Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office FGD Focus Group Discussion FDRE Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia HVT High Volume Transport IDI In-Depth Interview KII Key Informant Interview LICs Low Income Countries MoWA Ministry of Women's Affairs NAP National Action Plan NAP-GE National Action Plan for Gender Equality NGO Non-Governmental Organisation NPEW National Policy on Ethiopian Women PO Participant Observation PPE Personal Protective Equipment SDG Sustainable Development Goal SPSS Statistical Package for Social Science TGE Transitional Government of Ethiopia UDHR Universal Declaration of Human Rights UN United Nations UNSC United Nations Security Council vii FINAL REPORT: Women's Personal Safety, Participation and Employment Linkage in Urban Public Transport EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Long Distance Strategic Road and Rail Transport and Urban Transport for Climate Change Mitigation, Adaptation and Inclusive Transport: High Volume Transport (HVT) Applied Research Programme is funded by the UK Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO). HVT programme has been set up to identify transport research priorities in low-income countries (LICs) in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia and to deliver a research programme to meet these needs. In July 2020, ALERT Engineering Plc. was awarded with a grant by FCDO for an inclusive transport applied research proposal. The proposed project "Women's Personal Safety, Participation and Employment Linkage in Urban Public Transport" envisioned to examine gender inclusiveness in urban public transport. Purpose By examining the gender inclusiveness of urban public transport in Mekelle city, Tigray, Ethiopia the study addresses key questions such as: How does the urban public transport affect women's personal safety and security? How can the voice of women be incorporated within transport planning and decision-making? What are the links existing between urban transport and jobs creation for women? What policies, strategies and tools are needed to enhance women's inclusiveness in the urban public transport? This final report comprises objectives of the study, literature reviews, research approach for data collection and analysis, results and findings, activities carried out as research uptake and limitations, proposal for possible future research uptake consideration, conclusions and recommendations. Method The report combines a comprehensive literature reviews of journal papers, articles as well as policy reports, institutional reports and findings, and detail analysis of data collected based on both primary and secondary data. Primary data was obtained using a questionnaire-based quantitative inclusiveness survey and qualitative ethnographic observations; while secondary data was harnessed using comprehensive reviews of relevant documents from both published materials and grey literature. Exploratory and confirmatory data analysis trajectories were applied for quantitative data, while qualitative data was analysed using thematic phenomenological methods. Triangulation was ensured by linking the results of survey data with ethnographic accounts. Primary data obtained from different sources was then discussed in reference to secondary data outlined in the literature review as well as baseline information describing the situation of the urban public transport conditions in Mekelle city. Key findings The overall results of the study clearly reveal that achieving gender inclusiveness in the transport sector continues to be a major challenge in Mekelle city similar to many cities in developing countries. This is reflected in all the indicators including safety and security, women's participation in employment and decision-making processes, as well as in the legal and policy framework attributes. Women's safety and security is often compromised due mainly to cultural barriers. As a result, sexual harassment in the form of verbal and psychological abuse has become rampant. These negative encounters that infringe upon women's rights are rarely reported because of repressive cultural norms and weak legal and regulatory frameworks. Efforts to reverse the situation by different stakeholders have so far been unsatisfactory. Women`s involvement in public transport planning and decision making is also low. Women's role in regulatory and leadership positions in the sector is constrained due to attitudinal problems. The practice on the ground demonstrates poor functional integration in addressing the issue of inclusiveness and women's empowerment in the transport system. The sector is characterized by the lack of conducive working environmentsfor women to help to ensure greater work-life balance. Issues of gender equity during recruitment, wages and benefits, and capacity building are not well addressed despite their crucial importance in promoting women's empowerment in the transport sector. As the sector is dominated by men, women do not adequately reap the benefits of urban public transport expansion endeavours. viii FINAL REPORT: Women's Personal Safety, Participation and Employment Linkage in Urban Public Transport Women's equal access to employment in the transport sector, though prescribed in policy and laws, is hampered by the lack of participatory planning and decision making at all levels. Despite modest progress on legal protection, the overall satisfaction of women with the public transport system is still at its lowest point. Key recommendations Recommendations are developed based on the findings from the comprehensive review and the level of agreements and frequent responses to the questionnaire and interviewees. The key recommendations can be summarized with the following actions; • Awareness raising and advocacy for gender parity in public transport • Targeted activity to increase community awareness of global cultural norms round role of women in society • Focus at the grassroots level on capacity building by giving short term training, refreshment courses for staff under the transportation bureau and development of curriculum for education programs • Incentivise existing female staff to remain in the sector • Providing conducive working environment in the recruitment process, wages and benefits for women employed • Affirmation action to support women in recruitment time and reinforce with corporate policy to increase the number of women in the sector • Strengthen institutions to monitor and evaluate the existing, different laws on safety and security, women's participation and job creation with strong emphasis on investigating incidents on women harassment in the public transport • Introduce legislation to require transport authorities have formal processes for reporting and responding to harassment, and bringing the perpetrator to justice In addition, two pilot projects are proposed for implementation as possible future research uptake. These projects will have an impact on the ground and will help on improving women`s awareness and empowerment in the transport sector. 1 FINAL REPORT: Women's Personal Safety, Participation and Employment Linkage in Urban Public Transport SECTION 1: INTRODUCTION 1. Project Overview 1.1 Background and scope The role the transport sector plays in contributing to the socio-economic development of a country is immense. Efficient transfer of people, goods and services is necessary for improved quality of life and sustainable livelihoods. Efficient mobility, in turn, entails inclusiveness in which services take into account idiosyncratic needs of marginalized groups including women, children, the elderly and people with disability [1]. Women's mobility patterns in general, in less advanced countries in particular, are different from those of men and can be characterised by caring and household responsibilities, the need to use public transport, and propensity to make short-distance movements while avoiding rush hour trips for different reasons [2]–[4]. Women's mobility is to a large extent influenced by their domestic responsibilities and hence they face cultural restrictions. Therefore, public transport planning and decision making in developing countries like Ethiopia should take into account these down-to earth realities. The current condition falls short of addressing specific needs and priorities of vulnerable groups such as women as they can be vulnerable to safety and security issues including gender-based violence and different forms of sexual harassments at different times [4]. This project report, therefore, focuses on the literature reviews, methods of data collection, data analysis approaches and tools, and subsequently presents results in text and figures. The analysis approaches chosen were made responsive to the peculiar interests of aforementioned women's inclusiveness of the urban transport. The earlier data analysis report includes the discussions and findings as per the objectives depicted in section 1.3 below as well as conclusions and recommendations. In addition, research uptake of carried out and proposed future research uptake considerations are included. After thorough verification and amendments, a complete final report of the study which includes result of the analysis, findings and recommendations is presented as the last milestone of the project. 1.2 Aim of the study The overall aim of the research project is to examine gender inclusiveness in urban public transport with particular reference to the situation of women in Mekelle city, Tigray region, Ethiopia. 1.3 Research project objectives and outcomes The specific objectives are to: • Assess existing situations related to women's personal safety and security in the context of urban public transport by looking at women's everyday mobility experiences; • Investigate the incorporation of women's voices within transport planning and decision making at various levels; • Examine the links existing between urban transport and job creation for women; • Examine the policy framework surrounding women's empowerment in the transport sector with particular emphasis on their safety and security, their active involvement and roles in decision making. The major outcomes of the project include: 1. Identification of major gaps related to women's safety and security in urban public transport; 2 FINAL REPORT: Women's Personal Safety, Participation and Employment Linkage in Urban Public Transport 2. Generate information on inclusive approaches that incorporate women's participation in decision making including planning, implementation and monitoring and evaluation of urban transport projects; 3. Provide a route map towards equal access for women to jobs in the transport sector; 4. Provision of inputs towards an adoption, amendment or design of an inclusive policy of transport. Major Goals of the project The objectives and outcomes of the study will be strengthened with metricized goals. The following is a list of measurable goals in line with the stated objectives: 1. Ranked list of the five most commonly perceived risk factors related to safety and security of women urban public transport users. 2. A prioritised outline of seven prominent reasons that hinder women's participation in planning and decision making in the urban transport sector. 3. A hierarchy of six challenges that discourage women from contributing their share in terms of job access in the transport sector and retention. 4. Identified list of five gaps and loopholes related to policy design and reform on women's inclusiveness in urban public transport sector. 3 FINAL REPORT: Women's Personal Safety, Participation and Employment Linkage in Urban Public Transport SECTION 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 2. Review of Relevant Literatures This section presents a comprehensive review of the Mekelle urban public transport situation and relevant literature related to the stated objectives of the study. It provides background information on contemporary global and local aspects of gender inclusiveness in the urban public transport sector; and provides specific examples of success stories that may be scaled up in the context of developing countries like Ethiopia. The subsequent subheadings give an account of the result of desk reviews of published and grey literature on issues pertinent to sexual harassment, women's participation in decision making and access to jobs as well as policy surrounding these issues in the context of urban public transport service provision. 2.1 Urban public transport conditions and services in Mekelle Mekelle is the capital city of the National Regional State of Tigray which is located 780 km north of Addis Ababa, capital of Ethiopia. It is one of the biggest and most populated cities in the country, with a population size of 412,938 inhabitants living in seven sub-cities, of which about 51% are women [5]. The land area coverage of the city is 191.5 sq. km of which 10% of the area are roads which isless than the standard. Mekelle has more than 243 km network of road coverage, of which 62 km is asphalt road, 26 km cobblestone, and the rest 155 km gravel and earthen road [6]. 2.1.1 Urban public transport conditions in Mekelle Transport in the city is composed of both motorised and non-motorised transport with percentage share of 33.5% and 66.5% respectively [7]. Motorised and non-motorised road-based modes are the only existing types of transport in the city. The former includes private automobiles, three wheeled vehicles – Rickshaw (Bajaj), small taxis, Mini-bus taxis, buses, medium and large trucks with trailers, and motor bikes. Mini-bus taxi, Amora city buses and other buses are considered as public transport in the city. The three wheeled motorised vehicles known as Bajaj's are also considered part of public transport with four person carrying capacity including the driver. On the other hand, non-motorised transport in the city includes walking, cycling, horse drawn carts, hand pushed trolleys, and pack animals. Though the definition for formal and informal public transport modes differs from country to country, in Mekelle city context all mini-bus taxis and Amora city buses are formal. The reason is they have a dedicated route and their tariff is fixed by government. For the Rickshaw (Bajaj) it is partly formal and partly informal. Because there are some Bajaj's dedicated to a route and fixed tariff, whereas the majority have flexible routes and tariff. Since they usually serve as a contract service that depends on the interest of the transport user and the negotiation, they have between them. The different type of public transport vehicles and public transport stations in the city are demonstrated in Figure 1. According to a recent study done in the city, the public transport is dominated by Bajaj's and Mini-bus taxis which account for 41.43% and 35.17% of the total passenger car trips respectively. Buses, motorcycles, and small taxis contributed 5.28%, 2.8%, and 1.98% of the total passenger car transport, respectively [7]. According to the study the remaining passenger car transport the share of private cars in the city is about 11.58% (see Figure 2) the private cars share is expected to include private automobiles, government and non-government office cars. According to the study in the city [8], there were 1050 Mini-bus taxis (commonly known as taxis) operating on 48 Mini-bus taxi routes. The Mini-bus taxis' route lengths ranged from 1.8km to 16.8km. It was reported that these taxi buses served an average of 170 passengers per vehicle per day and the average distance covered per vehicle within the city was 62.45km/day. 4 FINAL REPORT: Women's Personal Safety, Participation and Employment Linkage in Urban Public Transport Figure 1: Different type of public transport vehicles and stations in Mekelle Amora city bus Minibus taxi Rickshaw (Bajaj) Minibus taxi/Bajaj stations at the CBD of Mekelle Minibus taxi/Bajaj stations at streets of Mekelle Figure 2: Share of the various transport modes in Mekelle city [7] Transport in Mekelle city Non-motorized transport (66.6%) Walking (94%) Cycling (4.25%) Pack animals (1.36%) Hand pushed carts (0.24%) Horsedrawn cart (0.15%) Motorized transport (33.4%) Freight cars (31.15%) Passenger car transport (68.85%) Minibus taxi (35.17%) City buses (5.28%) Bajaj (41.43%) Small taxi (1.98%) Motorcyc le (2.8%) Private cars (11.58%) Others (1.76%) Formal PT Informal PT Private 5 FINAL REPORT: Women's Personal Safety, Participation and Employment Linkage in Urban Public Transport Currently, according to the head of transport service in the city (which is provided during the key informant interviews), the registered public transport service modes are, 1403 Mini-bus taxis, 11 city-buses which are commonly known as 'Amora city bus', 109 medium buses, and 4003 Bajaj's. Trips in the city via public transport are initiated from the centre to different corners. Generally, there are 202 Mini-bus taxi stations with 50 different routes with an average distance of 1 kilometre between the stations. In all of these public transport modes, it is estimated that about 682,340 people are making trips for different purposes per day. This data is, of course, an estimate made before March 2020. Even if there is diversity in the means (Amora city bus, Mini-bus taxi and Bajaj) of public transport in the city, the supply is far less than the demand. As a result, it is common to observe long queues in the Mini-bus taxi stations which then have impacts on the insecurity of women. Often, there is a problem of coordination and lack of proper command. This undoubtedly has a visible influence on the time management of daily public transport users with special adverse ramifications on women because of their multifaceted responsibilities. A number of literature sources relating to transport in Asian countries have shown how long commutes prevent women from accessing higher-paying jobs in the formal sector because they are not compatible with their domestic duties; as a result, they prefer to take up lower paying informal jobs around their homes [9]. According to the head of transport administration of the city, public transport in Mekelle city started in 1992 with one route from CBD (Kedamay Weyane) to SOS village with then known taxi locally named 'Wuyiyt'; Whereas Bajaj taxi was introduced as public means of transport in 2009 and started service to Kebele1 17 and Kebele 18 routes. The starting station of all public transport in Mekelle is at the centre of the city in the commercial area, the 'Kedamay Weyane' market centre. The transport system is mono-centric which can be associated with problems of master planning that reflect in poor land use characterised by inability to disperse the commercial areas to different locations of the city. On the contrary, the residence locations are on the periphery of the city. Thus, the flow of people will be unilateral; i.e. in the morning from the residence to downtown and in the evening from the centre to the residence. This results in mismatch of demand and supply and creates long queues in the Mini-bus taxi stations. 2.1.2 Urban public transport service and administration in Mekelle Mini-bus taxis and Bajajs in the city are administered by their associations and the routes are managed by road and transport offices of the city. There are three Mini-bus taxi associations and 25 Bajaj associations. These associations are responsible for providing route scheduling and liaise with the regulatory body for control and enforcement on a regular basis. Out of the three modes of transport, the Mini-bus taxi is most dominant in the city as a means of public transport despite the following problems: old cars with seats that are not comfortable, untrained and unethical conductors, and gaps in demand and supply. There is no clear standard in place to verify the quality of cars and determine the basis of their eligibility to operate as a Mini-bus taxi. There is no proper labelling of destinations, as is the case with other long-distance vehicles. In most cases, a car which is unfit for long-distance service may provide a Mini-bus taxi service in town. As per the national standard, a Mini-bus taxi should have 40 cm by 40 cm seats with a carrying capacity of 12 people. Most of the Mini-bus taxis operating in the city are just modified forms of the minibuses that were giving service to long distance travellers in the different Woredas2 /districts of the region. Owners simply change the colour and plate 1 Kebelle/Tabia is the smallest administrative unit next to sub city but above Ketena (neighborhood) in the Ethiopia/Tigray system of urban governance 2 Woreda is the third level of government administration in the regional state i.e. the regional state is subdivided into zones, zones are subdivide into Woredas 6 FINAL REPORT: Women's Personal Safety, Participation and Employment Linkage in Urban Public Transport codes to fit into new circumstances. There are no other criteria that apply for vehicles that are assigned as Minibus taxis in the city. Currently, the tariff for Mini-bus taxi transport is determined by the city's road and transport office in collaboration with the Mini-bus taxi associations. However, the tariff is not considered suitable by both the associations (who complain it is too low) and the users (who feel it is too high); and there have been a lot of complaints from both sides. Associations often recommend that the situation be independently investigated by private consultants or universities. However, the head of Mekelle transport office, on the other hand, argues that the tariff calculation is based on facts on the ground and it is always done in consultation with all associations. The following points are considered in tariff calculations: • Price of fuel; • Price of vehicle; • Price of spare parts and operational cost; • Salary of driver and conductor; • Load factor (vehicle carrying capacity). The Mini-bus taxi station and routes are decided by the transport office of the city in consultation with the community. The following factors are taken into consideration while new routes are being assigned in order to capture potential demand from the community; • Population density within 500 m radius; • Distance from basic social services, especially market area; • Spatial location; • Conduciveness of the area (open space that is suitable for waiting). In consideration of the above factors, the city assigns six Mini-bus taxis for a newly opened route. The other type of public transport which is owned and administered by the city administration is 'Amora city bus'. The head of Amora city buses administration in Mekelle Road and Transport office described 'Amora city bus' as follows: 'Amora city buses are buses manufactured by Bishoftu local company found in Bishoftu, Ethiopia and became operational in Mekelle since February 2015. In the first phase, 6 buses with the capacity of 40 in chair and 130 in standing were introduced. Two years later, additional 5 medium sized buses were added. These have the capacity to carry 80 persons in standing while the chair capacity is only 25.' (Ref?) The 11 'Amora city buses' serve four long routes which is considered inadequate compared to the demand. The distance of the routes often discourages users because they have to wait for long periods to take the service. There were 11 drivers, and 11 conductors that match the number of the buses. To meet the demands of the community, routes were increased while the number of drivers and conductors were doubled. Before the outbreak of Covid-19, these buses were serving 8 routes with 22 drivers, 22 conductors and four organizers. The drivers give service for 8hrs per day on a shift basis. All drivers are males; whereas 16 of the 22 conductors are females. Three of the station managers are women. When the COVID-19 outbreak occurred, the 'Amora city buses' were deployed to transport people suspected to have been infected to testing centres and quarantine areas. The station for Amora city bus is around 'Hawzen' square in the city centre which is convenient for civil servants and is also close to the central market. The route for Amora city bus is relatively longer than other services and, thus, helps women avoid the need to pay for two or more taxi routes to reach their destination. Depending on the distance, the tariffs range from 1ETB3 to 3ETB and to a maximum of 5ETB. However, one of the challenges of the 3 1 GBP = about 65 ETB 7 FINAL REPORT: Women's Personal Safety, Participation and Employment Linkage in Urban Public Transport Amora city bus service is the lack of fixed stations for drop-offs. At the outset, there were bus stops but these have now become obsolete. According to city transport officials, interviewed as part of this research, almost 60% of the employees in the transport office are women. However, although there are many female private car drivers, there are almost none in the urban public transport service sector. Currently, there are only one female Mini-bus taxi driver and 7 Bajaj drivers. The land use issue in the city can be discussed in connection with the demand and supply. Mekelle city has monocentric transport behaviour in which everybody will have to travel to the centre of the city for everything. Basic goods and services including market places are concentrated in the city centre, while residential areas are mostly located in the outskirts. People move to the city centre in the morning and go back to their residential quarters in the evening. The peripheries of the city are not connected to one other by Mini-bus taxi routes, which means one must travel to the city centre first to be able to reach another peripheral location within the city's boundary. In addition, this situation is exacerbated by occasional fluctuations in the demand for Mini-bus taxi services on some routes: high demand on some and very low on others. 2.2 Global perspectives and experiences on gender inclusiveness in public transport Gender inequality is a reality in all societies and at all levels of society [10]. Women who live in cities may share a common set of responsibilities and roles that are traditionally assigned to them, but they generally exhibit diverse interests and activities. They may differ along with a wide variety of parameters such as age and occupation. Disadvantaged women living in low resource areas face bigger challenges. The type and quality of services made available to various categories of women often vary. Besides, women in large urban areas are also likely to be heads of households which means they may carry additional burdens; whereas there may also be single women living by themselves, as well as professional and business women who need to frequently travel to earn their livelihood and maintain survival. Hence, urban development planning must respond to the needs of these diverse groups [10]. Gender-based urban development entails promoting cities that respond equally to the differential needs of men and women. Sustainable and equitable urban development is unthinkable without addressing women's interests particularly in the context of patriarchal economies where women's interests have traditionally been underrepresented and their roles in policy and planning development continues to be limited [11]. Therefore, there is a need for gender mainstreaming which is a concept that requires the incorporating of gender into all aspects of development programming - policy, dialogue, legislation, structures and institutions, resource allocations and use, planning, implementation and monitoring [12]. Urban life is often associated with potential risks to women's safety and security. City dwelling may be associated with feelings of insecurity and fear of crime and violence against women: their vulnerabilities to such threats in public spaces is much higher than mens' [13]. Part of the problem lies in the fact that road and allied infrastructures in developing countries tend to be poorly designed and badly maintained creating an unsafe environment for all, leading to security concerns created by unfavourable human behaviours in the transport sector. A study on the perspective of women users of public transportation in Jordan [13] shows that the public transportation system is insufficient, frustrating, and time-consuming for women users. One of the interviewees even mentioned that she can only work four days a week because of the poor public transportation system. From a legal perspective, women have an intrinsic right to mobility and proper access to public space. However, this right has often been violated as women choose to define various strategies in the wake of possible victimization and evade unsafe areas [14]. This clearly shows that the issue of women's safety has to be understood in the broader context of the rights of individuals to basic public goods. Unless this is fulfilled, as it appears to be the case in developing countries, women's safety cannot be radically improved in the short term [12]. 8 FINAL REPORT: Women's Personal Safety, Participation and Employment Linkage in Urban Public Transport 2.3 Global trends in women's safety and security Case studies from different countries especially (but not exclusively) in the global south clearly demonstrate that environments that are characterised by high densities of passengers (overcrowding), e.g., in buses, carriages or stations, provide a fertile ground for sexual harassment and other forms of abuses [13]. According to a study conducted in Turkey on effects of perceived safety on women's mobility habits in the context of public transportation [20], perception of safety differs significantly between men and women. Feelings of insecurity and vulnerability to crime limit women's mobility as a barrier to participation in public interactions. Women encounter violence and harassment when they are using public space in general and public transport in particular. Gender-based violence is an umbrella term for any harmful act that is perpetrated against a person due to their gender. As described earlier, women and girls are more commonly affected by gender-based violence due to the subordinate status of women in many societies, discrimination against them and their higher vulnerabilities to violence. Gender-based violence takes many forms, including sexual, physical, and psychological abuse [21]. Sexual crime against women may take different forms including staring, touching, groping, ejaculation, exposing genitalia and full rape which tend to be largely unreported in developing countries [2], [15], [16]. This can be attributed to repressing societal norms that define relations between men and women in public places [12], [17]– [19] but may also be related to poor infrastructure and support systems that prevent victims from reporting an offence. All forms of harassment may tend to affect women in particular and influence their confidence and quality of life. Harassment can take various forms including verbal (such as cat calling or unwanted teasing); visual (such as leering or staring) and physical (such as men exposing themselves, groping or other types of touching). It often takes place in public places as women travel to and from places of education/schools or to and from work. It especially seems to occur in relation to public transport use. This may be inside or around bus and train stations, other public transport hubs and stops and on the vehicles themselves, especially when crowded [21]. Harassment is a daily occurrence for many women when using public transport in both the developed and developing world. This has been confirmed in a number of studies and came to the forefront after the distressing event in 2012 when a young student was raped and murdered while attempting to return home by bus in Delhi. This horrifying event stimulated action. Before, no significant actions had been put in place despite a study by Jagori [22] that showed over 90% of women had faced some form of sexual harassment in the previous year while using public space including public transport in India [21]. The study has found that 51% have experienced harassment inside the public transport vehicles while 42% happened while waiting for it (at bus stops or stations). An Asian Development Bank (ADB) study of Tbilisi, Karachi and Baku found similar results [21]. In another study on Linkages between Gender and Transport in Low- and Middle-Income Countries, attempts were made to examine women's and girls' safety and security conditions in public transport services. The findings of the study show that 50.8% of women and girls have experienced at least one type of violence while using public transport. The study recommends that cities have to focus on developing gender-sensitive public transport service plans and policies that consider the special needs of women and girls in public transport [23] and ways to improve women's safety and security conditions. Various countries have adopted different mechanisms to address the problem and enhance gender equity in urban public transport. Those with extreme inequality have ventured to improve the safety situation of women by introducing women-only transportation [24]. While some authors have presented evidence of changes to the causes of violence against women as a result of introducing women-only transport scheme [24], [25], others have criticized such an intervention by arguing that it will only create polarization and does not address the inherent deep-rooted gender-based stereotypes in urban public transport planning and policy-making [26]. The issue remains controversial and there is no single complete initiative that comprehensively addresses the problem. One way to change the behaviours is to introduce changes to the way boys and girls are educated. There is a need to 9 FINAL REPORT: Women's Personal Safety, Participation and Employment Linkage in Urban Public Transport bring long term changes to cultural norms that dictate different roles and expectations for men and women. Another intervention could be to effectively deal with the structural causes of criminal tendencies in the public arena. Some of the measures that need to be instituted include, 1.enhanced surveillance systems through deployment of more transport personnel and police (both in uniforms and plainclothes), and the use of technological tools such as CCTV; 2. the prevention of offences through properly designed environmental stimuli such as improved visibility, lighting, alarms, phones and good maintenance of transport facilities; 3. the introduction of alternative means of reporting such as the use of hotlines, texting and phone apps; 4. Community sensitization and awareness creation schemes using face to face and digital platforms; and 5. the use of digital technologies such as smartphone apps, track passengers, record experiences and create maps of offending hotspots [24]. The #MeToo movement that has had global reach in recent years is a good example of how women can organise themselves to fight against gender-based violence and social injustice in society. International media outlets have given wide-ranging coverage to women victims helping them to communicate their experiences and messages in a short period of time. In Brazil, women activists turned this into an opportunity to embark on more concrete action to deal with vulnerable women in the public transport sector. The following is a story of a Brazilian woman who fought hard to bring change to millions of Brazilian women who suffered from harassment in their everyday lives. 10 FINAL REPORT: Women's Personal Safety, Participation and Employment Linkage in Urban Public Transport International case study: The story of Simony: A Brazilian activist, social entrepreneur who made a difference in women's safety and security "2 million Brazilian women were harassed in public transport in 2016 but only 10% of cases came to police's attention. Simony grew up in the neighbourhood of Dois Unidos, an underprivileged community in Recife, with a young mother working as a bus collector. She would regularly hear about harassment cases and the difficulty for women to wake up at dawn and return home after dark - living in a constant state of fear. Around her, some women would give up school or their job simply to avoid the fear of public transport. Simony could not let this frustration go, which led her to begin her own project NINA (tribute to singer and black civil rights activist Nina Simone). NINA helps victims or witnesses report violence through a simple press of a button (an Application Programming Interface (API) which can be integrated into any application – from route planning to ridehailing). This tool then tracks, standardizes and centralizes harassment reports occurring in public transport. NINA helps to protect public transport users by: • Building Awareness: Encouraging individuals to report incidents with a simple report button - easy and immediate way to react instead of blaming themselves for the crime; • Helping justice to follow its course: Helping to file police reports of the cases by providing all the necessary information (e.g., surveillance videos) so violence like this doesn't go unpunished and • Public Policy: Collecting data (peak location and time of occurrence of the harassment - amongst many other characteristics) which is actively used to pressurize authorities to promote public policies. In 6 months, NINA has reported 1300 sexual harassment cases, an average of 1 case every 3 hours." (Source: NINA meets MAN: Fighting sexual harassment with the help of mobility experts available online at https://www.yunussb.com/blog/2020/2/22/nina-meets-man-fighting-sexual-harassment-with-thehelp-of-mobility-experts) 2.4 Women's participation in planning, decision making and job creation Women's participation in planning and decision making in urban transport is considered to be key to due attention being given to their travel needs and perspectives. Participatory approaches that include both women and men can be used to prioritise and select roads to be rehabilitated and to organise the road work. In the planning phase for example, women can give useful inputs into the location of routes and services [27]. Women`s participation is hardly ever considered in transportation policy and planning in many LICs including Ethiopia. In Mekelle, there is often little awareness about public participation in general and participation of women in planning and decision making, in particular, is in an infant stage. This leads to a lack of systematic gender inclusion procedures for transportation in design of infrastructure and services. The relationship between women and transport, the reason why women should participate in planning and decision making and how to engage women in the sector are key issues to address. 2.4.1 Women and public transport Men and women perform different social roles as dictated by the society. As a result, their daily movements tend to differ and therefore their transport needs are also different. Transport research indicates that men and women have different travel patterns and that women face more challenges and limitations when it comes to public 11 FINAL REPORT: Women's Personal Safety, Participation and Employment Linkage in Urban Public Transport transport. Women tend to make multi-purpose trips but their travel participation is negatively impacted by social, physical and economic factors [28]. For women to be able to balance their dual roles in the economic sphere and household activities there is a need for a deliberate intervention in transport policy and transport plans to have more equitable mobility and accessibility [29]. While women are a large proportion of public transport users, their needs as a user group are rarely factored into transport policy or transport planning [30]. Women walk more, make shorter trips, rely more on public transport and travel more at off-peak hours [31]. Women's travel patterns are mainly dictated by the caregiver roles as primary care providers and this is especially so in developing countries. Due to their caretaker role, women travel with children, the sick, the elderly, personal and shopping bags. Inclusive transport planning and quality transport services for women are essential to ensure the delivery of quality services to the majority of public transport users. A study in South Asia [23] argued that men and women had different mobility experience as they used different modes of transport for different purposes and in different ways depending on their socially determined reproductive, productive, and community-related gender roles. However, women's transport needs were hardly sufficiently documented let alone adequately addressed by transport planners and providers. The study also revealed that urban and rural women faced unique barriers regarding transport accessibility as well as transport related challenges. The consideration of women in the transport sector is essential to ensure that transport is equitable, affordable and that it provides access to resources and opportunities required for development. Reliability, safety and security, and physical access are the key requirements for women to use public transport and the first and most important concern is safety. The transport world has been slow to see the relevance of women, women's needs or women's issues to planning and decision-making. Before the planning process starts and before measures are implemented, the gender-based challenges need to be understood in detail [32]. But in reality, women's place in society, both in developed and developing countries meansthat they are less involved in decision-making processes than men. This is particularly true in the mobility and transport sector, traditionally seen as a male sector, whether it be in terms of the design of infrastructure, equipment or services [33]. The participation of the transport users, male and female, may be the most important element to ensure thorough involvement and monitoring of gender integration in urban transport. Gender equity and inclusive transport for all can be achieved by appropriate planning, using the fact that the urban population is more concentrated than in rural areas, and that there are better communication facilities [24]. In addition, participatory planning raises the awareness of both urban residents and the municipality or local urban government, which leads to better transparency at different stages of decision-making and appropriate urban transport governance. Including women in the process of planning is an important element, as they can reveal their travel needs [34], [35]. Women can also give useful inputs into the location of routes and services. Women are 50% of the population [34] and have an integral role in a community. It is important to understand the significance of women's participation and contributions in every aspect of urban development. Women and men need to be involved at the initial planning stages of any project so that they feel that their input is meaningful and that there is adequate consideration of their needs and priorities in the development. In many societies, traditions restrict women from sharing their views in public meetings. In such traditions, women's open and active participation may require the separation of men and women during the meetings, the ability for women to bring their not-yet-school-aged children and facilitation of the women's discussion by women[34], [35]. Participation and representation by women at all levels and in all relevant areas is fundamental. Each part of a community has an obligation to take every opportunity to put their view forward and to express their opinions to make sure the public transport system becomes better and more workable for everyone. The transport sector must include women in the planning, design, implementation and decision making. This helps in ensuring genderresponsive safety designs, ticketing systems and route provision and the implementation of specific gender policies for urban public transport. Participatory approaches that include both women and men can be used to prioritise 12 FINAL REPORT: Women's Personal Safety, Participation and Employment Linkage in Urban Public Transport and select roads to be rehabilitated and to organize the road work. Village or district assemblies, stakeholder interviews as well as focus group discussions (FGDs) can be scheduled and advertised to ensure that women have the opportunity to participate in the process [35], [36]. 2.4.2 Levels of community participation Community participation is essential in any planning process. Greater participation is a means by which citizens may be educated or their competence increased [37]. The objectives of participation are likely to fall into three categories: information, learning, or exchange [38]: • Information provision has the primary target of giving an opportunity for the public to be better informed and gain an understanding; • Learning takes as its focus a concern to listen and learn from the public and • Exchange involves a commitment to define issues and debate problems and solutions with the public. The bureau of road, construction and transport /the transport sector and the transport service providers are the ones expected to provide this information for the users, listen and understand the concern of the public in this case. There are many theories that explain the levels of community participation and how it is measured. Sherry Arnstein developed a typology in 1969 that clarified the meaning of participatory government. Her eight-rung ladder of citizen participation remains a prescient explanatory work and a reference point for planners and other local government officials about what is and is not meaningful public participation. The following is a list of the key levels of participation [38]: 1. Citizen control means inhabitants handle the entire job of planning, policy making and managing a program with no intermediaries; 2. Delegated power means inhabitants hold a clear majority of seats on committees with delegated power to make decisions. The public now has the power to assure that programs are accountable to them; 3. Partnership means power is redistributed through negotiation between citizen and power holder, and planning and decision-making responsibilities are shared; 4. Placation might, for example, include co-opting handpicked "worthy people" onto committees. It allows inhabitants to advice or plan but retains for power holders the right to judge the legitimacy or feasibility of the advice; 5. Consultation is a further legitimate step, which can include attitude surveys, neighbourhood meetings and public enquiries. Nonetheless, planner Arnstein feels this is still a token ritual; 6. Informing is a more important first step to legitimate participation. However, too frequently, the emphasis at this level is on a one-way flow of information, with no channel feedback and 7. Manipulation and Therapy are both non-participative. The aim is to cure or educate the participants [39]. Arnstein adds the concept of therapy to the above list before manipulation in the ladder. Therapy assumes that society is pathological because powerlessness is equated with some kind of disorder. The approach follows an arrogant and dishonest trajectories to address problems without going into the underlying cause [38]. These steps are divided into three segments: non-participation at the bottom (therapy, manipulation, informing), degrees of tokenism in the middle (consultation, placation), and degrees of citizen power at the top (partnership, delegated power, citizen control) [39]. Traditional transport planning models have not considered women's specific travel patterns. However, there is evidence that women and men have different trip patterns and mobility constraints, resulting in gender differences in mode of transport used as well as travel patterns in relation to trip purpose, frequency and distance of travel [40]. These differences stem from differences in the social and economic roles of men and women, with their respective household and caretaking responsibilities. Social factors such as status, residential location and type of 13 FINAL REPORT: Women's Personal Safety, Participation and Employment Linkage in Urban Public Transport livelihood also play a role. For women, transport provides access to various resources and opportunities, such as employment, childcare, education, health and political processes. Taking account of women's needs presupposes that they can express those needs. It is therefore essential to involve them in consultations, project planning and the decision-making process [40]. Community participation in urban transport planning is based on the concept that people who are affected by decisions have the right to be involved in the decision-making process. This points to the need for approaches to engagement that meet Arnstein's partnership model of community participation. Community participation includes the promise that the community contribution will influence the decision, and it leads to more sustainable decisions by expressing the needs and interests of all participants. Community participation at every stage of planning and decision-making in a project increases the project's effectiveness. Besides, community involvement in transport planning helps towards a project that achieves its objectives and provides benefits to affected social groups, as well as building capacity: through efficient and active involvement of participants in transport project planning and through formal and informal training and activities, and increasing empowerment [24]. Despite the numerous advantages of community participation, there are studies that highlight the difficulties in conducting effective participation on the ground in the transport planning. Bickerstaff and Walker [3] describe the perceptions that public participation is hampered by on one hand, limited opportunities to participate, and on the other by some unwillingness by the public to take part in participation. 2.4.3 Women's participation in transportation: The case of Sweden Sweden is one of the countries that isthe closest to achieving all four policy goals of universal access in urban areas, efficiency, safety, and green mobility. According to the Global Gender Gap Report, Sweden is placed in country group A in terms of efficiency, safety, and universal urban access [41]. Sweden ranks in group B for gender equality, as measured by the percentage of female workers in the transport sector [41]. The country also achieved almost 75% of the anticipated goal regarding women inclusiveness and gender equality in the transport sector. In Sweden, 23% of the transport workforce isfemale. This percentage is similar to the average in other high-income countries (21%) and the same as the regional average in high-income countries in Europe (23%) [42]. Sweden has made significant progress with the implementation of actions that promote gender equality in the transport sector. A result of this progress is that Sweden is in fifth place (where a ranking of 1 is highest) out of 144 countries in the Global Gender Gap Report 2017 which addresses four key areas: health, education, economy and politics [41]. Gender equality is seen as a cornerstone of Swedish society, and gender mainstreaming has been included in the Swedish government's strategy for gender equality policies. National policies and budget allocations are expected to contribute to gender equality and be gender sensitive across all areas. The government has set a gender equality policy goal and is committed to implement gender mainstreaming and gender-responsive budgeting. Equal employment and pay, representation and health are three specific focus areas [42]. This example illustrates how national efforts towards gender equality can play out via political will, allowing step change in key areas of life affecting women and provision of appropriate financing to facilitate such change. The case provides an aspirational view of how Ethiopia can set out to achieve similar goals through gender mainstreaming. In this way, sustainable change in women's lives and experiences may be brought about and, in this way in terms of transport, safer, more efficient and greener options may become the norm. 2.4.4 How to involve women in the planning and decision-making process for transport In regard to women's involvement, while there is a lack of women in decision-making and planning in transport generally, efforts to include women's voices at a grassroots level can help ensure the reality of using the transport system is conveyed to the planning and policy-making community. Engagement with the women who use the transport system needs to be a way of uncovering barriers and challenges and then followed up by working towards producing solutions and interventions that make real change on the ground. 14 FINAL REPORT: Women's Personal Safety, Participation and Employment Linkage in Urban Public Transport There are different mechanisms to involve women in transportation planning and decision-making process. Some of them are [40]: • Engage staff in awareness raising exercises; • Develop a campaign to advertise employment opportunities for women in transport. Involve the urban transport management in special gender awareness raising workshops, trainings and conferences; • Gender integration into guidelines; • Systematic engagement with women's organisations; • Taking women's needs into account can result in practical improvements to infrastructure and service delivery to make them more responsive to women; • Use resettlement as an opportunity for progressing gender equality e.g., land titling for women; planning for female home-based workers; • Establishing quotas for women's participation can have positive impacts on how women's needs are taken into account; • Develop a system for collecting sex-disaggregated data to be used in urban transport planning, including regular surveys and analysis on gender sensitive mobility activities and public transport service responsiveness to women's needs; • Develop vocational education programs that will encourage women's employment and job opportunities in transport and urban transport operations; • Include gender aspect in transport planning: reflect gender-specific issues in urban transport strategies; • Elaborate sub-laws that include labour regulations in urban transport that are responsive to specific needs of women; • Development of sub-laws that will remove discrimination and create opportunities for women employment in transport and • Assessment on the availability of women inclusive urban transport policy and plans. 2.5 Job creation When empowerment of women is considered, employment of women in the transport sector will be vital since transport jobs can be well paid, rewarding and may offer long-term career opportunities. However, the sector is considered as no place for women in many countries [43]. Some of the main check points for the case are discussed below. 2.5.1 Recruitment and wage One way to include women in the transport sector is to provide them with equal employment opportunity. However, employment in the transport sector tends to be male dominated in many countries. For instance, in the European Union, only 23% of those employed in the sector are women. Besides, women tend to be underrepresented in technical jobs like driving [44]. In addition in the USA, the percentage of women employed in the transport sector is less than 15% [45]. Some of the factors that contribute to such low involvement of women include: gender stereotypes, unfavourable work culture, and gender-based discrimination during recruitment, unequal wages, lack of training and career opportunities, unfavourable work-life balance, safety concerns, and sexual harassment. Some of the possible measures to address such barriers often reported in the literature include: gender awareness campaigns; training and career development programmes [46]. In line with the previous idea, it is important to adopt explicit means to of recruitment by the government to encourage the presence of women in the sector [24]. A multi-sectorial framework for addressing gender can be very effective if there is a suitable environment that accommodates women to work in the urban transport sector at different levels. Capacity building with technical support from multidisciplinary teams including gender experts is often required to enable them to address gender sensitive issues. 15 FINAL REPORT: Women's Personal Safety, Participation and Employment Linkage in Urban Public Transport According to the 1979 United Nations (UN) Convention on Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women [47] article 11 (C), women have the right to secure jobs on the basis of equal opportunities with men. However, according to the International Labour Organisation [46] women are not only becoming unemployed, but they also suffer from low wages compared to men. According to a report by the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB: p 32), "In 2012, the participation of women in the workforce in Latin America and the Caribbean reached 53.6%, while for men it was estimated at 79 .5%." Overall unemployment rate was reported to be 9% for women as compared to 5.9% for men [43]. 2.5.2 Conducive working place and career development In a conference on sustainable transport in Africa that was held in Kenya in 2014 [48], it was reported that lack of safety and security in transport will have a negative impact on women's access to employment. Similarly, the European transport workers' federation argues that the prevalence of a safe and suitable working environment results in increased female to male ratio thereby ensuring gender balance in the sector. Even when employment opportunities are available for women, they tend to occupy low profile, low paid positions within the sector [36]. In view of this, Agenda 2063 of the African Union foresees that at least 50% of the public offices and managerial positions should be occupied by women by the target year [36], [46]. A study by World Bank [49] on gender and transport in the Middle East and North Africa Region emphasizes the importance of contextualizing transport infrastructure in terms of women's transport needs, including that of people with disability. It would be crucial to specifically consider issues related to women's access to resources, markets, training, information, and employment; and identify priority areas for governments' actions to improve women's mobility and thereby enhance their access to economic opportunities and contribute to their economic empowerment [50]. As described in the material developed for policy makers in developing countries [51], explicit means for women to be part of the transport system is important and needs to be led by the government. Employing women in transport will make women more visible in the transport sector and contribute to reducing urban poverty as these employed women earn an income [52]. As per the study done in Namibia, a major limitation of the transport sector was the lack of technical capacity for gender integrated planning, monitoring and evaluation. Additionally, lack of financial resources to assist with gender programming was found to be a challenge [52]. ` It is up to the government, local municipalities, and road authorities whether women's urban travel needs and behaviours will be adequately considered in the planning and implementation of gender-sensitive urban transport policies and programs and whether women will benefit from transport infrastructure and services. However, as discussed earlier, there are gendered perceptions of most skilled and physically intensive jobs being exclusive options of men. Since such jobs are usually higher-paying, women's exclusion from them effectively creates a wage differential [52]. 2.6 Global, regional, national and local policies and regulatory frame works 2.6.1 Global perspective The 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) under Article 13 (1) states that "Everyone has the right to freedom of movement and residence within the borders of each State" [53]. Similarly, it is highlighted in the declaration under Article 23 (1) (2) (3) that; Everyone has the right to work, to free choice of employment, to just and favourable conditions of work and to protection against unemployment; that everyone, without any discrimination, has the right to equal pay for equal work; and that everyone who works has the right to just and 16 FINAL REPORT: Women's Personal Safety, Participation and Employment Linkage in Urban Public Transport favourable remuneration ensuring for himself and his family an existence worthy of human dignity, and supplemented, if necessary, by other means of social protection. Other than the UDHR, there are also other international instruments on gender equality. For instance, the Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women [47]; Beijing Platform for Action [54] which sets an international commitment to the goal of equality; Cairo Declaration on Population and Development [55]; and the Sustainable Development Goals [56]. The 1995 Beijing Platform for Action (BPFA) that emerged from the fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing, China, marks an important milestone in the international community's evolving recognition of women's rights and roles in peace and security. The BPFA states in pertinent part that "full participation [of women] in decision-making, conflict prevention and resolution and all other peace initiatives [is] essential to the realization of lasting peace." Besides, the BPFA recommends member states, inter alia, to increase the participation of women in conflict resolution at decision-making levels and to promote women's contribution to fostering a culture of peace. Moreover, the 2000 Beijing +5 Political Declaration [56] and "Outcomes" document also reaffirmed member states' commitments to the BPFA. In October 2000, United Nations Security Council (UNSC) also adopted unanimously Resolution 1325 [57] which recognized gender equality as an integral component of peace and security. UNSC 1325, being the first solemn recognition of the role of women in the hitherto male-dominated high politics of peace and security, marks a watershed. This resolution is the most important commitment made by the international community with regard to women's participation in the maintenance of national and international peace and security. The resolution spells out actions needed by all actors, including governments and the UN, to ensure the participation of women in peace processes and improve the protection of women in conflict zones. It calls upon the Security Council, the UN Secretary General, member states and all other parties to take action in four interrelated areas: • The participation of women in decision making and peace processes; • Integration of gender perspectives and training in peacekeeping; • The protection of women; and • Gender mainstreaming in UN reporting systems and programmes. In the following sub-section, we return to the case of Sweden in order to elucidate how positive changes to promote women's equality have been manifest in practice. Policy actions on gender in the transport sector: The case of Sweden Both sustainable development and gender equality have been prominent political goals in Sweden (30). A gender equality objective is also inscribed in Swedish national transport policy. The country has a comprehensive national policy on gender equality with a total of four objectives: equal power, equal work opportunities and livelihood, equal responsibility for domestic and care work, and a safety objective conceptualized in terms that violence against women must stop. A gender equality objective is also inscribed in national transport policy. Important recommendations followed on gender equality in transport policy, leading to gender equality being added as the sixth goal of Swedish transport policy and modified in 2009. Unique to Sweden is that "the transport system should respond equally to women's and men's transport needs" [34]. Guidance is also given to local municipalities on how to address gender and transport, and there is national allocation of research funding to gender studies that cover all sectors. Ensure Transport Project Design Include Gender Aspects the Swedish national transport policy requires agencies to bear in mind that equality in the transport system does not mean that men and women's transport requirements should be met at any price, but rather that their respective needs are to be met equally and that both women and men should have the same levels of influence in the design of the transport system [34]. 17 FINAL REPORT: Women's Personal Safety, Participation and Employment Linkage in Urban Public Transport Women`s participation and gender equality in the transport sector is not an easy task to implement. With all the challenges, Sweden was identified for a case study as being one of the more progressive countries regarding gender inclusiveness in the transport sector. Sweden ranks group B for gender equality, as measured by the percentage of female workers in the transport sector as shown in Figure 3. Figure 3: Sweden`s performance on sustainable mobility [42], 2.6.2 Regional and National perspective At the African Union (AU) level, a gender policy was approved in 2009 and adopted in 2010 [58]. The gender policy provides the basis for the elimination of barriers to gender equality and fosters the reorientation of existing institutions by making use of gender disaggregated data and performance indicators. It also establishes measures to hold managers accountable for policy implementation. The assembly of heads of state and government is the supreme organ of the AU and one of its functions is to determine the sanctions to be imposed on any member state for non-compliance with the decision of the union [57]. The Ethiopian Government has declared its commitment to gender equality first with the issuance of the National Policy on Women (NPW) [59], later with the promulgation of the Constitution of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia (FDRE) [54] and finally with the formulation of a five-year National Action Plan for Gender Equality (NAPGE) [60]. In keeping with the FDRE Constitution and the 1995 Beijing Platform for Action (BPFA), Article 25 of the Constitution guarantees all persons' equality before the law, and prohibits any discrimination on grounds of gender. In addition, Article 35 of same constitution elaborates on the rights of women, conferring on them equal rights as men across the board, including equal rights in inheritance and marriage as well as rights to land and property. Moreover, women are entitled to affirmative action in order to heed them "special attention" and "so as to enable them to compete and participate on the basis of equality with men in political, social and economic life as well as in public and private institutions [54]." A Women's Affairs Office with the rank of minister without portfolio within the Office of the Prime Minister was also established in 1992 with a mandate to coordinate and facilitate conditions to promote gender equality and to formulate and follow up a gender equality policy. The Women's Affairs Office was charged with responsibilities to oversee and coordinate activities leading to the effective implementation of the policy. Since 2005, the Ministry of Group C Group B Group A Green Mobility Safety Efficiency Universal Access Group D Target Indicators and Sources: Rural Access Index (World Bank), Rapid Transit to Resident Ratio (ITDP), Percentage of Female Workers in Transport (ILO), Logistics Performance Index (World Bank), Mortality Caused by Road Traffic Injury (WHO), Transport-Related GHG Emissions per Capita (IEA), and PM 2.5 Air Pollution Annual Exposure (Global Burden of Disease Study) 18 FINAL REPORT: Women's Personal Safety, Participation and Employment Linkage in Urban Public Transport Women's Affairs (MoWA) with the rank of minister with portfolio has been established by virtue of Proclamation No. 471 [61]. The NPW acknowledges that "the discriminatory political, economic and social rules and regulations prevailing in Ethiopia have barred women from enjoying the fruits of their labour [59]." The first priorities of the government are thus: to improve the level of income of women by facilitating opportunities and women-friendly conditions in the work-place; to improve the health and nutrition of mothers and their children; and to upgrade and improve their education. The NPW put forth three distinct, but inter-related, objectives [59]: • To facilitate conditions conducive to the speeding up of equality between men and women so that women can participate in the political, social, and economic life of their country on equal terms with men, ensuring that their right to own property as well as their other human rights are respected and that they are not excluded from the enjoyment of the fruits of their labour or from performing public functions and being decision makers; • To facilitate the necessary condition whereby rural women can have access to basic social services and to ways and means of lightening their workload and • To eliminate, step by step, prejudices as well as customary and other practices, that are based on the idea of male supremacy and to enable women to hold public office and to participate in the decision-making process at all levels. Although the National Policy on Women has been in place since 1993, the National Action Plan for Gender Equality (NAP-GE) had to wait until 2006. Even if gender equality has been constitutionally guaranteed since 1995, as discussed in section 6 of this report, equality did not materialize, as it does not come by mere constitutional enshrinement. Besides, a constitutional scheme of affirmative action, aiming at reversing the effects of a history of gender injustice, can never realize its goals unless it is accompanied by elaborate executive statutes and action plans detailing quota, activities, strategies, time-line, and specific situations for implementation in all sectors, private or public. Moreover, the policy itself is not devoid of defects. A closer perusal of the policy document reveals that its scope is limited. For instance, it fails to make a systematic analysis of the various ramifications of the absence of women from decision making positions in all sectors, especially in public transport, albeit it talks of the need to get women into decision making positions. Despite the existence of a legislative and policy framework for gender equality, as discussed in section 6, the proportion of women in public life is still low. Women remain underrepresented in decision-making positions at all levels of the federal and regional governments. The NAP-GE (2006-2010) attributes this gloomy state of affairs to the following factors [60]. • No indication that a well-thought-ought policy, programme or action, to increase the number of women at decision-making and leadership positions exist; • The constitutional commitment of the government to grant Affirmative Action has not been translated into concrete action at all levels; • The number of elected women representatives is still low; • More women are engaged in formal employment, but are underrepresented in middle and higher management positions; and • The number of women leaders and decision makers at the various level of the decentralized government structure is still very low. 2.6.3 Gender issue in Tigray region Gender inequality is also a problem in Tigray regional state. The cultural norms and religious institutions contribute much more to the existence of the gender gap between male and female in Tigray. In line with the Ethiopian Federal Democratic Republic Constitution, national policies and strategic documents, gender issues become part of the 19 FINAL REPORT: Women's Personal Safety, Participation and Employment Linkage in Urban Public Transport developmental and democratic agenda in Tigray region too [54]. Existence of a Women's Affairs Bureau as one part of the organizational structure of the Tigray Regional State is considered as one step forward to give focus for gender in general and women's concern in particular. Moreover, most of the sectors in Tigray have women's affairs office, gender directorate and or gender focal person expected to follow up and guide implementations of the sector policies, strategic directions and provisions related to gender and or women issue in the overall preparation, implementation and evaluation of any developmental strategies, programs and plans in Tigray [62]. The Women's Affairs Office of Tigray Regional State has developed different strategic documents focused on strengthening the participation and benefits for women by actively engaging in the overall sectors so as to ensure gender equality. Strategic development and change for women in Tigray and development and change packages for women in Tigray are developed with the overall objectives to ensure women's participation and beneficiary in economic, social, political and cultural aspects and lastly to ensure gender equality. There are also guidelines developed by the women's affairs office for about 15 sectors in Tigray region focused on how to mainstream gender and women's issues in the sectors overall tasks. The women's affairs bureau is mandated to give technical support on how to mainstream the concerns, needs and priorities of women in each sector and monitor and evaluate performance of each sector on gender and women's issue as to the gender mainstreaming guideline developed. 20 FINAL REPORT: Women's Personal Safety, Participation and Employment Linkage in Urban Public Transport SECTION 3: APPROACH AND METHODOLOGY 3. Research Design and Project Approach In this section, the approaches and procedures, research design and specific instruments for field and desk-based data collection and analysis are outlined. To put things in perspective, the section summed up with an overview of events that have taken place since the inception of the project. The section is composed of two broad elements. First, aspects of the methodology including target population determination, sampling techniques and the tools for data collection and data analysis are described. Then, an outline of the genesis and procedures followed in implementing the project including stakeholder engagement and dissemination plan are given. 3.1 Study methods As mentioned in the foregoing sections of the report, this study was conducted in Mekelle city. Mixed research methods were used to meet the study objectives. Both primary and secondary data (relevant literatures) on personal safety of women public transport users, their participation and employment opportunity in transport sector were collected from all the selected sub-cities of Mekelle. A comprehensive review of relevant literature was made to augment evidence from primary data and strengthen the findings of the study. In the process of identifying the target population for the study, women aged 18 and above who used public transport (namely, "Amora" city bus, Mini-bus taxi and "Bajaj") at least once a day were considered. Those women used the various means of transport to engage in activities that would build their economic or human capital within the premises of the seven sub-cities of Mekelle city. Prior to the designing of the survey questionnaire, a detailed review of literature on women's safety in public transport, women's participation in policy design and implementation, employment opportunity of women in transport sectors, and related topics was conducted. Different questionnaire templates were reviewed from online sources. In addition, a preliminary assessment of specific features of Mekelle city transport with reference to women's personal security was made in order to set the context for the study. The survey data collection tools were pre-tested in a simulated field environment before actual use in the selected sites. The pre-testing exercise facilitated fine-tuning of the tools by removing inconsistencies, redundancies, unbalanced, double-barrelled and leading question items. Given the high concentration of mobile phones among Mekelle city residents, an App-based method of data collection [using Census and Survey Processing System (CSpro) Software] was applied to avoid paper-based surveying and enhance the quality of data. Quantitative research was employed to summarize the demographic characteristics (i.e. age, education, marital status, occupation) of study participants, their travel patterns, modal choice; identify the proportion of women who used public transport; describe the proportion of sexual violence victims & perpetrators; figure out proportion of women involving transport sector planning, designing & implementation activities; explore the relationship between women's age and sexual harassment, women's education level and reaction to harassment. This part of the research used a representative sample as described in section 3.2.3. However, qualitative research design was used to triangulate and validate the evidence obtained from quantitative research design above, to provide more in depth insights/analysis, explanations, common discourse, and narratives about women's public transport use, needs, challenges, restrictions, suggestions for improving women's access to transport, revealing how people interpret experiences of harassment and how this influences their transport behaviour and ability to participate fully in society. 21 FINAL REPORT: Women's Personal Safety, Participation and Employment Linkage in Urban Public Transport Exploratory (descriptive statistical) & confirmatory (inferential statistical) data analysis methods were made possible through application of the latest version of SPSS for the quantitative data. On the other hand, thematic analysis was applied for the qualitative data gathered through ethnography. 3.2 Data collection procedures and strategies Data on women's travel or mobility behaviour, constraints or challenges, travel affordability and accessibility, employment opportunity and the policy needed in this regard, both qualitative and quantitative in nature, were collected with the help of enumerators and supervisors. Training was provided for the enumerators and supervisors who were carefully selected on the basis of qualifications and their previous experience in other similar projects. During the selection process, priority was given to female applicants. The training began with an outline of the basic features of the project (i.e. its objectives, aims and outcomes) followed by discussion of contemporary technical terminologies pertinent to inclusive transport. Finally, the digital data collection procedures were explained in detail. Figure 4 shows training of professionals recruited to conduct the field survey and the ethnographic participant observation. Figure 4: Training of Enumerators and Supervisors The questionnaire, designed using CSpro in desktop, was uploaded on tablets or personal mobile phones to integrate with CSEntry mobile android app and each of the question items were presented, scrutinized and discussed to check for flaws and inconsistencies. Some improvements were made based on user inputs. Once the enumerators finished practicing, a pre-test and pilot study was conducted with 42 participants during which more comments were given by the respondents themselves for further improvement of the questionnaire. Accordingly, the questionnaire was updated. The data collection phase, which predominantly focused on a field research exercise of collecting both quantitative and qualitative data, was carried out with those target women whose age was 18 years and older; and who used public transport at least once a day to carry out their day-to-day activities. As outlined above, those target women included students (high-school/college/university students), working women (urban public transport operators, officials of associations, officials of governmental organisations, drivers, leaders of Mini-bus taxi unions, transport professionals, business women) and housewives. Once data were collected, the next phase was data management and analyses. Data management was performed simply by preparing the data collected for analyses. The last phase is developing the final report of all the findings of the data analyses. An overview of the study process setting starting from initial preparatory phase to final reporting phase is summarized in Figure 5. 22 FINAL REPORT: Women's Personal Safety, Participation and Employment Linkage in Urban Public Transport Figure 5: Four-phased implementation plan of the study setting PREPARATORY PHASE Key Activities √Questionnaire Design √Training of Enumerators √Conducting Desk Review √Designing Mobile Data Collection √ Conducting Pre-test √Conducting Pilot Study √Introducing the study to concerned city leader Key Activities ü Preparation of Sampling Frame ü Primary Data Collection using: Survey Questionnaire, Key Informant interviews, In-depth Interview, and Participant Observation ü Secondary data collection Key Activities ðData Management: Checking Missing, Non-response, data entry, coding, recoding, data cleaning, sorting, merging, selecting, etc ð Data Analysis üExploratory DA üConfirmatory DA DATA COLLECTION PHASE DATA MANAGEMENT AND ANALYSIS PHASE STUDY REPORT REPORT PREPARATION PHASE 23 FINAL REPORT: Women's Personal Safety, Participation and Employment Linkage in Urban Public Transport 3.2.1 Women's inclusiveness Survey An electronic questionnaire is designed using a statistical package known as Census and Survey Processing System (CSPro) and loaded on mobiles and tablets to gather mainly quantitative data from the target women who use public transport at least once a day. The survey questionnaire, consisted of closed-ended question items which were related to women's security/safety in public transport, isstructured along with their personal daily mobility, including information on modal choices for their trips and transport times of trips. Such datasets additionally contain an extensive list of respondent and trip background variables, including sociodemographics, home and work locations (possibly multiple), weekly working hours, occupational status and education. The questionnaire is structure into six different sections to ensure valid measurement of the participants' perspectives on transportation in Mekelle city. The first section deals with the demographic characteristics. The second section aims to understand the participants' public transportation behaviours, i.e., whether public transportation in Mekelle is inclusive or not. In this section, the survey seeks to identify if public transport in Mekelle is gender inclusive; if so, the extent of its inclusiveness. The third section focused on questions related to women's safety and security, namely whether women face sexual harassment, type of harassment (verbal, non-verbal, and physical), effect of harassment (physical, and psychological), place (Amora city bus, Bajaj, Minibus taxi), time of harassment (morning, afternoon, and evening), perpetrator of harassment, its intensity, the reactions and perceived factors that motivate its occurrence. The fourth section encompasses question items related to participation in planning & decision making, and following this section, question items dealing with women's employment opportunity in public transport in Mekelle is included in the fifth section; and the final part of the questionnaire identifies questions related to policy and regulatory frameworks, programs and tools. Figure 6: Questionnaire survey in progress 3.2.2 Ethnographic observations Participant Observation (PO): -The subject of the ethnographic study wasthe daily life of women in the context of urban public transport in Mekelle city. This qualitative method of participant observation was used to identify 24 FINAL REPORT: Women's Personal Safety, Participation and Employment Linkage in Urban Public Transport and understand the aspects of the behaviour of passengers, drivers and conductors and, more generally, daily life of women's travels in urban public transport, daily life of women workers in transport sectors, what the quality of transport infrastructure is, how people commonly behave in a particular public transport and to obtain additional insights into the daily life of women. Key Informant Interviews (KII): - Key informants in Mekelle, which includes targeted highschool/college/university female students, female urban transport operators, officials of associations, and driver union leaders, transport professionals, policy makers directly involved in decision making on sustainable transport, made to engage to shed light on the topic of mobility and its inter-sectorial development dimensions. In-depth Interviews (IDI): - Selected stories of, harassment victim women, transport users in Mekelle were documented for a further longitudinal examination of their lived experiences while use public transport and working in transport sectors. The method assisted the research informants to look back in detail across their entire life courses with respect to their experiences, vulnerabilities and capabilities in adapting to and coping with the challenges in transport sectors in the city. The cases were selected from different target and age groups of women in the study sites. Focus Group Discussions (FDG):- Though different group discussions with male/female focal persons, namely business men/women, drivers, university students, had been planned to understand means of transport available in the city, gender-differentiated transport needs and use of available transport means, and challenges and restrictions facing women using public transport, it has not been possible to conduct this element of the study due to the on-going war and security issues in Mekelle, and the region as a whole. 3.2.3 Sampling strategies/techniques Multi-stage stratified cluster sampling was used to draw a group of women transport users to survey. In this sampling strategy, each of 7 sub-cities of Mekelle city was first stratified/ divided into Kebeles/ Tabias. Each Kebele is also divided into "Ketena", the last administration unit, and eventually, we studied households taken from randomly selected Ketena. According to the above sampling strategy and technique adopted for this study, 705 women respondents aged 18 or older were selected to collect data via face-to face interview using mobile devices. Table 1 shows the number of women respondents taken from each sub city and the women population in Mekelle. By adopting a purposive sampling method, the number of women respondents from each sub city is not always proportional to the women population of the sub city. Table 1: Proportion of women respondents from Mekelle city Sub-cities in Mekelle Frequency Percent Female population* K/Weyane sub city (city centre) 108 15.3% 16,237 Semien Sub City 103 14.6% 31,851 Hadnet Sub City 92 13.0% 37,054 Ayder Sub City 105 14.9% 27,193 Hawelti Sub City 111 15.7% 34,885 Adi-Haki Sub City 106 15.0% 25,982 Quiha Sub City 80 11.3% 30,645 Total 705 100.0% 203,847 * Source: Tigray Statistics Agency (TSA), 2019 25 FINAL REPORT: Women's Personal Safety, Participation and Employment Linkage in Urban Public Transport Reports show that "Kedamay Weyane Sub city" is the place where the vast majority of working women are concentrated as it is the main business district of the city. Thus, a good number of them were taken into the sample from this location to ensure greater representation. As to the qualitative study, the study employed non-probability purposive sampling technique as a general sampling methodology. Generally, samples for qualitative investigations should be small as inference is not a goal here. Its goal is to explore the findings from the Focus group discussion (FGD), In-depth interviews (IDI), Key informant interviews (KII) and Participant observations (PO) in greater depth, and to expand on certain aspects that could not be captured in the quantitative findings. Moreover, this complementsthe information obtained in the quantitative survey and provides deeper explanations, common discourse, and narratives revealing how people interpret experiences of harassment and how this influences their transport behaviour and ability to participate fully in the society. Consequently, the sample size for qualitative studies, namely FGD, IDI, KII and PO, was flexibly managed until data saturations were achieved; i.e. until no new information was being revealed. 3.2.4 Systematic reviews A desk review, which included a comprehensive literature review of other research carried out elsewhere in Tigray, Ethiopia and beyond related to gender discourses in transportation and its effect on women commuters, was undertaken. Therefore, the team of researchers undertook a rapid review of national, regional and local legal frameworks on the protection of women. Systematic Review, which was based on protocol of reviewing research studies; published data; recapping empirical evidences on gender and transportation and how gender and transportation intersect and affect women commuters, was indeed very helpful to triangulate the evidence obtained from the survey study. 3.3 Data analysis Exploratory and Confirmatory Data Analyses: Contingency tables are employed for cross classification of levels of two or more categorical variables, like participant women's age versus sexual harassment they experienced, participant women's age and education level against their reaction to harassment by victims. Confirmatory data analysis is, however, used to find quantitative evidence which addresses each study objective. The chi-square independence test is used to determine if two categorical variables of interest, namely women's age and sexual harassment and frequency of facing to harassment, women's education level versus reaction to harassment, women's reaction to harassment vs. their awareness to laws, women's age against user's mode of transport, user's mode of transport versus reason of preference to the mode of transportation, mode of transport versus reasons for usage, and so on were independent or were related. Chi-square simply tests whether an association between the two attributes is significant or not; and does not give the magnitude of association. The contingency coefficient was also computed to know the extent/magnitude of association between the two attributes. The value of contingency coefficient ranges from 0 to 1; with 0 indicating no association between the row and column variables and values close to 1 indicating a high degree of association between the variables. Besides, binary logistic regression was used to predict whether Sexual Harassment of women public transport users was dependent on variables (factors), such as Age Group, Marital Status, Educational Level, Occupation, Mode of transport used, and frequency of usage the transport as factors. Thematic Analysis: The qualitative data (interview transcripts, notes, and audio recordings, images and text documents) obtained from key informant interviews, in-depth interviews and participant observations, collected to consolidate and enrich the evidence from survey, were translated from the local language in to English. Then, the responses were categorized under relevant themes and features that are characteristics of the majority of the respondents and eventually analysed by thematic analysis. 26 FINAL REPORT: Women's Personal Safety, Participation and Employment Linkage in Urban Public Transport 3.4 Stakeholder engagements and dissemination plan 3.4.1 Stakeholder engagement During the initial phases of the project, briefing meetings with key stakeholders, and the focal persons from the relevant offices of the city were made, in their respective offices, to explore more in-depth insights about women transport uses, needs, challenges, restrictions and suggestions for improving women's access to transport. At this time, a detailed schedule for the entire fieldwork exercise was drawn up. On top of this, consultation meeting was also made to validate the quantitative and qualitative data collection instruments and methodologies employed in the study. Multi-stakeholder consultation workshop was organised for those actors of the public transport service offices and policy makers from government and private sectors in the research work. Its main purpose was to share preliminary findings with key stakeholders, obtain feedback and inputs from the participating stakeholders, identify gaps in addressing the concerns of women transport users in the context of safety and security; women's participation and job creation in the sector and the role of suitable policy in this regard and obtain inputs from the stakeholders. In view of this, the project began with an initial communication with all the relevant stakeholders in Mekelle city. An official letter was dispatched to mark the start of the project and establish relationships at a personal level to facilitate smooth data collection processes. This was followed by subsequent briefing sessions in which stakeholders were introduced to the crux of the project work including the objectives, aims and outcomes. The partners were excited to hear about the initiative because it was new to the region and gave their pledges to support it from inception to implementation. During the workshop, held on September 24, 2020 (indicative pictures shown in Figure 7), various valuable inputs on what the data collection procedures should look like were given by 63 participants. It was highlighted during the workshop that "women's mobility rights are to be earned not to be given/expected by/from others" while acknowledging that the transport sector has enormous cumulative problems and no quick gains are to be expected in the shortest time possible. Specific data collection related comments forwarded by the participants including those linked to coverage, area of focus within inclusive transport, and representativeness were taken into consideration during the data collection process. Figure 7: Pictures from the workshop event 27 FINAL REPORT: Women's Personal Safety, Participation and Employment Linkage in Urban Public Transport The consultation workshop brought together various stakeholders from government ministries, NGOs/CSOs, and academic and research institutions as well as participants from various media outlets. Following the presentations of the major research activitiesfrom the HVT Research Team, thorough discussions and dialogues were held on the nexus between gender, and safety/security, gender and job creation and participation in transport sector, as well as on the need for designing and implementing holistic and gender inclusive public transport policies and programs. The stakeholders also gave important insights and suggestions on the way forward; and assigned specific focal persons, who in turn, worked very closely with the team of researchers from ALERT Engineering Plc. Potential sources of data were identified together with the partners. Feedback and inputs gathered from the consultation workshop constitute part of the data collection process and this report. 3.4.2 Dissemination plan Upon the completion of this project, different media outlets are intended to disseminate and deliver the findings to stakeholders at the national and international levels using various languages and platforms. The following is a list of potential media outlets planned to be used for this purpose: - • Mekelle University web site, journals like MOMONA, BRANA, Radios; • Mekelle City FM Radios like Fana FM Mekelle, "Dimtsi Weyane", Tigrai Television; • Academic Journals, Conference Proceedings, Broachers, leaflets, posters and pamphlets, prepared in local and international languages, social medias Summing up, following the project award, several steps and procedures were followed in order to ensure smooth running of the project as per the stipulated plan. The diagram in Figure 8 summarizes the line of events and activities carried out. 28 FINAL REPORT: Women's Personal Safety, Participation and Employment Linkage in Urban Public Transport Figure 8: Project line of events 29 FINAL REPORT: Women's Personal Safety, Participation and Employment Linkage in Urban Public Transport 3.5 Impact of COVID-19 and security issues in Tigray Impact of COVID-19: It has been more than a two years and half now since the COVID-19 virus, has proliferated outside of Wuhan city, Hubei Province, China to the rest of the world, and become one of the major public health concerns across all nations of the world, including Ethiopia. The spread of this inflammatory infectious disease in Mekelle city, Tigray is not as high as once feared. To avoid pandemic related risks, the research team tried to carefully apply WHO guidelines through virtual communications although face-to-face encounters with target groups (informants and stakeholders) remained inevitable. All cautionary measures including use of face masks, the use of sanitizers and social distancing measures were applied during the data collection process. The introduction of new COVID-19 variants in other countries that also spread to Africa also signals the need to boost our efforts to consider personal safety as a matter of high priority. The lifting of the policy of lockdown and a more relaxed transport environment with a greater number of service users in taxis and premises provided better opportunities to meet a critical mass of service users. The key informants and in-depth interview respondents were interviewed in their respective offices and appropriate timing based on mutual consent. Hence there were no major challenges encountered. Impact of security issues in Tigray: Tigray is still under a full-fledged civil war since 4 November, 2020. Following this conflict, curfews were put in place; internet is completely blocked, and power cuts have become regular occurrences. Organising meetings, workshops and conferences remains unfeasible. The transport sector has suffered because many of its vehicles have either been looted or burnt down. Public transport in Mekelle is on the verge of collapse. As outlined in section 3.2.2, FGD were proposed to constitute part of the information gathering phase, although the research team has not able to conduct them because of the prevailing war in Tigray region. All-in-all, despite these obstacles, the research team has been making every effort to run the project smoothly while working from home, conducting meetings in secure places and sending reports on pen drives/flash disks to ALERT Engineering Plc. in Addis Ababa using personal couriers in the absence of any communication facilities in Mekelle. 30 FINAL REPORT: Women's Personal Safety, Participation and Employment Linkage in Urban Public Transport SECTION 4: RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS 4. Results and Findings This section deals with the major findings of the study. Results of the quantitative and qualitative methods are discussed in a way that ensures triangulation; i.e. the findings obtained from the questionnaire based inclusiveness survey are supported with ethnographic data in which specific case studies have helped substantiate major arguments. Relationships between key variables are also made to show inter-linkages between multiple factors affecting gender inclusiveness in urban public transport service delivery. The results are discussed in line with the objectives i.e., women's safety and security, participation in planning and decision making, job creation and policy and regulatory frameworks. Key demographic features of the participants are discussed first in order to provide background information of respondents which helps understand the social profiles of women urban public transport users in Mekelle city. 4.1 Demographic characteristics Age Age is an important factor in the transport sector because of the differential interests, needs and priorities reflected across the various categories. The type and magnitude of challenges young urban public transport users face are expected to be different from those of older women. The results of the survey indicate that a large majority of women (close to 60%) participating in this study had ages ranging from 18 to 30 years. This was followed by those women whose age range was between 31 and 45. Three women above the age of 65 years were included in the survey using mobile devices for practical reasons. Only small numbers of elderly women were considered because it was felt that using highly structured questionnaires and formal interviews may not be appropriate for this age group. Rather, unstructured, informal discussions were conducted in a customized way to capture their views and experiences. Education Education is often considered key for socio-economic prosperity of a country with impacts trickling down to the various components of development including transport. Educated women are likely to have better access to employment services and participation in decision making processes at various levels. Education also makes women urban public transport users aware of their rights within the sector and is likely to have a better chance of exposing themselves to existing policies and guidelines on issues of their safety and security thereby enhancing their empowerment. According to the survey results a third of the respondents were diploma holders; a quarter (25%) and slightly higher percentage (27%) reported senior high and up to junior school educational levels respectively. Highly educated participants accounted for the lowest percentage (only 3%). In cities like Mekelle, highly educated personnel (those with higher degrees) often occupy jobs where government and NGO service vehicles are provided. Marital status The study has also explored how respondents involved in the survey looked like by their marital status. Marital status is an important variable because the roles and responsibilities that a woman shoulders in the family and community are shaped by whether she is married or not. The values attached to single individuals and those who have established their own families also differ. For example, according to Key informant and in-depth interview accounts, married women and those with children using transport services are less likely to be bothered by people who see public transport as an opportunity to establish heterosexual relationships. The current study revealed that close to 50% of the respondents were single; while the figure for married women was found to be 41%. Occupation With regard to occupation, it is well known that various categories of women use urban public transport modes for many purposes. The purpose of travel is to a large extent determined by their occupation (besides other day-to-day routines) because transport services are helpful to discharge their roles and responsibilities attached 31 FINAL REPORT: Women's Personal Safety, Participation and Employment Linkage in Urban Public Transport to their statuses pertinent to their jobs. The survey results indicate that a majority of the female urban public transport users in Mekelle city are business women and government employees (37.3% and 29.9% respectively). Thisisfollowed by students who need to travel around the city for purposes linked to their studies or other social reasons such as visiting friends and relatives and attending social gatherings. 4.2 Safety and security Women's safety and security in the urban public transport sector is a function of various factors as described earlier. This includes convenience of mode of transport to women, awareness of laws by service providers and service users, adherence to laws by service providers and related issues. The age, marital status and educational level of women public transport users can be associated with varying degrees of vulnerability to harassment at different times. Women have particular journey purposes and reasons for the choice of particular mode of transport which translates into proximity, cost and efficiency. In the following section of the report, we try to look at how these factors interact to affect the safety and security of women in Mekelle city. 4.2.1 Choice and reason An attempt is made to explore the major purposes for the use of urban public transportation by women in Mekelle city. The results indicate that a good proportion of the women public transport users are making trips for the purpose work, shopping and visiting relatives and friends. The three main purpose of travel accounted for over 70% of the commuting made by the respondents. In a similar fashion, salient reasons for using public transportation were also covered in the survey. Accordingly, the majority of women (32.9%) were using public transport because of the speed factor which saved their time. This is followed by those women responding that they "Don't have another choice", which was close to 26%; then by those who said they "Don't have private car", and those who mentioned "Low Cost" and "Security", as the main reasons, accounting for 19.7%, 13.7% and 7.6% respectively. Types of transport women often use for transportation was covered in the study. This may indicate the preferences and accessibility of urban public transport modesin Mekelle city. The following is an account of the choice of means of transportation by women respondents in the city. Figure 9: Distribution of respondents' choice of means of transportation As presented in Figure 9, Mini-bus taxi (with average passenger capacity of about 10) is the main transport choice women in the city used frequently. It accounted for nearly 81% of the respondents; this is followed by Bajaj (17%) – with average passenger capacity 3; while the least used were Amora city buses (with average passenger capacity about 50) and other means, accounting for about 2% of the women public transport users. Although Amora city bus transportation is much cheaper, there were limited number of buses running to the different corners of the city, as a result of which people had to wait for long hours at the stations to get the 80.9% 17.0% 1.5% 0.6% Mini-Bus Taxi Bajaj Amora City Bus Other 32 FINAL REPORT: Women's Personal Safety, Participation and Employment Linkage in Urban Public Transport service. In addition, the low percentage of women using Amora city bus might have resulted from the fact that it is not a faster way to get to one's destination because of the time wasted embarking and disembarking people in the various stations that are located close to one another. The choice of mode of transport naturally varied among women of different demographic characteristics. Age was a factor in this. Table 2 shows the choice of mode of transport according to varying age categories. Table 2 indicates that 382 individuals (which accounts for over 80% of those in the age category of 18-30) used Minibus taxi; while the figure for older adults (i.e., ages 46 to 65) was found to be slightly higher than 77% (i.e. 61 people stating so). Consequently, it is worth noting that minibus taxi is the most frequently used mode of transport in all age categories. Table 2: Age group-mode of transport cross tabulation Age group Mode of transport Total Mini-bus taxi Bajaj (Amora city bus) Other 18-30 382 79 6 2 469 31-45 200 45 2 0 247 46-65 61 11 4 3 79 Above 65 3 1 0 0 4 Total 646 136 12 5 799 In Appendix C a chi-square (c2) analysis or test result is attached for selected relevant variables. Chi-square independent test is used to determine if two categorical variables of interest are related (dependent/associated) or independent (not related). The null hypothesis of this test is, therefore, that the variables are not associated, or independent. Similarly, the alternative hypothesis is that the variables are associated, or dependent. In Appendix C.1 a chi-square test is conducted for two categorical variables Age group vs. user's mode of transport, the value of chi-square (c2) is 23.221 which is significant (p-value < 0.006). Therefore, we may reject the null hypothesis that women's age group and their preference of different mode of transports are not related. From the result obtained it may be concluded that there is a significant association between women's age group and their use of different mode of transports. In other words, it may be interpreted that the preference of different modes of transport by women public transport users whose age group from 18 – 30, 31 – 45, 46 – 65 and 66 and older was significantly different in Mekelle city. The symmetric measured table also shows that the contingency coefficient is 0.168, which is significant since its p-value is approximately 0.006. This shows the strength of association between the two variables (women's age group and their mode of transport choice) in Mekelle city is strong. Respondents were also asked to mention the main reason for choosing the above mode of transport to travel from a place to another in the city. 33 FINAL REPORT: Women's Personal Safety, Participation and Employment Linkage in Urban Public Transport Figure 10: Reasons for using stated mode of transport As pointed out in Figure 10 the main rationale behind choosing the main mode of transport, i.e., Mini-bus Taxi, for their daily purposes was its affordability, which was mentioned by over 52% of the respondents; efficiency was also highlighted as the second reason by 31.3% of the respondents. The results also suggested that safety and comfort are problems of the above mode of transport. This goes in line with the fact that only 7.7 and 6.5 % of the women surveyed indicated they choose the stated mode because of its safety and comfort. Results of the qualitative data analysis attest to most women's inclination to use Mini-bus taxi more often than other modes of transport available in Mekelle city. City bus fares may be lower than that of Mini-bus taxi especially in the wake of the unlawful increase of taxi fares particularly during evening hours and extra-ordinary occasions; but people still prefer to use the latter due to better accessibility. As already mentioned in the previous part of this section, the city buses are few in number and run through defined routes while Mini-bus taxi cover a better network of destinations across the city. 4.2.2 Perpetrators of harassment, time and location Gender-related harassment targeting women urban public transport users may be perpetrated by different people. The transport sector brings different sections of the community together and hence anyone who has vested interest in the sector may be involved one way or another. Often interactions are made between drivers, conductors and travellers and most of the harassment encounters involve any of these actors. However, it is also often the case that passers-by can cause psychological and emotional harm to women transport users as clearly indicated in Figure 11. The large majority of harassment (37.4%) was reported to have been performed by conductors; followed by the passenger (23.6%), passers-by (15.1%) and drivers (14.7%). Station managers and beggars were found to be the least like to harass with 6.9% and 2% of the respondents saying so. A close examination of the findings of the qualitative findings reveals that most of the harassment tends to be verbal and takes the form of insults, teasing and mockery. However, conductors may also be unwilling to pay back change, irregularly increase tariffs for women, denying access to transport service for some women because of their body texture/size (weight), pregnancy or, because they carried children or goods along with them. Physical assaults against women passengers were, however, found to be rare and far below. 52.2% 31.3% 7.7% 6.5% Affordability Efficiency Comfort Saftey 34 FINAL REPORT: Women's Personal Safety, Participation and Employment Linkage in Urban Public Transport Figure 11: Perpetrators of sexual harassment Harassment was found to take place on all transport modes regardless of the cost. This illustrated in the following story: Sara works in a private bank and often spent more money than her colleagues did because she had to hire contract Bajaj to reach her office in good time as the management had strict rules about punctuality. As she shouldered other domestic responsibilities at home, she was left with no other option than using a Bajaj. However, she reported that despite the high costs, she often experienced incidents of harassments. One day she was making a routine travel to her office. She was pregnant. Part of the road was rough gravel road and hence she asked the driver to slow down. He refused, telling her he never cared about her safety as long as it was not a "vacation journey." The driver said he did not want to "waste his time" by slowing down no matter what. This is common among Bajaj drivers in particular as their main interest is in making more shuttles which means reaping more revenues for them (see Appendix E). Public transport often involves people interacting in open public spaces and hence violations of some rights are expected. Attempts were made to identify salient locations where women's harassment was most frequently experienced in the urban public domain. Figure 12 shows major locations where women in Mekelle city reported having been sexually harassed. From the total respondents surveyed, 23.2% reported having suffered from sexual harassment inside Taxi premises. The results illustrated further that slightly over 20% of the women reported that they have been harassed while waiting for means of transportation and over 14% indicated they were harassed in the streets as they walked to catch public transport vehicles. 0.3% 2.0% 6.9% 14.7% 15.1% 23.6% 37.4% Other Beggars Station Manager Driver Passerby Passengers Conductor 35 FINAL REPORT: Women's Personal Safety, Participation and Employment Linkage in Urban Public Transport Figure 12: Locations of women's harassment During the in-depth interviews with women informants who have experienced harassments in their daily routines, it was pointed out that most of the incidents took place within the Taxi premises. One of the informants pointed out that the conductor nagged and insulted her just because she protested about overloading and demanded change [excerpt from Rahel's interview]; while another informant who had a disability and was looking for a taxi service had been ignored by drivers and conductors who often said, "sorry, we cannot take you because the taxi is full" even if there was enough space– considered to be an invalid excuse for not giving her a ride [excerpts from Abrehet's interview]. Yet another interviewee had to deal with the difficult circumstance of having to pay more money because of her body shape: "You are fat. You need to pay more!" shouted the conductor. Actually, these remarks came because he was not able to add a third person in the two-seater as they normally do, and he got frustrated; and ended up asking the woman double the price. At other times, a woman can be denied of her liberty to use the service right from the outset just because she is not slim enough [excerpts from the interview with Tirhas]. In another incident, women passengers can be the subject of unnecessary body contacts with males sitting beside them when the Mini-bus taxi get congested. Women usually react when their sensitive parts are caressed, but often to no avail. Because sometimes, conductors can react with comments like, "if you don't want to be touched why don't you buy your own car" [excerpt from the depth interview with Sara, a key informant from the office of the Women's Association of Tigray). Respondents were also asked at which time of the day they have experienced harassment. Figure 13 shows the results. Most of the respondents (54.8%) experienced harassment during evening peak hours. This is followed by morning peak hours (33.7%). This clearly shows that peak hours, when women are more concerned with their own personal affairs (rushing to jobs, appointments or workplace), are opportune time for others to mistreat them. Rush hours also mean that less attention is given to what goes on around people's environments and hence offenders can easily evade possible harsh consequences from concerned bodies including the police. 0.0% 1.1% 1.3% 1.6% 1.7% 13.9% 14.1% 19.9% 23.2% 23.2% Other In Bus Stop In Bus Station Inside Bus Inside Bajaj While getting out of Taxi While going for transport While waiting transport While taking taxi Inside Taxi 36 FINAL REPORT: Women's Personal Safety, Participation and Employment Linkage in Urban Public Transport Figure 13: Respondents' time of harassment experience 4.2.3 Reaction to harassment The reaction of women to different types and magnitude of maltreatments may be affected by several factors, not least by their own upbringing, social environment and the legal environment. Women urban public transport users covered in the study were also asked about their reactions when they get harassed by another person or group of persons. Their responses are captured Figure 14, most of the women respondents (42.1%) stated that they do nothing about it. According to the qualitative interviews, this could be either because they are afraid of the consequences; or just because they take them for granted as normal due to their repetitive nature. However, a good proportion of the respondents (32%) said they would confront the offenders head on, one way or another. Confrontations rarely involve physical encounters and are most likely to be in the form of verbal protests. Figure 14: Distribution of respondents by reaction to harassments Attempts were made to see differences in reaction to harassment by educated and uneducated women. The assumption was that educated women are likely to be aware of the laws which enables them to become 1.0% 3.7% 6.8% 33.7% 54.8% Night Hours Other times All the time Morninging Peak Hours Evening Peak Hours 1.2% 1.2% 3.4% 4.9% 5.1% 10.1% 32.0% 42.1% Call for help possibilities Other Submit a complaint to police Wear specific clothing Choose a special seat Walk faster Confront the person Do nothing 37 FINAL REPORT: Women's Personal Safety, Participation and Employment Linkage in Urban Public Transport assertive enough to fight back. Table 3 shows the distribution of reactions by level of education of women victims. Table 3: Distribution of reactions of sexually harassed respondents by level of education Educational Level Frequency Total Moved Faster Proportional Response Called Police Changed Places Did Nothing Request Help Hide Myself Other Not formally educated 2 6 1 0 8 1 3 0 21 Grade 1 to 8 4 12 5 1 17 0 3 1 43 Grade 9 to 12 18 50 4 11 69 4 8 1 165 Diploma/TVET 11 35 2 4 42 0 8 1 103 Degree & above 15 55 5 9 72 1 2 3 162 Total 50 158 17 25 208 6 24 6 494 A good proportion of those who are not formally educated at about 38% (i.e., 8 out of the 21 respondents) said they were helpless and did nothing in response to harassments; but a greater number of those who are highly educated about 44% of those who have degree and above (i.e., 72 out of 162) also choose to keep silent and non-reactive to the offences. Hence the hypothesis that education makes a difference in the way women react to harassment is not supported by evidence. The most common reaction to harassment remains to be silence. According to key-informants, the silence often comes from the fact that any attempt to openly resist verbal harassment is not well reciprocated by fellow passengers. In fact, the results of the qualitative study indicate that verbal harassments against women by all actors are taken for granted as something not serious. Sometimes, teasing of women passengers by drivers, conductors, or/and bystanders becomes entertaining to fellow passengers to the extent that those who react negatively are treated as others and are mocked at by other service users, male and female alike. Results of the in-depth interviews also support the foregoing findings. According to one of the interviewees, to try to seek justice for verbal harassment is considered a luxury in a society where serious cases of physical abuse are not reported and properly taken care of. Hence, she never went to the police in anticipation of a bad outcome as it always happens even with the rape of underage children (excerpts from the in-depth interview with Sara). When the public remains silent, there is often little courage from women passengers to protest or to take the cases further as evidenced by the following brief story: Rahel worked as a teacher and often used taxis to travel to her work place. One day, she came across a conductor who teased and insulted women passengers. He was so rude that he even refused to give change in good time. She was humiliated in front of her students who sat on the back seat. She reported the incident to the police but, by the time the police reached the place, the offender had left and couldn't be found. Rahel also experienced physical violence from passengers to the point of being dragged when she got off a taxi; but other passengers emphasized conciliation rather than denouncing the offenders' shameful act. 4.2.4 Women's level of satisfaction with urban public transport The majority of women covered in the study (51.2%) expressed their dissatisfaction with the current service provision in the transport sector. The main source of their frustration was the unpleasant and unethical behaviour of operators mainly conductors and the inefficient and unreliable time management entrenched in the system. As the majority of women city dwellers use public transport to go to workplace, shopping and visit family and friends, the poor service was said to have serious ramifications for their day-to-day activities. This includes inefficient performances in the workplace because of absenteeism or delays, and strained social 38 FINAL REPORT: Women's Personal Safety, Participation and Employment Linkage in Urban Public Transport relations following breach of punctuality. Figure 15 summarizes the findings related to how current public transport services impacted their daily activities. Figure 15: Proportion of respondents on the impact of daily travel to work or school Those who reported they were satisfied with the current urban public transport service provision were further asked to give their level of satisfaction. The results show that the majority fall in the medium and low-level categories with a percentage share of 49.5 and 31.9 respectively. Table 4 gives the breakdown of responses. Table 4: Level of satisfaction with the public transportation services in Mekelle city Level of Satisfaction Percent Very low 11.9% Low 31.9% Medium 49.5% High 6.2% Very high 0.4% Total 100.0% When transport users get dissatisfied with poor and uncomfortable urban public transport service provision, various actions can be adopted. One possibility is to try to shift from one mode to another to reduce the risk of being abused. Others, especially those with disabilities, might end up staying at home altogether as demonstrated in the following story: Abrehet, a single mother with physical disability faced difficulties loading her wheelchair into taxis because the conductors or/and drivers wouldn't allow it even when there is enough space. These conditions significantly cubing her mobility and prevented her from participating in important economic and social activities. Consequently, her entire livelihood and wellbeing is put at stake. Attempts to report such incidents to the police often ended up in vain because even those without special needs got harassed and nobody reacted. She added she was always worried about a possibility of contracting COVID-19 given the lack of proper care inside the transport facilities (See Appendix E for details). According to the key informant discussions (refer Appendix D) factors that contributed to poor service provision in the urban transport sector include: • Unclear organisational structures and responsibility assignments; • Shortage of manpower in the transport office and gaps in organising and monitoring of duties; 51.2% 27.1% 21.7% Negatively Positively No Impact 39 FINAL REPORT: Women's Personal Safety, Participation and Employment Linkage in Urban Public Transport • Vague, weak and loose work divisions among traffic police and the transport office; i.e., the transport office does not have the mandate and authority to directly reprimand nor punish misbehaving drivers. • Unclear chain of command between transport office and taxi associations; • The transport office is not empowered in law to act; • Lack of proper attention to the development of the sector by the top management; • The drivers and conductors are not cooperative. They tend to focus on making profits rather than quality service provision; • Transport service delays. One has to wait for 30-40 minutes for a service because of long queues; • Overloading. Usually, taxi conductors put more passengers into the vehicles creating havoc for those who already occupy their seats. Results of the qualitative study also point towards the lack of functional integration among offices directly linked with urban public transport service provision in the city while at the same time emphasizing weak enforcement mechanisms by the concerned bodies. There may be specific fines in cash imposed by traffic police to discourage irregularities but money to be paid in fines is often very small and hence drivers/conductors often make cost-benefit analysis taking account of low financial punishments which do not deter inappropriate behaviours. Transport users are often not in a position to protest about overcrowding for fear of possible negative reactions from the conductor/driver; or because they feel pity for incoming passengers. People often choose to travel in congestion when there is no other Mini-bus taxi in sight, which often happens during late evening hours. 4.2.5 Suggestions for improvement Participants of the inclusiveness survey were also asked what kind of measures they would suggest to minimize harassment against women in public transportation. Their responses are summarized in Figure 16. An aggregate of over half of the respondents believed gender-based harassments in the urban public transport sector can be alleviated through ethical training and awareness creation and strict rule enforcement mechanisms. Some key informant interviewees have also indicated that cultural training on how to respect the rights of women should start at the level of the family whereby boys and girls are properly socialized to become responsible citizens. According to a key informant, gender relations based on mutual respect and discipline provides the solution to such social ills in the transport sector. Figure 16: Respondents' suggestion to minimize harassments 0.4% 1.2% 5.9% 10.4% 11.0% 13.2% 18.2% 19.8% 19.9% Other Arbitration Self-defense Mechanisms Creating Energeny Call Centers Installing Smart Cameras Awareness Creation via Media Enforcement of the Existing Law Passing Strict Law Trainings (ethical education) 40 FINAL REPORT: Women's Personal Safety, Participation and Employment Linkage in Urban Public Transport 4.3 Women's participation in planning and decision making Community participation in transport planning is based on an idea that service users must be masters of their own destiny. Women as part of a community have the right to participate in the planning, design and implementation stages of transport projects. Men and women have different travel patterns and mobility constraints, resulting in gender differences in mode of transport used trip purpose, frequency and distance of travel [21]. Thus, women`s perspectives and transport needs should be heard and incorporated in planning, service design and policy development. A lack of women's participation in the planning process can lead to inappropriate transport services that could be a barrier to women's access to income opportunities and other basic social and economic activities. Participation, in this context, is representing women as public transport users, being involved in the regulatory bodies and taking the leadership role in the sector. The purpose is to bring women`s needs to the centre of every stage of transportation planning projects. Women in the city have 5.6% political representation in the city council. There are also few politically assigned women at the top management in Bureau of Construction, Road and Transport at regional level. This is a good stand of the regional government to give such an opportunity for women. The problem is that, except for these 2-3 women leaders in the sector, there are few women workers at the regulatory body. According to the respondents, there is no real participatory process in transport planning. Even those who are engaged are only involved at the beginning/planning stage and there is no follow up check as to whether the planned idea is incorporated or not. 4.3.1 Women's participation in leadership and decision making Engaging women and girls in development activities will support the achievement of Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) 5, which aims "to achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls" [44]. According to the global roadmap of action for sustainable mobility, Ethiopia has low performance in terms of safety, gender equality in the transport sector and only 30% of the anticipated goal is achieved [34]. The performance is not different in Tigray region as well. In countries like Sweden, women`s participation and gender equality are seen as a cornerstone for sustainable development; hence gender mainstreaming has been included in the strategic documents on gender equality. More than 23% of transport workers are women who actively participate in transport planning processes [34]. This is one of the reasons why the country has successfully achieved all the four policy goals of sustainable mobility with high performance record. Women in the city of Mekelle have 36.4% political representation in the regional council and 5.6% in city council. There are also a few women in the management team of the transport office. The Head of the Regional Bureau of Construction, Road and Transport and the Deputy Head of Mekelle Transport Office are women. Both of them were politically assigned. This shows that women in the city have better political participation but, in the infrastructure and services aspects, especially in the transportation sector women`s involvement is still invisible. Women`s engagement at the professional and service provision is poor and the sector continues to be male dominated. Table 5 shows women`s representation at different level of political decision making. Table 5: Proportion of women in decision-making bodies Proportion of women in political representation in Tigray Response Frequency Representation (Percent) Regional Council 144 36.4% Mekelle city council 22 5.6% Tabia/Kebele (smallest sub-city admin organ) council 79 19.9% Other 151 38.1% Total 396 100.0% 41 FINAL REPORT: Women's Personal Safety, Participation and Employment Linkage in Urban Public Transport During the key informant interviews, the majority of the respondents agreed that women`s voices are not heard and they do not participate in public service transportation decision making. In the absence of women`s participation it is not possible to address their transport needs and priorities. Whereas, the results of the survey (Figure 17) demonstrate that only 29% of the respondents did not believe women take part in making decisions. More than half (55%) of the respondents believe that women are able to participate in decision making in transport sector. This could explain about the few politically assigned leaders at the sector. Figure 17: Respondent's belief that women are able to participate in transport decision making 4.3.2 Women's participation in planning, design and implementation Engaging women in the decision-making process is of crucial importance if their travel needs are to be effectively addressed. However, the results of the survey clearly indicate that almost all (97%) of the respondents had never participated in any planning or decision-making process in the transport sector as shown below in Figure 18. The few (3%) who participated said they did so at the planning stage. Figure 18: Women`s participation in the planning and decision-making process in the transportation sector The chi-square in table 6 examined whether women's participation in planning and decision making in public transport depends on job type/status. The table indicates that the chi-square value is 32,086, with corresponding asymptotic p-value of 0.000, which suggests that women's participation in planning and decision making of public transport is strongly associated with women's job type, having degree of association of 0.142, which is significant since its approximate p value is 0.000 which is less than 0.05. By looking at the crosstabulation count of Appendix C.4, it can be inferred that limited number of respondents from government employee and Non-Governmental Organization (NGO)/self-employed respond that 'yes', they participate in planning and decision making comparing to the merchants, housewife, student, retired and other respondents. Table 6: Chi-square test for assessing occupation versus participation planning and decision making Value df Asymp. Sig. (2-sided) Pearson Chi-Square 32.086a 6 .000 Likelihood Ratio 31.986 6 .000 Linear-by-Linear Association 24.293 1 .000 3.8% 25.1% 14.9% 45.7% 10.5% Strongly Disgree Disagree Neutral Agree Strongly Agree Yes 3% No 97% 42 FINAL REPORT: Women's Personal Safety, Participation and Employment Linkage in Urban Public Transport N of Valid Cases 705 a. 7 cells (50.0%) have expected count less than 5. The minimum expected count is .05. Symmetric Measures Value Approx. Sig. Nominal by Nominal Contingency Coefficient .209 .000 N of Valid Cases 705 a. Not assuming the null hypothesis. b. Using the asymptotic standard error assuming the null hypothesis. According to the informants, genuine measures are not taken to improve the situation. There is a lot of rhetoric on engaging women in every process and the need to adopt a participatory approach to development and encourage women to assume leadership positions. In some meetings, a large number of women are invited to give the impression that inclusiveness is being ensured. Often there is a one-way flow of information, with no proper channel for feedback. There were few female conductors in the city but now they have dropped out because the job was not appropriate for them. Currently, the number of women drivers of public transport vehicles has also declined because of attitudinal problems. They now prefer to engage in other lower paying street jobs, such as vending rather than working as a conductor or mini-bus driver. According to the results obtained from the qualitative study, the male dominated, patriarchal cultural social structure has undermined the equal participation of women in the aforementioned activities. Men passengers often display little confidence in women drivers and showed feelings of contempt towards female conductors (see Appendix 2, Case study 6). This is especially the case among the less sensitized, less educated customers. Mrs Tirhas a regular user of the public transport had witnessed and experienced different forms of harassment while using public transportation in the city. For more inclusive and participatory public transportation, she recommends for: 4.3.3 Suggested supporting mechanisms Participants were also asked to give possible recommendations on how to enhance women's participation in the decision-making processes. Figure 19 summarizes the suggestions made. comprehensive studies that cover every category of women urban public user, participatory and decisionmaking processes with women's views taking centre-stage, and creating conducive environment for women with special needs. She was optimistic there will be some positive changes in the foreseeable future in this line. 43 FINAL REPORT: Women's Personal Safety, Participation and Employment Linkage in Urban Public Transport Figure 19: Suggestions to improve women's participation The suggested solutions put forth by respondents in the qualitative and quantitative endeavours were mutually supportive with what is depicted in other literatures. The accentuated possible intervention areas can be summarized in to 5 categories namely: capacity building, incentivizing, appropriate policy design and implementation, collaboration with other stakeholders and digitalization. The majority of respondents (over 46%) stressed the importance of awareness creation and capacity building training. Informants highlighted that the lack of women`s participation in transport planning and decision-making could be balanced by raising women's level of consciousness starting from the grassroots level. Others responded that giving recognition to women's contribution in the transport sector, assigning incentives and instituting a policy of affirmative action will help tackle the respondents (stated) challenges. Figure 20 elaborates what supporting mechanisms to use to improve women's participation, the tools that could be adopted and their respective objective. 0.6% 12.6% 18.7% 21.6% 23.0% 23.4% other Affirmative action Recognitions Incentives Training offers Awareness creation 44 FINAL REPORT: Women's Personal Safety, Participation and Employment Linkage in Urban Public Transport Figure 20: Model for women's empowerment in urban public transport FINAL REPORT: Women's Personal Safety, Participation and Employment Linkage in Urban Public Transport Supporting Mechanisms Capacity Building Incentivizing Policy Framework Collaboration Digitalization Tools Objectives • Awareness creation • Education & training • Establish women`s associations • Continues campaign • Staff in awareness • Involve the urban transport management • vocational education programs • To capacitate women regarding their rights to participate • Behavioural change • Empower women • Address the mass community • create gender sensitive staff • create awareness at all levels • Motivational mechanisms • Pilot project • Recognition • Affirmative action • Quota • Motivate women to participate • Make an impact in the long run • Give credit for women who are involved • Create good means of employment opportunity • Take women's needs into account • Create women responsive service create awareness at all levels • Guidelines • Recruitment criteria • Include gender aspect in transport strategies • labour regulations • sub-laws that will remove discrimination • For better enforcement • Gender responsive labour regulations • To minimize genderbased violence • To give legal ground for women`s participation create awareness at all levels • Engagement with women's organisations • Take as crosscutting issues • Work together for better result • Incorporate women`s right and equity issue at every aspect of development - SDG 5 • Develop a system for collecting sexdisaggregated data to be used in urban transport planning • Address women`s mobility need virtually • To engage women to express their opinions virtually (virtual participation) 45 FINAL REPORT: Women's Personal Safety, Participation and Employment Linkage in Urban Public Transport 4.4 Job creation Employment opportunity in the public transport sector is one of the most crucial elements that needs to be addressed to achieve women economic empowerment. Job creation for women in urban public transport needs coordination of different stakeholders. The approaches to be followed also needs consistency among different enabling factors [42]. In the quantitative survey, issues related to women's recruitment, wages and benefits, conduciveness of the working environment and capacity building were covered. Regarding job creation, research questions related to employment were developed to achieve the third objective of the research found in section 1.3. These questions were raised in order to explore how the transport sector encourages women`s employment, the recruitment processes, the available job opportunity in the sector, possible reasons for low employment opportunities of women, job titles, the fairness of wages and benefits, adequacy of capacity building and the overall conduciveness of the working environment in the sector. The findings described below are the results of the quantitative survey reinforced by qualitative (KII and IDI) research and the review of relevant literatures. 4.4.1 Recruitment Respondents were asked if their organisation encourages women employment in general. The results show that (Figure 21) three-quarters of the respondents (i.e., 75%) replied with an affirmative answer while 25% gave a negative response clearly indicating that there is an institutional readiness to encourage women for employment opportunities although this does not, in any way, reflect high volume of women applying for open positions. From the qualitative study, it was already evident that women in search of job opportunities often refrain from competing for some jobs that are traditionally dominated by males. Figure 21: Encouragement of organisation for women employment Respondents were also asked to rate the degree of support rendered to women employees. Figure 22 below summarizes the responses: Yes 75% No 25% 46 FINAL REPORT: Women's Personal Safety, Participation and Employment Linkage in Urban Public Transport Figure 22: Extent of organisational support to women More than 46% of the respondents rated the level of support as moderate and below, while the figure for high and very high institutional support for women is 37.2%. Those who gave high ratings for the degree of institutional support for women were asked to provide information on whether such support was reflected during recruitment. As indicated in Figure 23, 43.1% from 51 respondents said there was moderate organisational backing for women's employment. Figure 23: Women's employment opportunity in urban public transport With regard to the impeding factors for low employment opportunities, Table 7, cultural influences were identified to be the main hindrance (55%); while 30% said inconvenience of the sector for women was also a challenge. Table 7: Reasons for low employment opportunities for women Reason for low employment opportunity Percent There are no competent women who can fit to the sector 0.0% The recruitment process is men oriented 15.0% The sector is not convenient to women 30.0% There is culture influence for women 55.0% Total 100.0% 4.4% 12.4% 46.0% 27.7% 9.5% Very Low Low Moderate High Very High 9.8% 19.6% 43.1% 19.6% 7.8% Very low Low Moderate High Very High 47 FINAL REPORT: Women's Personal Safety, Participation and Employment Linkage in Urban Public Transport Women employees were asked if they received special favour or privileges during the recruitment process. As indicated in Figure 24 below, the majority (65%) replied they were recruited based on fair competition on equal footings with men. Those who said they benefited from the civil service affirmative action policy on women's employment accounted for only 12.6% of the respondents, although another 12% said their organisations had corporate guidelines to support women which they benefited from during recruitment. Figure 24: Means of women recruitment Results of the qualitative study with key informants from the transport office of the city indicate that enrolment in the organisation is made based on Balanced Score Card (BSC) guidelines and they think that this put them to their disadvantage perhaps due to improper implementation. However, such rules are sometimes compromised to support and motivate female applicants and enhance their employment. These kinds of adjustments were made at the level of an office while other offices did not have their own corporate policy but rather strictly adhered to the national civil service`s guideline that disfavoured women job seekers. Therefore, there was no uniform policy across offices. Cultural influences often inhibit organisation leaders from coming up with innovative gender-sensitive guidelines to ensure inclusiveness. In the literature, it often reported that women find it difficult to penetrate into traditionally male-dominated technical positions [36]. In order to check if such concern is available in their organization, the respondents were asked to describe careers which are highly dominated by men, in which the results are depicted in Table 8. Table 8: Proportion of men-dominated positions Proportion of men-dominated positions Percent Top leadership 54.4% Technical professionals 14.3% Medium leadership 7.1% Administration/supportive staff 18.7% Secretary 4.4% Janitor 1.1% Total 100.0% As can be seen from Table 8 top leadership, administration and technical professions were found to be positions that were dominated by men. Moreover, respondents were requested to answer in which career women were fairly represented with men. Figure 25 summarizes the results. 9.9% 12.1% 12.6% 65.4% Transferred from other offices With corporate supporting guidelines With support of civil service affirmative action Equal competence with men 48 FINAL REPORT: Women's Personal Safety, Participation and Employment Linkage in Urban Public Transport Figure 25: Job titles with equal gender representation Thus, from the data revealed in Figure 25, it can be underlined that women tend to be fairly represented in the human resource division; while (as also indicated in the foregoing analysis) the decision-making positions and technical careers are dominated by men. This implies that during planning and decision-making, women related cases may not be well presented in the absence of their representatives in the top leadership. Even if they were to be represented in those positions, informants asserted that there was the habit of arranging top management meeting during evening times and weekends which were not convenient for women as they also shoulder other domestic responsibilities related to family care. Hence, the lack of work-life balance was evident. On the other hand, as it can be observed from the same figure, 52.2% of the respondents agreed that human resource was the position in which women were more equitably represented in their organisation. On the other hand, as one of the in-depth interviewees explained it is also a means of income generating for women who mostly are the low-income groups in the society. Ms. Alem one of the very few woman Bajaj drivers in the city suggested this idea: Within the urban public transport sector, it was found that office work and station manager positions were more readily open for women employees as indicated in Figure 26; and that women themselves felt they were fit to work in those positions. In fact, this information was verified with data obtained from observations in which all station managers in the city were found out to be women. 1.1% 7.7% 8.8% 10.4% 19.8% 52.2% Ticket office Station manager Cleaning service Secretary Top leadership Human resource Practically women are relatively poor in our society. So, they should be encouraged to participate, but the first and main thing is that women should accept it as respected profession. The few Bajaj drivers should also be role models for others to be involved in this job. 49 FINAL REPORT: Women's Personal Safety, Participation and Employment Linkage in Urban Public Transport Figure 26: Position women believe they can occupy For the sake of triangulation, the experience of other countries was taken into account. Let alone in developing countries of Africa, Asia and Latin America, even in the European Union member countries, the ratio of men and women in the transport sector is not balanced. Women constitute only 22% of the workforce in this sector [41]. Some of the factors that contribute to such low involvement of women include: gender stereotypes, unfavourable work culture, and gender-based discrimination during recruitment, unequal wages, lack of training and career opportunities, unfavourable work-life balance, safety concerns, and sexual harassment [33]. The introduction of explicit pro-women programs and strategies can help women equally contribute to the development of the transport sector. Women's active participation in the transport sector, in turn, can help combat poverty in urban areas as they earn their income from the sector [1]. One of the key informant interviewees emphasized the involving women in the transport sector not only benefits the women themselves but also the sector in general and stated her idea as follows: 4.4.2 Wages and benefits In a study that deals with women's economic empowerment, addressing the issues of wages and benefits is seen as mandatory. This in turn calls for the principle of equal pay for equal work. In previously conducted studies in Ethiopia, the issue of unequal wages was found to be common [52]. In the present survey, the respondents were asked if they were equally paid with men in their organisation for the same type of work. The result reveals that 96% of the respondents replied in the affirmative. It was later verified by responses from government employees. In other domains, the opposite held true. Results of the key Informant Interviews also consolidate the presence of employer bias in the perception of equal wages. Although women employees in the public sectors get equal pay for equal work as stipulated in the corporate rules, this is often not the case in private sectors and project-related activities. To this effect, as part of the project 8.6% 8.7% 8.9% 9.1% 9.3% 9.8% 10.1% 10.2% 11.4% 13.8% Conductor (Assistant) Maintenance of service Construction of transport infrastructure Maintenance of transport infrastructure Planning of Transport infrastructure Driving Transportation management Planning of transport Station manager Office work The transport sector is male dominated. Particular percentages should have been reserved for women. This could be something like 10% or 15% or more in the various sub-sectors. The reality is quite the contrary. Why women are required to have a fair share of the positions and as frontline workers (e.g., Traffic police) is because they tend to be strict in enforcing the rules without exception. Women are much more serious that men when applying the laws. 50 FINAL REPORT: Women's Personal Safety, Participation and Employment Linkage in Urban Public Transport agreement, private contractors are now made to closely observe binding rules to ensure fair remunerations for women workers. From Table 8 it can be seen that top leadership positions are less accessible for women. Similar study in Ethiopia by A. Abhishek et al [52], also shows that, since such positions in the country are men dominated, women are less payable and benefited compared to their men counterparts. Respondents in the study were also asked if the current expansion of urban public transportation in Mekelle city has benefited women, Figure 27 illustrates the responses. Accordingly, about 58% of the respondents do believe that women are benefitted from the expansion of infrastructure in the sector, while about 33% of the respondents think women stood far from enjoying the fruits of current transport infrastructure expansion in the city. Figure 27: Respondents' feelings of benefit gained by women from expansion of public transport 4.4.3 Work environment Efficient service delivery in the urban transport sector can be envisaged only if the working environment becomes very conducive for all employees including women. In the quantitative survey, the respondents were asked if they knew of women who left the organization due to any kind of pressures. The result shows that 5% of the respondents gave affirmative answer who then were asked a follow up question related to possible reasons for their departure, Figure 28 provides the responses given. Figure 28: Reason for women leaving organisation 8.2% 24.8% 9.2% 53.5% 4.3% Strongly disagree disagree Neutral Agree Strongly Agree 0.0% 7.1% 0.0% 14.3% 28.6% 50.0% The sector is difficult for women Lack of competency Lack of training Lack of incentives Harassment from men bosses Lack of work-life balance 51 FINAL REPORT: Women's Personal Safety, Participation and Employment Linkage in Urban Public Transport As indicated in Figure 28, 50% of the respondents replied that the main reason was lack of work-life balance, while 28.6 % responded harassment from male bosses was to be held responsible for leaving office. This finding is supported by results of the qualitative study in which women informants stated that despite the adequate attention given to women during recruitment, efforts made to ensure favourable working condition for them were far from adequate. Organisational leaders and supervisors tend to be work-oriented and pay little attention to work-life balance in an institutional set-up, nor do they understand what providing such privileges to women amount to in terms of enhancing their efficiency at work. For example, maternity leave is limited to only 4 months as opposed to 6 months in other offices. Working women could have also been provided with other services such as access to day-care facilities. As if the absence of institutional support was not enough, customers who visit the office also show unethical behaviour and use offensive languages as they try to push women workers to engage in corrupt practices. In a conference on sustainable transport in Africa that was held in Kenya in 2014, it was reported that lack of safety and security in transport will have a negative impact on women's access to employment and facilitates their attrition in search of comfortable working environment [48]. Moreover, considering the above results and reflections, all respondents in general, and the employed ones in particular, were requested to answer if urban public transport were helpful to manage their job properly, the responses are given in Table 9. Table 9: Support of public transport to manage job Usage of urban public transport to manage job properly For all respondents For employed respondents Yes 64.8% 61.0% No 35.2% 39.0% Total 100.0% 100.0% As indicated in Table 9, nearly 65% replied yes while the remaining 35% gave a negative answer. However, among the employed ones, the negative response accounts for 39%. Those who said they did not find the urban public transport helpful to manage their routine work were requested to state the possible reasons (with the possibility of mentioning more than one reason). Table 10: Problems with urban transport for managing job properly all respondents and employed only Problems with Urban transport all respondents Percent Problems with Urban transport employed only Percent Long wait 26.1% Inefficient route 25.9% Inefficient route 23.3% Long wait 25.4% Lack of access 22.0% Lack of access 23.2% Harassment 15.1% Unaffordability 14.3% Unaffordability 13.5% Harassment 11.2% Total 100.0% 100.0% As indicated in Table 10, long wait (26.1%) was the leading factor followed by inefficient route (23.3%) for all respondents. However, among the employed only, route inefficiency stood first. It should be noted that, the survey is made with women only respondents without a control survey including both sexes, such factors with the exception of harassment can simply be the result of poor transport planning which can affect both genders. In summary, most of the employed women reported that, the public transport in the city is negatively affecting their endeavours. The data described in Table 11 reveals this detail. 52 FINAL REPORT: Women's Personal Safety, Participation and Employment Linkage in Urban Public Transport Table 11: Impact of public transport on daily travel Employment Impact of Public Transportation on daily travel Negative Positive No Impact Total Government Employee 96 56 21 173 NGO / Self Employed 4 4 1 9 Total 100 60 22 182 In the context of Mekelle city urban public transport, driving is almost always dominated by men. There are no women drivers in the Amora city bus city buses; only one of the 1,500 Mini-bus taxi drivers is female; and there are only very few women Bajaj drivers. However, this is nothing unique to the developing world. According to a report, even in the European Union, women in the driving seat account for only 22% [44]. Respondents were asked to describe the reasons why the driving profession was dominated by men. Table 12 gives a summary of the factor. Table 12: Reason why women are few in Mini-bus taxi driving Reasons Percent Females are incompetent for driving 1.4% Driving does not have professional ethics 1.8% Mismatch of driving behaviour and females' behaviour 4.5% Driving is not convenient for females 6.5% Employment partiality 12.1% No conducive working condition 35.1% Cultural influence 37.4% Other 1.2% Total 100.0% According to the results shown in Table 12, cultural influence and absence of conducive working conditions were reported to be the main causes for the disproportionately low involvement of women as indicated by 37.4% and 35.4% of the respondents, respectively (note: the survey allowed participants to choose more than one if deemed appropriate). The only woman Mini-bus taxi driver in the city was approached for an In-Depth Interview to give her own personal accounts on the daily experiences and prominent challenges. Following is her story in brief summary from Appendix D: Tsega grew up with her family in Adama town of Oromia region of Ethiopia before she moved to Mekelle in 2019 following political instability in the country. Ever since she was a child, she had the hobby of working in the garage. Her interest and inspiration in car care and maintenance was triggered by people who worked in a small garage near her residence. Later, a woman Mini-bus taxi driver in Adama asked her to work for her as a conductor which Tsega accepted gladly. The woman later promoted her to the level of driver and it was like childhood dreams come true. When she moved to Mekelle city, she bought a second-hand Mini-bus taxi with the support she obtained from her parents and started to hit the road. And now she is the only woman Mini-bus taxi driver in the city. While some people (e.g., Her husband with whom she has a daughter) are supportive, others including some women present serious challenges to her work. They throw disgusting insults at her and describe her as Manish. "Don't you have other work?"" "I wonder who is going to prepare 53 FINAL REPORT: Women's Personal Safety, Participation and Employment Linkage in Urban Public Transport food for the family, or take care of the children at home," "Maybe she is a widow! Or divorced, perhaps no child of her own" Despite such serious discouragements Tsega continued her job with patience and perseverance and advised other women to follow suit. Tsega blames age-old traditional values for the wrong perceptions and attitudes and recommends that all stakeholders work together to change them. According to information obtained from a station manager, structural support for increased participation of women in this sector is missing. For example, no specific training sessions are organised for women by the state apparatuses. Private driving schools are unaffordable for many poor women who have got the interest to join the sector. This is in addition to the attitudinal hindrances already discussed in previous sections. During the project consultation workshop, the deputy head of the transport office shared the experience of women's Bajaj drivers in Debre Birhan town in central Ethiopia. He said there is an encouraging environment there that needs to be scaled up whereby the local administration provides gender-sensitive support packages especially designed for women by giving loan services and training to women beneficiaries who want to actively participate in the sector. Residents in the aforementioned town reported women drivers were more efficient in terms of applying stringent safety measures with rare occurrences of accidents. Retention of women in the transport sectors and minimizing their attrition can be established if the working environment in the city becomes conducive, while new entrants into the sector can be encouraged with minimum incentives and support programs to attract them. 4.4.4 Capacity building Building capacities of women is a key tool in women's empowerment endeavours in the transport sector. Access to jobs cannot, for example, be ensured without education and training programmes. Respondents were asked if enough has been done by the government in this line, the responses are summarized in Figure 29. Figure 29: Respondent belief that skills/developmental training is adequate As can be seen in Figure 29, 77.5% of the respondents did not feel enough is being done by concerned authorities to build the capacities of women in the sector. About 12% of the respondent belief that skills/ developmental training is adequate. Participants of the survey were in fact asked if they had ever participated in any capacity building training in the past. 98% of them replied 'No' clearly sowing the scale of the problem. In addition, by examining whether women's participation in capacity building programmes and training packages depends on occupation/job type, chi-square test was done. Table 13, indicates that the chi-square value is 14,488, with a corresponding asymptotic p-value of 0.025. Thus, it may be inferred that participation in capacity building training depends on women's job type. In other words, it may be interpreted that women with different job type have different capacity building training, with a degree of association is 0.142, which is significant since its approximate p-value is 0.000 which is less than 0.05. The result in table format is described in Appendix C (inferential). 0.4% 11.8% 10.1% 55.0% 22.7% Strongly agree Agree Neutral disagree Strongly disagree 54 FINAL REPORT: Women's Personal Safety, Participation and Employment Linkage in Urban Public Transport Table 13: Chi-square test for assessing participation in capacity building programs and training packages versus occupation Value df Asymp. Sig. (2-sided) Pearson Chi-Square 14.488a 6 .025 Likelihood Ratio 15.324 6 .018 Linear-by-Linear Association 12.136 1 .000 N of Valid Cases 705 a. 8 cells (57.1%) have expected count less than 5. The minimum expected count is .04. Symmetric Measures Value Approx. Sig. Nominal by Nominal Contingency Coefficient .142 .025 N of Valid Cases 705 a. Not assuming the null hypothesis. b. Using the asymptotic standard error assuming the null hypothesis. Those who gave affirmative answers on the adequacy of the capacity building were requested to rate the effectiveness of the training they took. Accordingly, as specified in Figure 30, an aggregate of over 60% of the respondents evaluated the training they had taken as moderately effective; while over 13% still believe it was off low effectiveness. Figure 30: Effectiveness of training given Those who had not had any training experience were asked what type of training would be helpful to them in future. As indicated in Figure 31, capacity building trainings and awareness raising media campaigns were proposed as important tools to fill the gap with a percentage share of 23.7% and 18.7% respectively. 0.0% 13.3% 60.0% 26.7% 0.0% Very Low Low Moderate High Very High 55 FINAL REPORT: Women's Personal Safety, Participation and Employment Linkage in Urban Public Transport Figure 31: Recommended capacity building instruments Similarly, during the interview with the woman team leader of the transport office of the city, it was indicated that some initiatives were already in place to organise training sessions for women employees of different occupational profiles to build their capacities. Often academics from the university are invited to deliver knowledge and skills training. According to the informant, such efforts have now started to bear fruits as more women got into leadership positions. (e.g., currently three women working at the level of team leader in her office). 4.5 Policies and regulatory frameworks Ethiopia has incorporated gender equality as one component in its state policy and regulatory frameworks to promote sustainable development. In line to this, as discussed in section 2.7 of this report, the government of Ethiopia indicated its commitment to gender equality by issuing policy, different legislation and establishing enforcing institutions. The policy, legislation and institutions in Ethiopia are meant to avoid any form of gender discrimination. To this effect, one could say, policy, legislation and institutions have emerged in Ethiopia to promote and enhance the needs and interests of all citizens, women included. This section deals with the existence of policy, legislation and their enforcement analysis on women's personal safety and security; women's participation in planning, decision making and job creation in urban public transport with particular emphasis in Mekelle city. 4.5.1 Women's personal safety and security One of the challenges that hinder women from taking advantage of the opportunities envisaged in Mekelle city transport sector are personal safety and security issues. As discussed in section 2.5 of this report, to address this issue, since 1991, the Transitional Government of Ethiopia (TGE) has taken an initiative to promote women's rights. TGE has introduced several laws and policies including the 1993 National Policy on Ethiopian Women (NPEW) to address gender inequality issues. The NPEW underlines that the legal framework in Ethiopia have barred women from enjoying the fruits of their labour (48). The 1995 Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia (FDRE) Constitution ensures equality before law for women (Article 25). It clearly states that the state should not discriminate against any citizen on grounds of race, nation, nationality, or other social origin, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, property, birth or other status (Article 25). Furthermore, the Constitution empowered the State to make special provision (affirmative action measures) in favour of women (Article 35:3). The constitution further states that "the state shall enforce the right of women to eliminate the influences of harmful customs, laws, customs and practices that oppress or cause bodily or mental harm to women are prohibited" (Article 35:4). What is more, the 1995 0.9% 9.3% 12.9% 16.7% 17.9% 18.7% 23.7% Other Awareness raising workshops Awareness raising conferences Awareness raising short trainings Capacity building by education Awareness raising media campaigns Capacity building trainings 56 FINAL REPORT: Women's Personal Safety, Participation and Employment Linkage in Urban Public Transport Constitution of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia (FDRE), according to Article 9:4) reaffirmed international commitments and instruments to gender equality as discussed in section 2 of this report. In Ethiopia, at federal level, there is a national transport policy which aims to benefit women in the transport sector through formal and informal ways; i.e. through directly engaging them in the transport sector as well as providing them safe and secure transport service. In addition to the policy there are different proclamations, regulations, directives and standards both at federal and regional levels. However, within the context of this study, it is important to note that Mekelle city do not have specific legislation against harassment of women in public transport. In order to explore the availability of laws on women's personal safety and security in Mekelle city, the quantitative data collection questionnaire in the project asked the respondents if there were policies, laws and strategies which are sensitive to women's concerns, needs, interests and values in Mekelle city? As indicated in Figure 32, out of the 705 respondents 0.1% strongly agreed, 30.4% agreed, 19.6% were neutral, 12.1% strongly disagreed and 37.6% disagreed. Figure 32: Availability of policy and laws The qualitative data collected from some key informants in the study also confirmed a divided view on the existence of policies, laws, guidelines on transport sector in Mekelle city. Some responded in the positive,some in the negative. Of course, both sets of respondents noted the existence of affirmative provisions in some laws and policy documents in the transport sector. However, those who responded in the positive questioned their appropriateness and enforcement. For instance, the Head of Bureau of Construction, Road and Transport who participated on the workshop prepared by the project on September 24, 20204 underlined that the main problem in the transport sector was lack of enforcement. She emphasized that in Mekelle city there were no coordination in regulating the transport sector. Though there were controls, the control was limited to transport stations/terminals. Outside of the stations/terminals there were no controls. She further noted that in the region a draft policy was in the process and the research could serve as an input to enhance the regulatory system. The head of Mekelle Transport who participated in the workshop also noted that the regulatory body in Mekelle city should be clearly identified. That is, which office is service provider and which is regulatory body. He also underlined that the transport sector in Mekelle is an important sector but it was left to two individuals. Another workshop participant from Mekelle University also commented that when policies were adopted, they were adopted only for five years, they do not envisage for the future. Thus, the findings of the research are that there is a divided view on the existence of policy, laws and guidelines on women's personal safety and security. Hence, one could also argue the majority of the respondents were 4 The purpose of the workshop was to brief stakeholders about the project and to solicit important reflections, inputs and directions from them. It also aimed to engage the stakeholders from the very beginning and lay foundation for future upcoming consultations and dissemination workshops. 0.1% 30.4% 19.6% 37.6% 12.1% Strongly agree Agree Neutral disagree Strongly disagree 57 FINAL REPORT: Women's Personal Safety, Participation and Employment Linkage in Urban Public Transport not aware about the existence of policy and laws in general. The qualitative data collected from almost all key informants in the study also confirmed that the respondents' awareness level in general were partial. The data further indicated that even if the respondents' level of awareness were limited, they presumed the existence of the policy and laws. The respondents further underlined that since the laws were not meant to be implemented, no one cares about the existence of policy and laws. They further emphasised that it is waste of time to worry about policy and laws which could not be implemented. 4.5.2 Women participation in planning decision making Women participation in the planning and decision-making process is one important element in women's empowerment, as it helps to incorporate their needs. Thus, policy and law makers need to incorporate women's needs through the process of participation when they are engaged in new transport developments and projects. As to the legal framework on participation of all citizens in general, the FDRE Constitution underlines that; Government shall at all times promote the participation of the People in the formulation of national development policies and programs; it shall also have the duty to support the initiatives of the people in their development endeavours (Article 89:6). The FDRE Constitution further states that; Women have the right to full consultation in the formulation of national development policies, the designing and execution of projects, and particularly in the case of projects affecting the interests of women" (Article 35:6). It also further noted that; "Government shall ensure the participation of women in equality with men in all economic and social development endeavours (Article 35:7). The other way to empower women is to provide them with equal employment opportunity in the transport sector. Women's employment in transport in all countries provides attractive and promising employment opportunities, both in the formal and informal sector. Transport service provision and transport-related construction projects frequently provide critical sources of employment for the urban poor. Yet these jobs are highly gendered and unequal. Currently, detailed and accurate statistics on the employment of women in the transport sector are hard to find, especially for specific transport modes. Regarding women's employment opportunity, the same Constitution underlines that "Women shall have a right to equality in employment, promotion, pay, and the transfer of pension entitlements" (Article 35: 8). As to equal pay for equal work, the Constitution clearly stated that; 'Women workers have the right to equal pay for equal work (Article 42 (d))." Thus, from the above discussions, one could conclude that the policy and legal frameworks on women's participation in planning, decision making and job creation are in place. Of course, defining participation is not without challenges. It could include many activities and processes. Participation is defined as "an umbrella term that describes the activities by which people's concerns, needs, interests, and values are incorporated into decisions and actions on public matters and issue." Participation is of two kinds—direct participation and indirect participation. Direct participation is participation where citizens are personally involved in giving inputs, making decision and solving problems. Indirect participation is participation where citizens affect decisions by voting for their representatives. 4.5.3 Job creation In order to examine the implementation of women's job creation in Mekelle city as indicated in the policy and laws, the quantitative data collection questionnaire in the study asked questions about this subject. Regarding women's job creation, the question asked was, do you believe the job creation effort for women in the transport sector is sufficient in Mekelle city? As indicated in Figure 33, out of the 219 respondents 24.4% responded strongly disagree, 58.9% disagree, 6.8% neutral, while 9.5% agree, 0.4% strongly agree. Overall, as the quantitative data indicate, 83.3% of the respondents believed that efforts of job creation for women were not sufficient. 58 FINAL REPORT: Women's Personal Safety, Participation and Employment Linkage in Urban Public Transport Figure 33: Job creation effort for women The qualitative data collected from key informants in the study also underlined that there was no conducive environment to be engaged in the transport sector. They substantiated their assertion by indicating one example, the nonexistence of day care centres for women with kids. They also mentioned the existence of a directive in women's associations that require 50% of the recruits to be women though they underlined that it was not functional on the ground. One participant from Mekelle city transport sector who participated in the consultation workshop, underlined the nonexistence of conducive working environment in the transport sector, and commented on the importance of including women in the transport sector as Bajaj drivers. He suggested that their inclusion could inculcate a good code of conduct into the transport sector. He even mentioned the practice in Debre Brhan city (one of the cities in central Ethiopia) where all Bajaj drivers are women. Thus, the finding of the research indicate that women had poor access to job opportunities despite its crucial importance in enhancing socio-economic empowerment of women as clearly stipulated in the policies and laws. 4.5.4 Women's awareness and satisfaction with state policies and laws As indicated in section 4.5.1, all international conventions adopted by Ethiopia, the FDRE constitution and other subsidiary laws have attempted to incorporate women's needs and interests. In other words, they appear to be sensitive to women's interests and needs. However, the issue is, what is the level of women's satisfaction? In order to find out the satisfaction level of women on the sensitivity of laws to women in Mekelle city, the quantitative data collection questionnaire in the project asked the respondents if they were satisfied with the public transport service in Mekelle city as the policy and law prescribes. As indicated in Figure 34, out of the 705 respondents only about 6 % of them responded that their satisfaction levels were high; 49.5% medium; 31.9% low; 11.9% very low. This quantitative data indicates that the overall satisfaction level of the respondents is low. Moreover, a close examination of their level of satisfaction in relation to the implementation of existing laws indicates a chi-square value of 38,472, with corresponding asymptotic p-value of 0.000 (Appendix C.9 chi-square table). Thus, it can be concluded that there is a significant association between implementation of laws designed for female interest and their satisfaction level in using public transport in the city. In other words, it may be interpreted that the extent of satisfaction on women using public transport significantly depends on degree of implementation of the laws designed to improve women's safety and security. The symmetric measures also show that the contingency coefficient is 0.390, which is significant since its approximate p value is 0.000 which is less than 0.05. This shows the magnitude of association between the extent of satisfaction on women using public transport significantly and degree of implementation of the laws designed to improve women's safety and security is very strong. 24.4% 58.9% 6.8% 9.5% 0.4% Strongly disagree disagree Neutral Agree Strongly Agree 59 FINAL REPORT: Women's Personal Safety, Participation and Employment Linkage in Urban Public Transport Figure 34: Level of satisfaction The qualitative data collected from almost all key informants in the study also confirmed that they were not satisfied with the existing public transport sector in Mekelle city. They underlined that their level of satisfaction was none or not satisfactory. Some of the important reasons they provided for their low satisfaction were: shortage of man power in the sector, non-coordination of the institutions engaged in the transport sector and weak enforcement mechanism. Thus, the findings of the research indicate that the level of women's satisfaction in the transport sector in Mekelle city is low. This is suggesting that Mekelle city authorities have a long way to go on the enforcement of the existing laws starting from the federal and regional constitutions, ratified international conventions and other subsidiary laws. 11.9% 31.9% 49.5% 6.2% 0.4% Very Low Low Medium High Very High 60 FINAL REPORT: Women's Personal Safety, Participation and Employment Linkage in Urban Public Transport SECTION 5: CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS 5. Conclusions and Recommendations This section discusses the major conclusions drawn from key findings of the study vis-à-vis the stated specific objectives. It begins with a summary of the conclusions on the main challenges related to women's safety, participation in decision making and policy gaps that call for immediate action by pertinent stakeholders. The conclusions relate to the metricized goals the project planned to achieve at the end of the study period. Recommendations are given to potentially address and tackle some of the challenges related gender inclusiveness in urban public transport delivery in Mekelle city. Specific suggestions on the necessary steps that must be taken in the years to come have also been highlighted for possible interventions by governmental and non-governmental organizations in the foreseeable future. 5.1 Conclusions Based on the findings of the study, the major factors that adversely affected women's safety and security (refer section 4.2) in transport settings are: • Poor status of road infrastructure development; • Gender insensitive public transport service provision; • Repressive cultural norms and values that reflect in women's daily routines; • Poor awareness of women's rights among the general public including women themselves; and • Lack of common understanding among stakeholders often reflected in negligent or no reaction towards incidents of harassment of women in public places. As a result, gender-related harassment in the form of verbal and psychological abuse has become rampant. Efforts to reverse the situation by different stakeholders has so far been unsatisfactory. Government priority settings of interventions often side-line transport related problems in the wake of other pressing problems besetting the region, in general, and Mekelle city, in particular. With the current conflict, the issue of gender equity and inclusiveness in the transport sector has been given marginal attention. Engaging women at all levels of decision making including in the planning, design and implementation of public transport projects is a matter of necessity and not of choice. In the context of Mekelle city, there seems to be a reasonable amount of awareness and political will to bring about change but the progress and achievements made so far has remained minimal and slow. Almost all the respondents had never participated in any transport planning process. This points to a sector which has largely ignored women`s participation and engagement. Thus, the ultimate goal of women`s involvement is not being adequately addressed. Women have different transport needs, travel patterns, inclinations and mobility constraints. Such genderbased diversities need to be adequately captured throughout project lifecycles so that expansions in urban public transport systems can benefit all citizens. Currently, women in the city are reported to have been very well represented at a political level, but their role in regulatory and leadership positions in the sector is constrained due mainly to attitudinal problems in the society at large. Today, despite the numerous advantages of engaging women in planning and related activities, their visibility remains low; and what has been planned is usually not properly implemented. Gender issues in general are part of the propaganda machinery in political platforms, but little is done on the ground to achieve the desired goals. 61 FINAL REPORT: Women's Personal Safety, Participation and Employment Linkage in Urban Public Transport The most prominent reasons that hinder women's participation in planning and decision making (refer section 4.3) in the urban transport sector are: 1. Lack of awareness and proficiency of women in particular and the community in general; 2. Unwelcoming occupations – the main reason for women to be excluded in the sector is the behaviour of the service providers (minibus drivers and conductors) and the majority of the community who have negative perceptions of them. Women think that the job is not appropriate for them. In addition, the recruitment criteria are also a challenge for women to be involved in the sector; 3. Lack of participatory processes in the transport projects- there is no participatory process in all the transportation projects in the city in general. It is even worst when it comes to women`s participation. They were never invited to express their views and perspectives. Equal participation of women in the sector as well as in transport planning process is totally undermined; 4. Culture and attitude towards the sector – The apparent attitude is that transport is a sector for men– engineering in general is perceived as a profession for men in our culture and, in practice, the transport sector is dominated by men. Thus, there are no role models for women in the sector, including in the regulatory body; 5. Fear of harassment – almost half of the women respondents in this research had faced different forms of harassment while using public transportation. This resulted in a fear of harassment not only as users but also as potential service providers in the sector; 6. Unavailability of policy and regulation frameworksthat encourage women to participate in the planning and decision-making processes; and 7. Lack of commitment from the government and the society on encouraging woman to be engaged in the transport sector in general. One of the specific objectives of the research was to determine the level of employment opportunities for women in the urban public transport sector of the city as a component of women's economic empowerment. The data analysed reveals the following conclusions: Job creation for women in the transport sector can only be achieved if the process is fully implemented in the offices. Important factors that need focus in relation to job creation for women are: the recruitment process, providing rational wages and benefits for women employed, providing conducive working environment and capacity building. If these issues were well understood and implemented, to some level economic empowerment of women can be managed. The major impediments related to women's employment (refer section 4.4) include the following: • The lack of uniformity in the recruitment process because of the absence of standard guidelines in the civil service sector. Hence, employment procedures remain haphazard. • Although women are ideally encouraged to actively participate in the job market, the competition is challenging for them due to their low access to education and experience. • Age-old attitudinal problems related to women's capacities and efficiency that hinder women to contribute their share. This contributes to the gender gap in job creation. • Wage differentials between men and women rather than ensuring equal pay for equal work especially in private enterprises • Less incentives for women to participate in white-collar positions as a result of which there is less representation of women in management/leadership positions. • Lack of a conducive work environment for women in terms of work-life balance 62 FINAL REPORT: Women's Personal Safety, Participation and Employment Linkage in Urban Public Transport With regard to policy and regulation (refer section 4.5), the major challenges identified include: • Overall low awareness on issues related to women's transport needs, rights, duties and obligations • Weak legal and regulatory frameworks; poor enforcement of the existing laws starting from the federal and regional constitutions, ratified international conventions and other subsidiary laws; and The absence of specific legislation against harassment in public transport in Mekelle city in particular; which means that there are no laws that prevent and define harassment and punishments for those responsible. Despite the limited legislation and progress on domestic violence in general, harassment in the transport sector is not dealt with effectively. • The lack of innovation and customization in the design of laws and policies related to transport service provision • Poor networking and functional integration among law enforcement bodies in Mekelle city As a result, Mekelle public transport fails to be women-friendly in all its forms. Despite the modest progress on legal protection related to harassment, participatory planning, decision making and job creation gaps still persist and women's empowerment in the transport sector continues to be a long-awaited unfulfilled dream. 5.2 Recommendations Based on the findings and conclusions reached recommendations have been outlined in groups as follows: Awareness raising • Awareness campaigns are needed to bring women's transport related rights to the attention of the general public. This can be done by organizing formal seminars and conferences; media sensitizations, or/and the use of leaflets and posters; • On a general note, women's advocacy groups must be organized with the mandate of mainstreaming gender in public transport issues into already existing state and non-state institutions; • In the long run, awareness against cultural norms that undermine the role of women in society in general and their rights to mobility should be promoted through community sensitization programmes; • Awareness can be improved through continuous education and campaigns so that the general public can be addressed. Involving top management on awareness creation events can also help on making the leaders to be more gender sensitive. Such awareness creation programs can be done in collaboration with associations concerned with women`s affairs. Empowerment/Capacity building • Insufficiency of women`s participation in the transportation planning and decision-making is one of the main challenges observed in the transport sector in the city. As a result, the inclusiveness of the transport sector in general is in question. According to the participants' suggestions and literature this can be curtailed by focusing on capacity building and awareness raising at the grassroots level. • Capacity building could be done by giving short term training, refresher courses for staff under the transportation bureau and development of curriculum for vocational education programs on inclusive transport. Building the capacity of women and the community in general will help to bring behavioural change especially for the service providers (minibus conductors and drivers) who are the main perpetrators of the harassment on public transport. Efforts should be focused on making women aware of their rights to participate in the transport sector and empower them. • Motivational incentives will mainly address women who are already involved in the sector and who have the interest to be involved. It can be exercised by giving recognition for those who performed well and encourage them to update themselves. The other encouraging mechanism could be introducing affirmative action and increasing women`s quota in the sector. Their involvement can help them to express their needs and inspire others to join the sector. This could also be a good means of employment opportunity to empower women. Here it is not only the women who will get benefit by their involvement in the sector bit also that the transport sector could improve its service with the new perspectives introduced by women. 63 FINAL REPORT: Women's Personal Safety, Participation and Employment Linkage in Urban Public Transport • The recruitment process, wages and benefits for women employed, providing conducive working environment and capacity building for the employed are important factors which should be addressed. In addition, factors that need focus in relation to job creation for women are: the recruitment process, providing rational wages and benefits for women employed, providing conducive working environment and capacity building. If these issues were well understood and implemented, to some level economic empowerment of women can be managed in the sector. • Generally, Women's levels of employment are not equal to men's and particularly this fact is clearly seen in the urban public transport sector of the city. To secure well established job creation in urban public transport with the target of women inclusive transport, affirmative actions on recruitment process, wages and benefits for women, providing conducive working environment and providing well-designed capacity building should be implemented. • To empower women in the urban public transport sector, the privileges which may benefit women should be uniform. In some office there is good initiatives which supports women in recruitment. Thus, the support for women has to be reinforced with corporate policy. • Recruiting applications and hiring quotas and targets. The sector from the beginning has to put specific targets or quotas to the percentage of women hired or shortlisted in the recruitment process. Such approach can include both the operational (technical) and management positions. • University visits to attract women: not only in the city but also in the country, the sector is misunderstood and labelled as male comfortable sector. Thus, to promote a less masculine image of the sector and its comfortability for women has to be briefed for school and university students. Another important recommendation in this research is related to wages and benefits for women in the urban public transport. The wages and benefits for women in the urban public transport are the usual. There is no unique incentives and demanded benefit which is rendered for women. Thus, to encourage the economic empowerment and to make competitive in the sector, specific benefits for women should be provided. The overall empowerment of women in the urban transport sector will be achieved if conducive working environment is implemented. The concept of work-life balance should be implemented. Management meetings shall be held at a convenient time for women. If out of working hours is required, then measures such as transport service to go home/care for children etc. should be provided to specifically female workers to help with their work-life demands and balance. It is proved that in the analysis, sexual harassment in public transport has major impact in employed not to handle their work properly. The following measures are recommended so as the working environment will be conducive to the maximum possible; • Since the employed women are also victims of sexual harassment while making trip to their work in public transport of the city, giving training against third part violence could be better solution. This includes how to defend themselves from such accidents. This is more preferable to employees with high exposure to third party violence like drivers and station managers; • Providing more and better employee's facilities: the facility demand from men and women is quite different. The sector has to accept this fact and adjust accordingly. Segregated changing rooms, toilets, breast feeding rooms etc. should be available in the office; • Important facility which is not introduced in the sector is kindergartens and day-care issue. To retain women in the office mentally and physically, proving these facilities is vital. These facilities can be run by third party funded partially by the company and partially by the employees which could be within or near the company premises and It is important to focus on capacity building for women to increase their employment ratio and to retain them in the sector. However, the experience in the sector shows that enough and efficient capacity building is not delivered. Thus, as per the analysis, the capacity building mechanisms which are recommended in this section are: • Training should be offered to support women employees; • Awareness creation through media campaign focusing how to enhance women employment in the sector must be addressed and • Capacity building via conferences and trainings for women employed to retain them in the sector should be delivered. 64 FINAL REPORT: Women's Personal Safety, Participation and Employment Linkage in Urban Public Transport If companies are going to recruit women in their organisations, they need to understand the advantages they can earn. Accordingly, if there are more women in the transport sector of the city, the following benefits to the office may be expected as stated in EU studies: • Increased retention rate; the retention of women is longer than men in offices. Thus, the office will not suffer more by continuous turnout. Having experience and long-time employee in office makes it stable; • Improved public image: Employing more women results in a more positive and colourful image ass it reflects societies consistency; • The sector will achieve more efficient vehicle operation which is fuel and maintenance cost as there is wide perception that women are efficient drivers and • Employing more women can result in a safer driving. Less accident and less incidents of violence. Policy implementation and regulation enforcement • State legal machineries need to carefully and promptly address women's harassment cases in a timely and forceful manner • There should be innovative government projects that focus on Women only transport service provision especially during peak hours to facilitate their daily social and economic routines. Life threatening harassment targeting women can be minimized by organisation of policing through relevant institutions. • Giving awareness and motivating women to participate alone is not enough, it should also be complemented with policy and regulation. Guidelines and policy frameworks that set the number of women representatives on different transport projects and their involvement throughout the project have to be outlined. Guidelines on recruitment criteria, labour regulations and regulations that can remove discrimination should be in place. The transport sector in general should include gender aspects in all the transport strategies. Such guidelines can help in minimizing gender-based harassment, for better enforcement and to give a legal ground for women`s participation in the transport sector. • In addition to the above-mentioned recommendations, closer cooperative working and collaboration with associations concerned with women`s affairs may result in better solutions. Developing a digital data collection system/platform for collecting sex-disaggregated data to be used in urban transport planning can improve the level of participation. • Organizations should set zero –tolerance policy for sexual harassment which arise from anybody in the organization and relevant institutions should seriously implement such regulations. Strong institutions to monitor and evaluate the existing, different laws on safety and security, women's participation and job creation with strong emphasis on investigating incidents on women harassment in the public transport sector in Mekelle city should be put in place and strengthened. Currently, though there are institutions, they are not functioning effectively in respect of their capacity, personnel and autonomy. In addition, the existing institutions may have the problem of coordination. Since Mekelle city was found to be devoid of specific legislation against harassment and punishment in the public transport sector, it is imperative for the city to introduce such legislation which criminalises and punishes people who perpetrate gender-related harassment in the public transport sector. The legislation to be introduced needs to put in place clear procedures for reporting and responding to harassment, and bringing the perpetrator to justice. Alongside such initiatives, awareness creation programmes need to be introduced to help curb the potential for women to be harassed in the public transport sector due to long-standing, repressive cultural norms; and weak legal and regulatory frameworks. 65 FINAL REPORT: Women's Personal Safety, Participation and Employment Linkage in Urban Public Transport 66 FINAL REPORT: Women's Personal Safety, Participation and Employment Linkage in Urban Public Transport SECTION 6: RESEARCH UPTAKE 6. Research Uptake The main objective of the research uptake and dissemination strategy was to create awareness, facilitate capacity-building amongst women, decision makers and the general public on existing gaps on women`s inclusiveness public transport in Mekelle city. It was planned to train and create awareness among beneficiaries and the stakeholders since the inception of the research project. The research tried to employ a participatory rather than top-down approach in the research uptake activities conducted so far. The participants at every stage shared their experience and perspectives that meaningfully shaped the expected outcomes. The modalities employed in the research process to brief and inform the stakeholders were: stakeholders briefing on the general idea and objective of the project which had an impact on the smooth process of data collection, key informant interviews, data survey, trainings and workshops. The data collection process by itself was used as an interactive awareness creation and capacity building process. Unfortunately, due to the ongoing war in Tigray it was not possible to conduct other planned events like: the validation workshop, final workshop, trainings and seminars. These research uptake programs been postponed to the fiscal year 2022/23, but couldn't be carried out. The other modalities used publications such as journals and conference papers as well as brochures, leaflets and banners distributed during the workshops and data collection period. Media brief was also given on a local media called 'Aster Teare' on Dimtsi Weyane Television (DW TV) a local media in the Tigray state. 6.1 Research uptake activities carried out 6.1.1 Stakeholder engagement Stakeholders briefing: The project started with an initial communication with all the relevant stakeholders in Mekelle city. An official letter was dispatched to mark the start of the project and establish relationships at a personal level to facilitate smooth data collection processes. This was followed by subsequent briefing sessions in which stakeholders were introduced to the project work including the objectives, aims and outcomes. The partners were excited to hear about the initiative because it was new to the region and gave their pledges to support it from inception to implementation. They also gave important insights and suggestions on the way forward; and assigned specific focal persons, who in turn, worked very closely with the team of researchers from ALERT Engineering Plc. Potential sources of data were identified together with the partners. The willingness, enthusiasm and eagerness to cooperate were encouraging. Date Event type Purpose Total number of participants Outcome Aug. 30 - Sept. 01 2020 Project briefing Introducing the research project, the title, thematic area, objectives, role of stakeholders and their engagement throughout the project implementation, their cooperation in providing data and to get contact person 13 participants at different offices It helped on identifying the name of key informants and other stakeholders. It also smoothens the data collection process 67 FINAL REPORT: Women's Personal Safety, Participation and Employment Linkage in Urban Public Transport Trainings: Training was then arranged for enumerators and supervisors who were carefully selected on the basis of qualification and experience with other similar projects in the past. The training began with an outline of the basic issues about the project (i.e., its objectives, aims and outcomes) followed by a highlight of contemporary technical terminologies pertinent to inclusive transport. Date Event type Purpose Total number of participants Outcome Sept. 08-09, 2020 Enumerators and supervisors training The purpose of the event was to train the enumerators and supervisors on the title of the research and what each term of the topic means, objective of the research and the expected outcome the different approaches of data collection methodologies, detail explanation on the survey questionnaire, assigning of enumerators and supervisors among the subcities and how to collect data virtually through the application of CSEntry. 14 enumerators 4 supervisors 6 researchers 1 IT expert Most of the trainees have engineering back ground and live in Mekelle city. The issue raised was their area of interest since they face the transport challenges in the city in their daily life. The training enables them to understand the objective of the research and the research methodology especially the digital data collection tool (CSEntry) in protecting them from the current pandemic COVID 19. 68 FINAL REPORT: Women's Personal Safety, Participation and Employment Linkage in Urban Public Transport Figure 35: Enumerators, and supervisors training Finally, the digital data collection procedures were explained to them in detail. The questionnaire was uploaded on tablets or their own mobile phones using CSPro (Cs entry) and each of the question items were presented, scrutinized and discussed to check if there were some flaws and inconsistencies. Some improvements were made based on their inputs. Once the enumerators finished practicing it, 14 enumerators, 5 supervisors and 6 researchers pilot study/pre-testing was conducted during which more comments were given by the respondents themselves for further improvement of the questionnaire. Consultation workshop: A project-launching workshop was held on September 24, 2020 during which more inputs on how the data collection procedures should look like were given by participants. Date Event type Purpose Total number of participants Outcome September 24, 2020 Consultation workshop The purpose of the workshop was to brief stakeholders about the project and to solicit important reflections, inputs and directions from them. It also aimed to engage the stakeholders from the very beginning and lay foundation for future upcoming consultations and dissemination workshops. A total of 64 participants of whom 21 were males and the rest were females. Of the total, 4 participants were participants with disability. It helped to get inputs and feedbacks from the stakeholders and it was incorporated in research. It was highlighted during the workshop that "women's mobility rights are to be grabbed not to be given" while acknowledging that the transport sector has enormous cumulative problems and no quick gains are to be 69 FINAL REPORT: Women's Personal Safety, Participation and Employment Linkage in Urban Public Transport expected in the shortest time possible. Specific data collection related comments forwarded by the participants including those linked to coverage, area of focus within inclusive transport, and representativeness were taken into consideration during the data collection process. Figure 36: Pictures from the workshop event 6.1.2 Dissemination and Awareness Publications (banners, posters, brochures) Publications providing the general overview, objectives and goals were prepared. These publications were distributed during the different events (briefing, trainings and workshop) as well as during the data collection. The graphics and symbols were explanatory and eye catching. Figure 37: Publications developed 70 FINAL REPORT: Women's Personal Safety, Participation and Employment Linkage in Urban Public Transport Mass media (TV) Two members of the research team were invited to give a brief interview on a local media. The broadcast is called 'Aster Teare Media' on DW TV. The program focuses on women`s violence and women` right. The media director was invited in the inception workshop. She had the interest on the issue and to work with the team further. During the mainstream issues on inclusive transport for women and objectives of the research were discussed. There was a plan to use this media as an opportunity and platform for knowledge dissemination to the general public. Again, due to the current condition in Tigray all local Medias are closed and we are hoping to reconnect with them in the coming year. 6.1.3 Paper publication and conference presentations Journal publication and conference papers As part of the research uptake and dissemination of research output to the greater stakeholder in the globe the following papers has been prepared, submitted or presented in an international forum, conferences or workshop. Type of publication Title of the paper or presentation Name journal, conference or website Remarks Journal Article Women's safety and security in public transport in Mekelle, Tigray Elsevier - Case Studies on Transport Policy (CSTP) Submitted article in its last phase of review Peer reviewed Conference paper Gender Inclusiveness in Urban Public Transport in Mekelle City: A Legal Perspective The 2022 ITF Summit on "Transport for Inclusive Societies'' Extended abstract and PPT presentation Blogs International Women's Day: Research from Ethiopia Challenges Repressive Gender Stereotypes and Champions Safe Public Transport for Women https://transportlinks.com/ HVT Applied Research website Conference Presentation Inclusive Transport: Women's Personal Safety, Participation and Employment Linkage in Urban Public Transport 2020 WTA - Women and Transport Africa Conference FLONE Initiative Conference Presentation Inclusive Transport: Women's Personal Safety, Participation and Employment Linkage in Urban Public Transport 2021 WTA - Women and Transport Africa Conference FLONE Initiative Conference Presentation Transport Equity: Women Participation and Empowerment in Public Transport 2022ICTA - International Conference on Transport in Africa (ICTA) African-American Transportation Professional Networking Group 6.2 Research uptake activities planned 6.2.1 Stakeholder engagement and capacity building Towards the end of the project in the fiscal year 2022/23 two workshops were planned to be carried out a validation and final workshops. The validation workshop with multi-stakeholders was planned to be carried out for verification purpose. The final workshop was planned with key stakeholders and policy makers to present the research finding and recommendations. 71 FINAL REPORT: Women's Personal Safety, Participation and Employment Linkage in Urban Public Transport Similarly, two trainings were planned towards the end of the project. One in collaboration with Mekelle University a well-structured tailor-made training for capacity building from the representative of the beneficiaries to improve attitude and create awareness. The second in parallel to the final workshop for highly influential stakeholders. However, with the current security condition in the city and the war in Tigray in general, it is not possible to conduct, these engagement activities and trainings are cancelled. 6.2.2 Publication and Dissemination Dissemination (banners, posters, brochures) Dissemination publications such as banners, posters, brochures similar to those developed in the consultation workshop, but with different messages along with the progress of the project, were planned to be prepared. After the completion of the project, disseminations activities were also planned through social medias via face book, Twitter, LinkedIn and local mass medias. This would help to disseminate knowledge for social media users. The main objective of these modalities was to create awareness and brief the result of the study. It would create positive impact since it addresses the general public. However, similar to the engagement activities and trainings it was not possible to be carried out. Mass media (local Radio and TV) Activity Title Purpose Media news broadcasting Briefing media viewers on the preliminary findings - Awareness creation and result briefing on the preliminary findings. - Create positive impact Workshops Title Purpose Validation Workshop + Webinar Validation Workshop To present and validate the preliminary findings to Multi-stakeholders in Mekelle city. And get valuable ideas, opinions, direction, recommendations & tools for gender mainstreaming Final Workshop + Webinar Final Workshop Presentation of the final research findings and conclusions to key stakeholders and other participants Training Focus Title of the Training Purpose of Training Two weeks Capacity building training for representatives of beneficiaries and recipients Final research findings and conclusions Improving awareness, attitude, perception of participants Two days Final Seminar Final research findings and conclusions Improving awareness, attitude, perception of highly influential people 72 FINAL REPORT: Women's Personal Safety, Participation and Employment Linkage in Urban Public Transport Media news broadcasting Briefing media viewers on the final research findings and conclusions - Awareness creation and result briefing on the final research findings and conclusions Two weeks promotion final Disseminating & Broadcasting/media campaign on inclusive transport for women in the city of Mekelle Disseminating & broadcasting the research finding through local media in 1 minute media promotion - Create positive impact - Awareness creation and result briefing on transport challenges in the city in general and women`s inclusive ness in urban public transport in the city of Mekelle Two days Panel discussion on inclusive transport for women in the city of Mekelle Disseminating & broadcasting the research finding through panel discussion among the representatives of Key stockholders and beneficiaries - Awareness creation and result briefing on transport challenges in the city in general and women`s inclusive ness in urban public transport in the city of Mekelle and bring the issue for discussion - Create positive impact Publication and presentations Although some of the publications and disseminations for the local stakeholders and general public in the city is not possible, the following publications and presentations are planned in the international arena. • PPT presentation on "Inclusive Transport: Women's Personal Safety, Participation and Employment Linkage in Urban Public Transport" at 2022 WTA - Women and Transport Africa Conference FLONE Initiative, Nov 2022. • Conference paper and poster presentation on "Women's safety and security in public transport in Mekelle, Tigray" at ITSC 2023 - International Traffic Safety Conference, Feb 2023. 6.3 Possible research uptake consideration beyond the project Once the project is completed, in order to promote its legacy, the research group recommends two pilot projects. These projects will have an impact on the ground and will help on improving women`s awareness and participation in the transport sector. 6.3.1 RISE - Reaching public awareness on gender Inclusive, Sensitive and Equitable urban public transport service The main challenges observed in this study are the lack of awareness of the provision of inclusive transport and on issues related to women's rights to mobility and their access to safe and secure transport services. One of the recommendations is the establishment of a women's think-tank group in Mekelle city to promote the objectives of the project and to create awareness on the general public. The purpose of establishing the thinktank group is to bring together enlightened young women activists and to provide them with modest required starting capital and training aiming to make it a self-reliant and independent voice for women who are the poorest of the poor in the society. Its mission will be: • To improve women's interests in the transport policy and decision making through further research and analysis; 73 FINAL REPORT: Women's Personal Safety, Participation and Employment Linkage in Urban Public Transport • The think-tank group to be established could also serve to promote women's interests in the public transport sector by undertaking different trainings to promoting awareness creation in the core findings of the project; • It could also undertake its own research and give advice to concerned government bodies; and • To establish periodic publications which sensitize women and the society at large on transport related issues. In order to be sustainable, the think-tank will solicit its funding from different national and international government bodies, charitable foundations and NGOs. If it happens that there is an already established thinktank group in Mekelle city, the same procedure indicated above would apply. Methodology Establishing women Think-Tank Group • Mobilize young women activists who have the interest on this issue; • Provide the group with seed funding and follow up their activity and • For the sustainability of the think-tank lobby for its continued funding. Regular Media Sensitization • Media sensitizations that can improve the dearth of information on current practices and their impact on women's mobility challenges and • Expert interviews, community conversations, discussions with key influential figures, organizing dramas and other platforms with poetic effect, discussion with relevant government organizations, CSOs, advocacy groups and other partners. Training Give training for the Think-Tank Group, selected station managers, conductors and drivers. • Selecting influential representatives both from conductors and station managers; • Preparing condensed training aiming to address the level; • Delivering the training in a modern and suitable location; • Introducing half women and half men transport system; • Assigning supervisors who will assist the implementation; • Broadcasting the main results and their impacts in the city FM in prime time to address all Stakeholders. The main beneficiaries of this pilot project will mainly be women public transport users, Women Associations and women working in the sector. Women`s Associations, Institutes, Government, NGOs and Local Medias will be the stakeholders who will work and collaborate with us. 6.3.2 Enhancing safety of women public transport users from Origin to Destination The second pilot project will focus on the consideration of women in the transport service to ensure the equity, affordability and access to resources and opportunities. Reliability, safety and security, and physical access are the key requirements for women to use public transport and the first and, of these, the most important is safety. Thus, this project will mainly work on safety of women public transport users and aim to create safe environments for women at stations, stops and throughout the journey. This pilot project will seek to reveal the benefits of small-scale, direct interventions on the ground. Purpose • To create a platform that allows public transport users to report harassment they suffer or witness; • To gather data and evidence of harassment on/in public transport; • To map frequent harassment complaints; • Make link with the app developed in the region by Female activists called `Yikhono`- and with the speed limit device being installed in vehicles in the city; and 74 FINAL REPORT: Women's Personal Safety, Participation and Employment Linkage in Urban Public Transport • All complaints will be forwarded to community police, traffic police. Methodology • Station selection • Design amendments • Integrate with the current CBD urban design and street design project • Develop App that allows public transport users to report harassment they suffer or witness. • Link the app with a range of other automobile software • Promote the App and give training and awareness The main beneficiaries of this pilot project will be women public transport users. Mekelle City Administration, Mekelle Transport Office, Yikhono activists' group, NGOs and Local Medias will be the stakeholders who will work and collaborate with us. 75 FINAL REPORT: Women's Personal Safety, Participation and Employment Linkage in Urban Public Transport REFERENCES [1] R. Howey, D., North, R. and Martinez Botas, "Road transport technology and climate change mitigation.," Grantham Inst. Clim. Chang. Imp. Coll. London, 2010. [2] S. Rosenbloom, "Understanding Women's and Men's Travel Patterns," in The Research Challenge. Research on Women's Issues in Transportation, Conference Overview and Plenary Papers, Transportation Research Board Conference Proceeding 35 (pp. 7-28). National Research Council., 2006, vol. 1, p. 66, [Online]. Available: https://www.nap.edu/read/23274/chapter/4. [3] N. McGuckin and Y. Nakamoto, "Differences in Trip Chaining by Men and Women. Research on women's issues in transportation. Report of a conference. Vol. 2: Technical Papers: 49-56," 2005, p. 221. [4] R. Shermur, "The New knowledge Aristocracy: The creative class, mobility and urban growth. Work Organization, Labour and Globalization," 2006. [5] TSA, "Tigray Statistical Agency Report," 2019. [6] MMO, "Mekelle Municipality Office, Report. 2018." [7] T. Berhe, "Analysis of Status and Growth of road Transportation Sector in Mekelle city, Ethiopia," 2018. [8] H. Amare, "Evaluating public transport performance Using System Efficiency Measures: The case of minibus taxi transport in Mekelle city, Tigray, Ethiopia.," 2019. [9] S. Neegar and M. Iderlina, "Proceedings of the Eastern Asia Society for Transportation Studies," vol. 11, 2017. [10] R. Khosla, Addressing gender concerns in India's urban renewal mission. New Delhi, India: UNDP, 2009. [11] J. Beall, "Participation in the city: Where do women fit in?," Gend. Dev., vol. 4, no. 1, pp. 9–16, 1996, doi: 10.1080/741921946. [12] V. Ceccato, "Women's transit safety: making connections and defining future directions in research and practice," Crime Prev. Community Saf., vol. 19, no. 3, pp. 276–287, 2017, doi: 10.1057/s41300-017- 0032-5. [13] S. Aloul, R. Naffa, and M. Mansour, Gender in Public Transportation, A Perspective of Women Users of Public Transportation. Jordan: Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung Jordan & Iraq FES Jordan & Iraq, 2019. [14] V. Ceccato, D. Wiebe, B. Eshraghi, and K. Vrotsou, "Women's Mobility and the Situational Conditions of Rape: Cases Reported to Hospitals," J. Interpers. Violence, 2017, doi: 10.1177/0886260517699950. [15] M. Madan and M. K. Nalla, "Sexual Harassment in Public Spaces: Examining Gender Differences in Perceived Seriousness and Victimization," Int. Crim. Justice Rev., vol. 26, no. 2, p. 19, 2016, doi: 10.1177/1057567716639093. [16] M. Natarajan, "Rapid assessment of 'eve teasing' (sexual harassment) of young women during the commute to college In India," Crime Sci., vol. 5, no. 1, 2016, doi: 10.1186/s40163-016-0054-9. [17] C. Harris, L. Jackson, and A. Piekut, "Attitudes towards the 'stranger': Negotiating encounters with difference in the UK and Poland.," Soc. Cult. Geogr., vol. 18, no. 1, p. 25, 2017, doi: 10.1080/14649365.2016.1139165. [18] E. Suarez and T. Gadalla, "Stop blaming the victim: A meta-analysis on rape myths," J. Interpers. Violence, vol. 25, no. 11, p. 28, 2010, doi: 10.1177/0886260509354503. [19] G. Valentine, "Women's Fear and the Design of Public Space," Built Environmenr, vol. 16, no. 4, pp. 288–303, 1990. [20] D. Denİz, "Effects of Perceived Safety on Women Mobility Habits for Sustainable Public Transportation," Am. Int. J. Soc. Sci., vol. 5, no. 4, pp. 85–93, 2016. 76 FINAL REPORT: Women's Personal Safety, Participation and Employment Linkage in Urban Public Transport [21] Asian Development Bank, Women in the Workforce: An Unmet Potential in Asia and the Pacific. Mandaluyong city, Philippines: Asian Development Bank, 2015. [22] Jagori & UN Women, "Safe Cities Free of Violence Against Women and Girls Initiative: Report of the Baseline Survey Delhi 2010," New Delhi, India, 2011. [Online]. Available: www.jagori.org. [23] J. L. Williams, A. A. Malik, and S. McTarnaghan, "Gender-Based Violence on Public Transportation: A Review of Evidence and Existing Solutions.," p. 26, 2015. [24] H. Allen, Approaches for Gender Responsive Urban Mobility. Sustainable Transport: A Sourcebook for Policy-makers in Developing Cities Module 7a 2nd Edition, vol. 1. GIZ-SUTP, 2018. [25] A. Dunckel-Graglia, "Women-only transportation: How 'Pink' public transportation changes public perception of women's mobility," J. Public Transp., vol. 16, no. 2, p. 21, 2013, doi: 10.5038/2375- 0901.16.2.5. [26] D. Peters, "Gender and Sustainable Urban Mobility," Glob. Rep. Hum. Settlements 2013, p. 70, 2013, [Online]. Available: http://www.unhabitat.org/grhs/2013. [27] A. Gekoski, J. M. Gray, M. A. H. Horvath, and S. Edwards, "What works' in reducing sexual harassment and sexual offences on public transport nationally and internationally: a rapid evidence assessment," Br. Transp. Police; Dep. Transp. Middlesex Univ., p. 104, 2015, [Online]. Available: http://eprints.mdx.ac.uk/7914/. [28] G. Jennings, H. Allen, and E. Arogundade, "Gaining or Losing Ground: Ensuring That Post-Covid-19 Transportation Serves the Needs of Women in Low-Income Sub-Saharan African Cities (SSA), Final Report.," 2020. [Online]. Available: https://transport-links.com/download/gaining-or-losing-groundensuring-that-post-covid-19-transportation-serves-the-needs-of-women-in-low-income-sub-saharanafrican-cities/. [29] D. Peters, "Gender and Transport in Less Developed Countries: A Background Paper in Preparation for CSD-9. Background Paper for the Expert Workshop 'Gender Perspectives for Earth Submit 2002; Energy, Transport, Information for Decision Making.,'" Berlin, Germany,10-12 January., 2001. [30] S. Rosenbloom, "Women's Travel Pattern at Various Stages of Their Lives. In Full Circles: Geographies of Women over the Life Course. 208-242.," 1993. [31] T. M. Pollard and J. M. Wagnild, "Gender differences in walking (for leisure, transport and in total) across adult life: A systematic review," BMC Public Health, vol. 17, no. 1, p. 11, 2017, doi: 10.1186/s12889-017-4253-4. [32] G. Brager, H. Specht, and J. L. Torczyner, Community organizing., Second edi. Columbia University Press., 1987. [33] V. Lowndes, "Guidance on Enhancing Public Participation in Local Government. Office of the Deputy Prime Minister (ODPM)," 1999. [34] World Bank, "Mainstreaming gender in road transport: operational guidance for world bank staff," 2010. [Online]. Available: http://www.worldbank.org/transport/. [35] P. Turnbull, "Promoting the Employment of Women in the Transport Sector - Obstacles and Policy Options, Working Paper No . 298," Geneva, 298," 2013. [36] C. Duchène, "Gender and Transport.," Int. Transp. forum, Discuss. Pap. No. 2011-11, vol. 11, p. 20, 2011, [Online]. Available: %0Awww.internationaltransportforum.org/jtrc/DiscussionPapers/jtrcpapers.html. [37] V. Lowndes, Guidance on Enhancing Public Participation in Local Government. Office of the Deputy Prime Minister (ODPM), 1999. [38] S. R. Arnstein, "A Ladder of Citizen Participation," J. Am. Inst. Plann., vol. 35, no. 4, pp. 216–224, 1969, [Online]. Available: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/01944366908977225. 77 FINAL REPORT: Women's Personal Safety, Participation and Employment Linkage in Urban Public Transport [39] S. Paul, Community Participation in Development Projects:The World Bank Experience. In Readings in Community Participation. Washington, D.C. 1987. [40] G. Brown and N. Adeishvili, "Promoting Gender Equality and Women's Empowerment, Future Cities, Future Women Initiative Report at the Conference on Gender in Urban Governance and Transport.," 2018. [41] World Economic Forum, "The Global Gender Gap Report," 2017. [42] SuM4All, Global Roadmap of Action-Toward Sustainable Mobility. 2019. [43] ILO, "Women in infrastructure works: Boosting gender equality and rural development. Gender and Rural Employment Policy Brief 5, International Labour organisation, Geneva Switzerland," 2010. [44] European Commission, "Women in Transport- EU platform for change.," Mobil. Transp., 2020, [Online]. Available: https://ec.europa.eu/transport/themes/social/women-transport-eu-platform-change_en. [45] G. and Bertini, "Women Employment," 2019. [46] OECD, Enabling Women's Economic Empowerment: New Approaches to Unpaid Care Work In Developing Countries. Paris: OECD Publishing, 2019. [47] UN General Assembly, "Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women," p. 10, 1979, [Online]. Available: https://www.refworld.org/docid/3ae6b3970.html. [48] ASTF, "Africa Sustainable Transport Forum. Full meeting Report, ASTF in Inaugural Forum, held in Nairobi, Kenya, from 28 to 30 October 2014," 2014. [49] N. Gautam, N. Sapakota, S. Shrestha, and D. Regmi, "Sexual harassment in public transportation among female student in Kathmandu valley," Risk Manag. Healthc. Policy, 2019. [50] World Bank, "Gender and Transport in the Middle East and North Africa Region:Case studies from the West Bank and Yemen," Washington DC, 2011. [51] African Union Commission, "Agenda 2063," 2015. [52] A. Abhishek, C. Borgia, K. Manjur, L. F. Vera, and F. van Steenbergen, "Gender Mainstreaming in Rural Road Construction and Usage in Ethiopia : Impact and Implications, Final Report, Netherlands.," 2017. [53] United Nations, "Universal Declaration of Human Rights," 1948. [54] FDRE, "The Constitution of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, Proclamation No.1/1995, Federal Negarit Gazeta, 1st year No. 1, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia," Addis Ababa, 1995. [55] UNPOPIN, "Cairo Declaration on Population and Development, ICPPD," 1994. [56] UN General Assembly, "Transforming our world: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, 21 October 2015, A/RES/70/1.," pp. 1–35, 2015. [57] F. Nduwimana, United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325 (2000) on Women, Peace and Security: Understanding the Implications, Fulfilling the Obligations. 2000. [58] Women 2000, "Gender Equality, Development and Peace for the Twenty-First Century, the TwentyThird Special Session of the United Nations General Assembly New York from 5-9 june," 2000. [Online]. Available: https://www.un.org/womenwatch/daw/followup/beijing+5.html. [59] NPEW, "Transitional Government of Ethiopia, Office of the Prime Minister. National Policy on Ethiopian Women, Addis Ababa.," Addis Ababa, 1993. [60] MOWA, "National Action Plan for Gender Equality (NAP-GE)," Addis Ababa, 2006. [61] FDRE, "Definition of Powers and Duties of the Executive Organs of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia Proclamation No.471 /2005," 2005. [62] Proclamation 215/2004 E.C. "Proclamation Design to Restructure the Executive Organs of the Regional Government of Tigrai", Mekelle, Tigrai. 78 FINAL REPORT: Women's Personal Safety, Participation and Employment Linkage in Urban Public Transport APPENDICES APPENDIX A. QUESTIONNAIRES Title: Women's personal safety, participation, employment and regulatory framework in Mekelle City, Tigray, Ethiopia Instruction to respondents ALERT engineering in association with HVT would like to conduct a study on women's personal safety, participation and employment and regulatory-framework in urban public transportation of Mekelle city. The success of this study will depend on the quality of data obtained from respondents. You have been selected to provide useful information because we believe you have a stake on the issue. We would appreciate if you could provide us with your responses to all the questions. All responses will be kept confidential and no mention of names will be made on the output of the research. Thank you very much in advance for your cooperation! Part-1: Basic information of respondents 0. Age: 18-30 31-45 46-65 Older than 65 1. Marital status Single Married Divorced widowed 2. Educational level Not formally educated Grade 1-8 Grade 9-12 Diploma (TVET) Degree and above 3. Occupation Governme ntal Employee NonGovernment al Employee Business women House wife Student Pension Other __ 4. Sub-city Kedamay Weyane Hadnet Adihaki Hawelti Semen Ayder Quiha Part-2: Questions related to inclusive public transportation (general objective) 2-1. What are the reasons for using public transportation in your daily commute? (You may select more than one response) Work Shopping Accompanying children Other: Education Treatment Visiting friends and family ________ 2-2. Why do you use public transportation in your daily commute? (You may select more than one response) Speed Secure Do not have another choice Low cost Do not have a private car Other 5. Do you think the public transport of Mekelle city is gender inclusive? 6. If your response to question #5 is yes, how do you rate the level of inclusiveness? Very high High Moderate Low Very low Yes Noà7 79 FINAL REPORT: Women's Personal Safety, Participation and Employment Linkage in Urban Public Transport 7. Do you think the public transportation of Mekelle city is inclusive to disadvantaged groups who have special needs (like people with disability, Older and Children)? Yes No 7-2. How satisfied are you with the public transportation services of Mekelle city? Very highà9 Highà9 Moderate Low Very low 8. What makes your level of satisfaction low while using public transportation? (you may select more than one response) Part-3: Questions related to women's safety and security (objective one) 9. What type of public transportation service do you often use while travelling in the city Mini-bus taxi Bajaj Amora city bus Other (specify)_________ 9-3. What is the main reason of your preference to the mode of transportation in question #9? Safety Comfort Affordability Efficiency 10. How often do you use public transportation to travel in the city More than ones a day Once a day Twice a week Once a week Twice a month Once a month Other(specify): __________________ 11. Have you ever faced a sexual harassment while using urban public transportation? Yes Noà18 12. If your response to question #11 is yes, how often did you face a sexual harassment? Daily (regularly) Often (usually) Sometimes/rarely Almost none 13. If your response to question #11 is yes, please specify type of harassment you faced? (you may select more than one response) Verbal abuse Uncomfortable/inappropriate stares Physical abuse Pushing during embarking Rudeness/insulting Discrimination Other (specify): __________________ 14. Please specify who harassed you? (you may select more than one response) Drivers Conductor Station manager Passer-by Passengers beggars Other(specify): _____________ Harassment Conductor behaviour Time of efficiency Unsafe feeling Station manager behaviour Behaviour of fellow passenger Unfair tariff Vehicle condition Other (specify) Driver behaviour Road condition 80 FINAL REPORT: Women's Personal Safety, Participation and Employment Linkage in Urban Public Transport 15. Please specify where you were harassed? (You may select more than one response) On the street, while walking to public transportation On the street and the sidewalk while waiting for public transportation At the bus station In service taxi At the bus stop In Bajaj In the bus Other(specify): __________________ 16. Please specify when you were harassed? (You may select more than one response) Morning peak hours Evening peak hours Night hours All the time Other(specify): _____________ 17. How do you act after being harassed? (You may select more than one response) I walk faster I do nothing I confront the person I call for help possibilities I submit a complaint to police I wear specific clothing I choose a special seat Other (specify): ____________ 18. What kind of measures do you suggest to minimize harassment against women in public transportation? (you may select more than one response) Awareness raising media campaigns Installing smart cameras Trainings (ethical education) Provide possibilities to call help Passing strict law Self- defense mechanisms Enforcement of the existing law Arbitration Other (specify) _____________ 19. Are there seats solely reserved for pregnant, senior, disabled women in public transportation? Yes No 20. Do you believe that public transportation in Mekelle City is suitable for senior citizens and people with disabilities? 21. How does public transportation impact your daily travel to work or school? Positivelyà23 Negatively No impactà23 22. Blank Part-4: Questions related to participation in planning & decision making (objective two) 23. Do you believe that women's personal safety and security is included as an integral dimension of the following processes of public transportation? Women safety and security in Yes No No idea Planning Design Implementation 24. Blank 25. What does women participation in public transportation of Mekelle city look like? 81 FINAL REPORT: Women's Personal Safety, Participation and Employment Linkage in Urban Public Transport Women participation in Very high High Moderate Low Very low Leadership Planning Design Implementation 26. What kind of support mechanisms and offer of opportunities can enhance women's participation roles and benefits in public transportation? (you may select more than one response) Awareness creation Incentives Affirmative action Recognitions Training offers other 27. Have you ever participated in any planning and decision-making process in the transportation sector, Yes Noà32 28. If your response to question #27 is yes: at which phase did you participate? From planning At design stage At implementation stage 29. At what level of decision making were you involved? (you may select more than one response) At leadership level As a society representative Middle administration level At professional level At regulatory body Other: ________________________ 30. At what level (ladder) of participation were you involved in transport planning project? (you may select more than one response) As partner As delegate As project initiator At planning/design level In the middle of transport project As consultant I never participatedà32 Informed after the completion of project Other: ________________________ 31. Please specify the modality of involvement. (you may select more than one response) As individual Representing association Representing Governmental organisation Other: _________________ Representing Non-Governmental organisation _____________________ 32. Have you ever expressed your opinions in terms of the following transportation service provisions? Participation in Yes No Route assignment Service timetable tariff determination 33. Blank 34. Do you think women in Mekelle city have access to participate in public service transportation decision making bodies? Strongly agree Agree Neutralà36 disagreeà36 Strongly disagreeà36 82 FINAL REPORT: Women's Personal Safety, Participation and Employment Linkage in Urban Public Transport 35. If your response to question #34 is agree, at what level of decision-making process are they involved? (you may select more than one response) Regional Council Mekelle City Council Tabia Council If others (please specify): _________________ Part-5: Questions related to women's job creation in urban public transport (objective three) (for employees only) 36. Does your organisation encourage women employment? Yes Noà40 37. If your response to question #36 is yes, how do you measure the support your organisation rendered to women in employment? Very high High Moderate Low Very low 38. If your response to question #37 is high, how do you realise the employment opportunity for women in the public transport? Very high High Moderate Low Very low 39. If your response to question #38 is low, what do you think the reason? The sector is not convenient to women The recruitment process is men oriented There are no competent women which can fit to the sector There is culture influence for women other 40. How were you recruited in the organisation you are working with? Equal competence with men With support of civil service affirmative action With corporate supporting guidelines Transferred from other offices 41. Which position level of your organisation is dominated by men? (you may select more than one response) Top leadership Medium leadership Administration/supportive staff Technical professionals Secretary Janitor 42. Which level of job title is equally represented by women in your organisation? (you may select more than one response) Top leadership Human resource Station manager Ticket office Secretary Cleaning service 43. Blank 44. Blank 45. Are you equally paid with men in your organisation with in the same job title? Yesà47 No 46. If your response to question #45 is no, please specify your reason? Employer's bias Societal bias Unequal productivity Other 83 FINAL REPORT: Women's Personal Safety, Participation and Employment Linkage in Urban Public Transport 47. Is there anyone who left your organisation for being a woman? Yes Noà49 48. If your response to question #47 is yes, please indicate the reason. (you may select more than one response) The sector is difficult for women Lack of competency Lack of training Lack of incentives Harassment from men bosses Lack of worklife balance other 49. Do you think that using urban public transport helps to manage your job properly? Yesà51 No 50. If your response to question #49 is no, what are the problems which affects you not to manage your job? (you may select more than one response) Long wait Inefficient route Harassment Lack of access unaffordability Indicators/issues Strongly agree Agree Neutral disagree Strongly disagree 51. I believe the government is doing enough capacity building activities to enhance women's knowledge and skill base so as to increase their employment. 52. I believe that women have benefited from the current expansion of public transport in Mekelle city 53. I believe the job creation effort for women is sufficient in Mekelle city. Part-6: Questions related to policy and regulatory frameworks, programs, tools (objective four) 43-6 Do you agree that women are equal with men in labour-based works in the public transportation? Yes No 44-6. In which of the following departments of public transportation do you think women can join? (you may select more than one response) Station manager Driving Conductor (Assistant) Office work Planning of transport Planning of Transport infrastructure Construction of transport infrastructur e Maintenance of service Maintenance of transport infrastructur e Transportation management 45-6 What do you think the reason that driving is male dominated in the public transportation of Mekelle city? Driving is not convenient for females Employment partiality Mismatch of driving behaviour and females' behaviour Driving has not professional ethics 84 FINAL REPORT: Women's Personal Safety, Participation and Employment Linkage in Urban Public Transport No conducive working condition Cultural influence Females are incompetent for driving If others (please specify): 54. Have you ever participated a capacity building programs or training packages? Yes Noà56 55. If your response to question #54 is yes, how effective was it for you? Very high High Moderate Low Very low 56. If your response to question #54 is no, what type capacity building or training package/s do you think will equip you to fill your gaps of empowerment? (you may select more than one response) Awareness raising media campaigns Awareness raising conferences Capacity building trainings Awareness raising short trainings Awareness raising workshops Capacity building by education If others (please specify): 57. At what level (ladder) of participation were you involved in transport policy, regulations, programs, proclamations and guidelines? (you may select more than one response) As partner As consultant As delegate Informed after the completion In the middle of development I never participated Other:_______________________ Indicators/issues Strongly agree Agree Neutral disagree Strongly disagree 58. There are policies, strategies and laws which are sensitive to women's concerns, needs, interests, and values in public service transport in Mekelle city? 59. If your response to question #58 is agreeing, the existing policies, strategies and laws are sensitive to women's safety and security? 60. Which one of the following tools of law satisfactorily implies gender inclusive public transportation? Constitution Regulation manuals Policy Legislation Other Proclamation Directive No information 85 FINAL REPORT: Women's Personal Safety, Participation and Employment Linkage in Urban Public Transport APPENDIX B. SUMMARESULT SUMMARY OF QUANTITATIVE DATARY RESULTS OF QUANTITATIVE DATA Question and Response Response Frequency Percent 2-1. What are the reasons for using public transportation in your daily commute? Work 440 26.3% Shopping 385 23.0% 0. Age Range Age Range Total Percent 18-30 417 59.1% 31-45 218 30.9% 46-65 67 9.5% Above 65 3 0.4% Total 705 100.0% 1. Marital Status Marital Status Frequency Marital Status Total Percent Single 345 48.9% Married 290 41.1% Divorced 58 8.2% Widowed 12 1.7% Total 705 100.0% 2. Educational Level Educational Level Frequency Percent Not formally Educated 24 3.4% 1st-8th 80 11.3% 9th-12th 187 26.5% Diploma 178 25.2% Degree & above 236 33.5% Total 705 100.0% 3. Occupation Occupation Frequency Percent Government Employee 211 29.9% NGO / Self Employed 8 1.1% Merchant 263 37.3% housewife 76 10.8% Student 141 20.0% Retired 2 0.3% Other 4 0.6% Total 705 100.0% 86 FINAL REPORT: Women's Personal Safety, Participation and Employment Linkage in Urban Public Transport Accompanying Children 98 5.9% Education 193 11.5% Treatment 165 9.9% Visiting friends and family 384 22.9% Others 9 0.5% Total 1674 100.0% 2-2. Why do you use public transportation in your daily commute? Speed 426 32.9% Secure 99 7.6% Do not have another choice 331 25.6% Low Cost 177 13.7% Do not have a private car 255 19.7% Other 7 0.5% Total 1295 100.0% 5. Do you think the public transport of Mekelle city is gender inclusive? Yes 306 43.4% No 399 56.6% Total 705 100.0% 6. If your response to question #5 is yes, how do you rate the level of inclusiveness? Very Low 2 0.7% low 38 12.4% Medium 212 69.3% High 50 16.3% Very High 4 1.3% Total 306 100% 7. Do you think the public transportation of Mekelle city is inclusive to disadvantaged groups who have special needs (like people with disability, Older and Children)? No 577 81.8% Yes 128 18.2% Total 705 100.0% 7-2.How satisfied are you with the public transportation services of Mekelle city? Very Low 84 11.9% low 225 31.9% Medium 349 49.5% High 44 6.2% very High 3 0.4% Total 705 100.0% 9. What type of public transportation service do you often use while travelling in the city Mini-Bus Taxi 646 80.9% Bajaj 136 17.0% Amora city bus Bus 12 1.5% Other 5 0.6% Total 799 100.0% 9-3.What is the main reason of your preference to the mode of transportation in question #9? Safety 46 6.5% 87 FINAL REPORT: Women's Personal Safety, Participation and Employment Linkage in Urban Public Transport Comfort 54 7.7% Affordability 368 52.2% Efficiency 221 31.3% Other 16 2.3% Total 705 100.0% 11. Have you ever faced a sexual harassment while using urban public transportation? No 348 49.4% Yes 357 50.6% Total 705 100.0% 12. If your response to question #11 is yes, how often did you face a sexual harassment? Every Day 11 3.1% Most of the time 93 4.8% Some times 236 26.1% Very rare 17 66.1% Total 357 100.0% 13. If your response to question #11 is yes, please specify type of harassment you faced? Verbal Abuse 249 28.6% Physical Abuse 84 9.6% Rudeness/Insulting 212 24.3% Uncomfortable Stares 92 10.6% Pushing During Embarking 169 19.4% Discrimination 66 7.6% Total 872 100% 14. Please specify who harassed you? Driver 113 14.7% Conductor 287 37.4% Station Manager 53 6.9% Passer-by 116 15.1% Passengers 181 23.6% Beggars 15 2.0% Other 2 0.3% Total 767 100.0% 15. Please specify where you were harassed? While going for transport 130 14.1% While waiting transport 183 19.9% Inside Bus 15 1.6% In Bus Stop 10 1.1% In Bus Station 12 1.3% While taking taxi 213 23.2% Inside Taxi 213 23.2% While getting out of Taxi 128 13.9% Inside Bajaj 16 1.7% Other 0 0.0% Total 920 100.0% 88 FINAL REPORT: Women's Personal Safety, Participation and Employment Linkage in Urban Public Transport 16. Please specify when you were harassed? (You may select more than one response) Morning Peak Hours 174 33.7% Evening Peak Hours 283 54.8% Night Hours 5 1.0% All the time 35 6.8% Other times 19 3.7% Total 516 100.0% 17. How do you act after being harassed? (You may select more than one response) Walk faster 50 10.1% Confront the person 158 32.0% Submit a complaint to police 17 3.4% Choose a special seat 25 5.1% Do nothing 208 42.1% Call for help possibilities 6 1.2% Wear specific clothing 24 4.9% Other 6 1.2% Total 494 100.0% 18. What kind of measures do you suggest to minimize harassment against women in public transportation? (you may select more than one response) Awareness Creation via Media 275 13.2% Trainings (ethical education) 414 19.9% Passing Strict Law 412 19.8% Enforcement of the Existing Law 379 18.2% Installing Smart Cameras 228 11.0% Creating Emergency Call Centres 217 10.4% Self-defence Mechanisms 123 5.9% Arbitration 26 1.2% Other 8 0.4% Total 2082 100.0% 19. Are there seats solely reserved for pregnant, senior, disabled women in public transportation? Yes 20 2.8% No 685 97.2% Total 705 100.0% 20. Do you believe that public transportation in Mekelle City is suitable for senior citizens and people with disabilities? Yes 37 5.2% No 668 94.8% Total 705 100.0% 21. How does public transportation impact your daily travel to work or school? Negatively 361 51.2% Positively 191 27.1% No Impact 153 21.7% Total 705 100.0% 23. Do you believe that women's personal safety and security is included as an integral dimension of the following processes of public transportation? Women safety and security in Yes No No Ides 89 FINAL REPORT: Women's Personal Safety, Participation and Employment Linkage in Urban Public Transport Planning 126 384 195 Design 12 365 202 Implementation 15 391 173 Total 153 1140 570 25. What does women participation in public transportation of Mekelle city look like? Women participation in Very low Low Moderate High Very high Leadership 73 298 312 20 2 Planning 81 322 281 20 1 Design 78 334 274 16 3 Implementation 99 350 238 16 2 Total 331 1304 1105 72 8 26. What kind of support mechanisms and offer of opportunities can enhance women's participation roles and benefits in public transportation? (you may select more than one response) Awareness creation 387 23.4% Recognitions 310 18.7% Incentives 358 21.6% Training offers 381 23.0% Affirmative action 209 12.6% other 10 0.6% Total 1655 100.0% 27. Have you ever participated in any planning and decision-making process in the transportation sector? Yes 19 2.7% No 686 97.3% Total 705 100.0% 28. If your response to question #27 is yes: at which phase did you participate? Planning Stage 14 60.9% Design Stage 2 8.7% Implementation Stage 7 30.4% Total 23 100.0% 29. At what level of decision making were you involved? (you may select more than one response) At leadership level 3 13.0% Middle administration level 3 13.0% At regulatory body 5 21.7% As an Employee 2 8.7% As a society representative 5 21.7% At professional level 3 13.0% As legislative entity 2 8.7% Other 0 0.0% Total 23 100.0% 30. At what level (ladder) of participation were you involved in transport planning project? (you may select more than one response) As partner 4 20.0% As project initiator 0 0.0% Informed after the completion of project 1 5.0% As delegate 3 15.0% As professional 7 35.0% 90 FINAL REPORT: Women's Personal Safety, Participation and Employment Linkage in Urban Public Transport As consultant 1 5.0% Never participated 1 5.0% Other 3 15.0% Total 20 100.0% 31. Please specify the modality of involvement. (you may select more than one response) As individual 0 0.0% As Governmental organ 14 77.8% As NGO 0 0.0% Representing association 4 22.2% Other 0 0.0% Total 18 100.0% 32. Have you ever expressed your opinions in terms of the following transportation service provisions? Yes No Total Route assignment 44 661 705 Service timetable 35 670 705 tariff determination 74 631 705 Total 153 1962 2115 34. Do you think women in Mekelle city have access to participate in public service transportation decision making bodies? Strongly disagree 27 3.8% disagree 177 25.1% Neutral 105 14.9% Agree 322 45.7% Strongly agree 74 10.5% Total 705 100.0% 35. If your response to question #34 is agree, at what level of decision-making process are they involved? (you may select more than one response) Regional Council 144 36.4% Mekelle City Council 22 5.6% Tabia/Kebele Council 79 19.9% Other 151 38.1% Total 396 100.0% 36. Does your organization encourage women employment? Yes 137 75.3% No 45 24.7% Total 182 100.0% 37. If your response to question #36 is yes, how do you measure the support your organization rendered to women in employment? Very low 6 4.4% Low 17 12.4% Moderate 63 46.0% High 38 27.7% Very high 13 9.5% Total 137 100.0% 38. If your response to question #37 is high, how do you realise the employment opportunity for women in the public transport? 91 FINAL REPORT: Women's Personal Safety, Participation and Employment Linkage in Urban Public Transport Very low 5 9.8% Low 10 19.6% Moderate 22 43.1% High 10 19.6% Very high 4 7.8% Total 51 100.0% 39. If your response to question #38 is low, what do you think the reason? The sector is not convenient to women 6 30.0% Men-oriented recruitment process 3 15.0% No competent women fitting the sector 0 0.0% Culture influence on women 11 55.0% Total 20 100.0% 40. How were you recruited in the organization you are working with? Equal competence with men 119 65.4% With support of civil service affirmative action 23 12.6% With corporate supporting guidelines 22 12.1% Transferred from other offices 18 9.9% Total 182 100.0% 41. Which position level of your organization is dominated by men? (you may select more than one response) Top leadership 99 54.4% Medium leadership 26 14.3% Administration/supportive staff 13 7.1% Technical professionals 34 18.7% Secretary 8 4.4% Janitor 2 1.1% Total 182 100.0% 42. Which level of job title is equally represented by women in your organization? (you may select more than one response) Top leadership 36 19.8% Human resource 95 52.2% Station manager 14 7.7% Ticket office 2 1.1% Secretary 19 10.4% Cleaning service 16 8.8% Total 182 100.0% 45. Are you equally paid with men in your organization with in the same job title? Yes 174 95.6% No 8 4.4% Total 182 100.0% 46. If your response to question #45 is no, please specify your reason? Employer's wrong attitude 6 66.7% Un equal delivery/output 1 11.1% Society's wrong attitude 1 11.1% Other 1 11.1% 92 FINAL REPORT: Women's Personal Safety, Participation and Employment Linkage in Urban Public Transport Total 9 100.0% 47. Is there anyone who left your organization for being a woman? Yes 10 5.5% No 172 94.5% Total 182 100.0% 48. If your response to question #47 is yes, please indicate the reason. (you may select more than one response) The sector is difficult for women 0 0.0% Lack of competency 1 7.1% Lack of training 0 0.0% Lack of incentives 2 14.3% Harassment from men bosses 4 28.6% Lack of work-life balance 7 50.0% Total 14 100.0% 49. Do you think that using urban public transport helps to manage your job properly? Yes 457 64.8% No 248 35.2% Total 705 100.0% 50. If your response to question #49 is no, what are the problems which affects you not to manage your job? (you may select more than one response) Long wait 214 26.1% Inefficient route 191 23.3% Harassment 124 15.1% Lack of access 181 22.0% Unaffordability 111 13.5% Total 821 100.0% 51. I believe the government is doing enough capacity building activities to enhance women's knowledge and skill base so as to increase their employment Strongly disagree 160 22.7% disagree 388 55.0% Neutral 71 10.1% Agree 83 11.8% Strongly agree 3 0.4% Total 705 100.0% 52. I believe that women have benefited from the current expansion of public transport in Mekelle city Strongly disagree 58 8.2% disagree 175 24.8% Neutral 65 9.2% Agree 377 53.5% Strongly agree 30 4.3% Total 705 100.0% 53. I believe the job creation effort for women is sufficient in Mekelle city Strongly disagree 172 24.4% disagree 415 58.9% 93 FINAL REPORT: Women's Personal Safety, Participation and Employment Linkage in Urban Public Transport Neutral 48 6.8% Agree 67 9.5% Strongly agree 3 0.4% Total 705 100.0% 43-6. Do you agree that women are equal with men in labour-based works in the public transportation? Yes 411 58.3% No 294 41.7% Total 705 100.0% 44-6. In which of the following departments of public transportation do you think women can join? (you may select more than one response) Station manager 530 11.4% Driving 458 9.8% Conductor (Assistant) 401 8.6% Office work 641 13.8% Planning of transport 475 10.2% Planning of Transport infrastructure 435 9.3% Construction of transport infrastructure 414 8.9% Maintenance of service 405 8.7% Maintenance of transport infrastructure 423 9.1% Transportation management 472 10.1% Total 4654 100.0% 45-6. What do you think the reason that driving is male dominated in the public transportation of Mekelle city? Driving is not convenient for females 89 6.5% Mismatch of driving behaviour and females' behaviour 62 4.5% No conducive working condition 481 35.1% Females are incompetent for driving 19 1.4% Employment partiality 166 12.1% Driving has not professional ethics 25 1.8% Cultural influence 513 37.4% Other 16 1.2% Total 1371 100.0% 54. Have you ever participated a capacity building programs or training packages? Yes 15 2.1% No 690 97.9% Total 705 100.0% 55. If your response to question #54 is yes, how effective was it for you? Very low 0 0.0% Low 2 13.3% Moderate 9 60.0% High 4 26.7% Very high 0 0.0% Total 15 100.0% 56. If your response to question #54 is no, what type capacity building or training package/s do you think will equip you to fill your gaps of empowerment? (you may select more than one response) 94 FINAL REPORT: Women's Personal Safety, Participation and Employment Linkage in Urban Public Transport Awareness raising media campaigns 303 18.7% Capacity building trainings 383 23.7% Awareness raising workshops 150 9.3% Awareness raising conferences 208 12.9% Awareness raising short trainings 270 16.7% Capacity building by education 289 17.9% Other 14 0.9% Total 1617 100.0% 57. At what level (ladder) of participation were you involved in transport policy, regulations, programs, proclamations and guidelines? (you may select more than one response) As partner 6 0.9% As delegate 26 3.7% In the middle of development 18 2.6% As consultant 4 0.6% Informed after the completion 8 1.1% Never participated 640 90.8% Other 3 0.4% Total 705 100.0% 58. There are policies, strategies and laws which are sensitive to women's concerns, needs, interests, and values in public service transport in Mekelle city? Strongly disagree 85 12.1% disagree 267 37.9% Neutral 138 19.6% Agree 214 30.4% Strongly agree 1 0.1% Total 705 100.0% 59. If your response to question #58 is agreeing, the existing policies, strategies and laws are sensitive to women's safety and security? Strongly disagree 25 11.6% disagree 49 22.8% Neutral 9 4.2% Agree 132 61.4% Strongly agree 0 0.0% Total 215 100.0% 60. Which one of the following tools of law satisfactorily implies gender inclusive public transportation? Constitution 256 22.7% Policy 137 12.2% Proclamation 127 11.3% Regulation 96 8.5% Legislation 31 2.8% Directive 126 11.2% manuals 37 3.3% No information 316 28.1% Other 0 0.0% Total 1126 100.0% 95 FINAL REPORT: Women's Personal Safety, Participation and Employment Linkage in Urban Public Transport APPENDIX C. RESULTS OF THE INFERENTIAL STATISTICS C.1. Age group versus user's mode of transport Age group versus mode of transport cross-tabulation Count Age Group Mode of Transport Total Mini-Bus Bajaj Amora city bus City Bus Other 18-30 382 79 6 2 469 31-45 200 45 2 0 247 46-65 61 11 4 3 79 Above 65 3 1 0 0 4 Total 646 136 12 5 799 Chi-square tests Value df Asymp. Sig. (2-sided) Pearson Chi-Square 23.221a 9 .006 Likelihood Ratio 15.598 9 .076 Linear-by-Linear Association 3.049 1 .081 N of Valid Cases 799 a. 9 cells (56.2%) have expected count less than 5. The minimum expected count is .03. Symmetric measures Value Approx. Sig. Nominal by Nominal Contingency Coefficient .168 .006 N of Valid Cases 799 a. Not assuming the null hypothesis. b. Using the asymptotic standard error assuming the null hypothesis. C.2. Age group versus experience of sexual harassment Age group versus experience of sexual harassment Count Age Group Experience of sexual harassment Total No Yes 18-30 194 223 417 31-45 117 101 218 46-65 36 31 67 Above 65 1 2 3 Total 348 357 705 Chi-Square Tests Value df Asymp. Sig. (2-sided) Pearson Chi-Square 3.783a 3 .286 Likelihood Ratio 3.792 3 .285 Linear-by-Linear Association 2.320 1 .128 N of Valid Cases 705 96 FINAL REPORT: Women's Personal Safety, Participation and Employment Linkage in Urban Public Transport a. 2 cells (25.0%) have expected count less than 5. The minimum expected count is 1.48. Symmetric Measures Value Approx. Sig. Nominal by Nominal Contingency Coefficient .073 .286 N of Valid Cases 705 a. Not assuming the null hypothesis. b. Using the asymptotic standard error assuming the null hypothesis. C.3. Marital status versus Sexual harassment Marital Status versus Sexual Harassment Cross tabulation Count Marital Status Sexual Harassment Total No Yes Single 149 196 345 Married 167 123 290 Divorced 25 33 58 Widowed 7 5 12 Total 348 357 705 Chi-Square Tests Value df Asymp. Sig. (2-sided) Pearson Chi-Square 14.403a 3 .002 Likelihood Ratio 14.452 3 .002 Linear-by-Linear Association 4.448 1 .035 N of Valid Cases 705 0 cells (0.0%) have expected count less than 5. The minimum expected count is 5.92. Symmetric Measures Value Approx. Sig. Nominal by Nominal Contingency Coefficient .141 .002 N of Valid Cases 705 a. Not assuming the null hypothesis. b. Using the asymptotic standard error assuming the null hypothesis. C.4. Occupation versus participation planning and decision making Have you ever participated in any planning and decision-making process in the transportation sector? Cross-tabulation. Count Job Have you ever you participated in any planning and decision making process in the transportation sector? Total No Yes Government Employee 195 16 211 NGO / Self Employed 7 1 8 Merchant 261 2 263 Housewife 76 0 76 Student 141 0 141 Retired 2 0 2 Other 4 0 4 97 FINAL REPORT: Women's Personal Safety, Participation and Employment Linkage in Urban Public Transport Total 686 19 705 Chi-Square Tests Value df Asymp. Sig. (2-sided) Pearson Chi-Square 32.086a 6 .000 Likelihood Ratio 31.986 6 .000 Linear-by-Linear Association 24.293 1 .000 N of Valid Cases 705 a. 7 cells (50.0%) have expected count less than 5. The minimum expected count is .05. Symmetric Measures Value Approx. Sig. Nominal by Nominal Contingency Coefficient .209 .000 N of Valid Cases 705 a. Not assuming the null hypothesis. b. Using the asymptotic standard error assuming the null hypothesis. C.5. Occupation versus impact on daily travel How does public transportation impact your daily travel to work/school? Cross-tabulation Count Job How does public transportation impact your daily travel to work/school? Total Negatively Positively No impact Government Employee NGO / Self Employed 124 61 26 211 3 5 0 8 Total 127 66 26 219 Chi-Square Tests Value df Asymp. Sig. (2-sided) Pearson Chi-Square 4.473a 2 .107 Likelihood Ratio 4.843 2 .089 Linear-by-Linear Association .126 1 .722 N of Valid Cases 219 a. 3 cells (50.0%) have expected count less than 5. The minimum expected count is .95. Symmetric Measures Value Approx. Sig. Nominal by Nominal Contingency Coefficient .141 .107 N of Valid Cases 219 a. Not assuming the null hypothesis. b. Using the asymptotic standard error assuming the null hypothesis. C.6. Sexual harassment versus Employee Status Have you ever faced a sexual harassment while using urban public transport? Job Cross-tabulation Count Have you ever faced a sexual harassment while using urban public transport? Occupation Total Government Employee NGO / Self Employed No Yes 120 7 127 91 1 92 Total 211 8 219 98 FINAL REPORT: Women's Personal Safety, Participation and Employment Linkage in Urban Public Transport Chi-Square Tests Value df Asymp. Sig. (2- sided) Exact Sig. (2- sided) Exact Sig. (1- sided) Pearson Chi-Square 2.968a 1 .085 Continuity Correction b 1.844 1 .174 Likelihood Ratio 3.443 1 .064 Fisher's Exact Test .143 .083 Linear-by-Linear Association 2.954 1 .086 N of Valid Cases 219 a. 2 cells (50.0%) have expected count less than 5. The minimum expected count is 3.36. b. Computed only for a 2x2 table Symmetric Measures Value Approx. Sig. Nominal by Nominal Contingency Coefficient .116 .085 N of Valid Cases 219 a. Not assuming the null hypothesis. b. Using the asymptotic standard error assuming the null hypothesis. C.7. Participation in capacity building programs or training packages versus occupation Number of people with disability participated as respondents Have you ever participated in capacity building programs or training packaged? Versus occupation Cross-tabulation Count Have you ever participated in capacity building programs or training packaged? Occupation Total Government Employee NGO / Self Employed Merchanthousewife Student Retired Other No Yes 200 8 260 75 141 2 4 690 11 0 3 1 0 0 0 15 Total 211 8 263 76 141 2 4 705 Chi-Square Tests Value df Asymp. Sig. (2-sided) Pearson Chi-Square 14.488a 6 .025 Likelihood Ratio 15.324 6 .018 Linear-by-Linear Association 12.136 1 .000 N of Valid Cases 705 a. 8 cells (57.1%) have expected count less than 5. The minimum expected count is .04. Symmetric Measures Value Approx. Sig. Nominal by Nominal Contingency Coefficient .142 .025 N of Valid Cases 705 a. Not assuming the null hypothesis. b. Using the asymptotic standard error assuming the null hypothesis. 99 FINAL REPORT: Women's Personal Safety, Participation and Employment Linkage in Urban Public Transport C.8. Provision of enough capacity building for women's enhancement versus level of education I believe the government is doing enough capacity building activities to enhance women`s knowledge and skill base so as to increase their employment. versus Education level cross tabulation Count I believe the government is doing enough capacity building activities to enhance women`s knowledge and skillbase so as to increase their employment. Education Level Total Illiterate 1st -8th 9th-12th Diploma Degree and Above Strongly Disagree Disagree I have Nothing to say Agree Strongly Agree 20 39 33 57 11 160 44 109 105 126 4 388 14 18 15 20 4 71 2 19 24 33 5 83 0 2 1 0 0 3 Total 80 187 178 236 24 705 Chi-Square Tests Value df Asymp. Sig. (2-sided) Pearson Chi-Square 34.335a 16 .005 Likelihood Ratio 37.953 16 .002 Linear-by-Linear Association .818 1 .366 N of Valid Cases 705 a. 7 cells (28.0%) have expected count less than 5. The minimum expected count is .10. Symmetric Measures Value Approx. Sig. Nominal by Nominal Contingency Coefficient .215 .005 N of Valid Cases 705 a. Not assuming the null hypothesis. Using the asymptotic standard error assuming the null hypothesis. C.9. Level of satisfaction versus implementation of laws How satisfied are you with the public transportation services of Mekelle city? If your response to the sensitivity of laws to women is "Agreeing", The existing policies, strategies and laws are sensitive to women`s safety and security? Cross tabulation Count How satisfied are you with the Public Transportion services of Mekelle city? Sensitivity of laws to women`s safety and security Total Strongly Disagree Disagree I have Nothing to say Agree Very Low low Medium High 8 5 0 5 18 8 20 2 25 55 7 21 7 84 119 2 3 0 18 23 Total 25 49 9 132 215 Chi-Square Tests Value df Asymp. Sig. (2-sided) Pearson Chi-Square 38.472a 9 .000 Likelihood Ratio 34.325 9 .000 Linear-by-Linear Association 25.061 1 .000 N of Valid Cases 215 100 FINAL REPORT: Women's Personal Safety, Participation and Employment Linkage in Urban Public Transport a. 7 cells (43.8%) have expected count less than 5. The minimum expected count is .75. Symmetric Measures Value Approx. Sig. Nominal by Nominal Contingency Coefficient .390 .000 N of Valid Cases 215 a. Not assuming the null hypothesis. b. Using the asymptotic standard error assuming the null hypothesis. 101 FINAL REPORT: Women's Personal Safety, Participation and Employment Linkage in Urban Public Transport APPENDIX D. KEY INFROMANT INTERVIEWS (KII) Research objective 1- Women's personal safety and security in the context of urban public transport 1. How do you understand inclusive transport? Do you think the public transportation of Mekelle city is gender inclusive? (Like in terms of priority in service provision and equality in participation, rating) Respondent Response KI1 • Equal opportunity with dominating one gender over the other. Without discriminating one gender by the other KI2 • Priority for people with special needs, respecting quality for all, comfortable service for all KI3 • Accessible with time and coverage KI4 • Inclusive transport is a transport service that gives equal opportunity and benefits for all and which gives priority to the disadvantaged/vulnerable groups (people with disability, pregnant women, old) KI5 • Transport which serves equality with comfortable infrastructure • accessible and convenient KI7 • The understanding I have is not in depth. It is to mean that making transport service comfortable for the persons with disability. • There is good progress in the laws and proclamations but still there is clear gap in the infrastructures considering the disadvantageous groups. KI8 • Our understanding in inclusive transport is very narrow. • It is not as per the expected. Sometimes, we faced some complain from the public who were in the queue if we give priority to some disadvantageous group. KI9 • Inclusive transport is one where no one is left behind; where poor and rich, men and women benefit from the services, where services are not limited to the wealthy and those who have relatives in the administrative ladder KI10 • Inclusiveness means bringing different perspectives together for real change and improvement in the transport sector. It entails enabling everyone to know his/her rights and responsibilities and equally benefit from government services while at the same time respecting the rules. 2. Do you think the public transportation of Mekelle city is inclusive to disadvantaged groups who have special needs (like provision priority and equitable treatment people with disability, pregnant, Older and Children, rating) KI1 • Not inclusive, Inclusivity is not yet addressed KI2 • Similar response KI3 • Females with children, with carrying are usually discriminated - 102 FINAL REPORT: Women's Personal Safety, Participation and Employment Linkage in Urban Public Transport KI4 • It's not inclusive at all it even discriminates women. More priority in the service is given to the young who have more power to push and get the service by force. There might be some exceptions in different individuals who have mortality who give respect and offer their seat for old and pregnant women. KI5 • Minibus transport users don't want to give service for women with disability, pregnant woman, woman with a child and luggage. They want to carry more passengers and overload. Here in Mekelle it is not safe to use Bajaj alone even in day time. If you face something inside Bajaj nobody can help you since you are not visible and most are out of the assigned taxi routs. Due to this are lots of harassments happening on women using the service. • - Such transport problems can affect every aspect of life KI7 • The inclusiveness depends mostly on the behaviour of the individuals. It is not common in all transport users. Of course, the transport users by themselves try to give priority for the disadvantaged groups. The station managers also try to give priority for pregnant in sometimes even they face complain from some transport users who are in the queue. • There is good development in bus stations. In taxi transport time and taxi stations, it is very weak when compared with bus stations of longdistance service. KI8 • The understanding in the public is very weak. It is dependent on the culture or norm. The understanding is better in the service providers like the taxi associations, transport offices etc. KI9 • Yes and no. as long as the services is given to all who can afford to pay it is inclusive partly because the price is also cheap but today the price have gone up because of the covid-19 pandemic and the taxi owners are asked to board limited number of travellers (6 if it is a mini-bus taxi) KI10 • Ideally it was supposed to be sensitive to the needs of the disadvantaged groups. There may in fact be provisions in the laws that clearly state that priority should be given to children, the elderly, pregnant women and people with disability. But how many of us respect this is a big question. Traditionally, the social norms also emphasize respect to the elderly and other people with peculiar interests stated above, majority of the people still closely observe and behave in line with such norms; but there are outliers too. 3. How satisfied are you with the public transportation services of Mekelle city? (reason) KI1 • Low, No satisfaction, KI2 • Especially in evening time. • Low, No satisfaction KI3 • Low, No satisfaction KI4 • No we are not satisfied KI5 • The same KI7 • Considering myself as transport user, I am not satisfied. The following points can be mentioned as some reason: ü There is shortage of man power in the transport office. Due to that, there is gap in organizing and monitoring the office properly. This has visible impact on the service of the public transport. The office work and field work will not be handled properly. 103 FINAL REPORT: Women's Personal Safety, Participation and Employment Linkage in Urban Public Transport ü The work division among traffic police transport office is not well articulated. There is weak bond between the two offices. Some mandates like authority to punish misbehaving drivers, are taken to other offices from transport office. This makes the transport office to be lion without teeth. ü The relation transport office and taxi association is not clear. The new guide line is not clear in making division of power among offices, how to establish association is clear. ü The enforcement power of the transport office is weakened in the new proclamation and there is no direct way to control the drivers in the city. ü The service is very weak since the focus given from the top management is seems few. ü The drivers and conductors are not cooperative. They only focus on the penny they gained. • Sometimes there is queue for about 30-40 minutes KI9 • I am okay with it except that sometimes the taxi conductors put more passenger creating havoc for those who already occupy their seats. For example, we are sometimes forced to add one more people in each seat plus additional travellers sitting in the place designed for passage. 4. How do you evaluate the overall safety and security of women in the sector of public transport? What are the major challenges? KI10 • Occasionally there are problems that are unique to women but I sometimes find it difficult whether to openly speak about it or not; the problems women face every day are considered normal so much so that you sometimes feel afraid to against the wind. This makes it difficult to deal with the problem. Some of the safety concerns are milder than others; there also some which go to the extreme. But it all boils down to people's levels of consciousness. There are no strong gender policies that prevent the problems from happening. Laws and regulations are either inexistent or are just weak. The way relevant offices are organized is also problematic. I have witnessed a woman being insulted in a taxi to which I angrily reacted; I fought with the offender while others just kept quiet. In fact, some of them just laughed as if it was funny. I was then attacked. Finally, I brought the offender before the law and he was detained; but in no time he paid bribery and got out of prison. There are banners inside the taxi vehicles that fringe upon the rights of women almost to the point of ridiculing them. I remember a proverb I read inside a taxi it reads [translated]: "women are like mangoes; they are sweet but they both make you dirty (spoil you)". Insulting women in urban public transport is considered normal. KI11 • Women are sexually harassed in Bajaj. Especially, a lot of things are done at night in Bajajs. My wife and my sisters are not willing to use Bajaj at night especially after 6:00 PM. However, the cases that come to our bench are only rape cases. What is more the public does not do anything to stop that. They take it for granted. KI12 • There is harassment in Bajajs. What is more, the chairs are not comfortable for women in Bajajs and other transport systems. In general women do not feel safety and security while they use transport systems in the city. They are forced to live with that situation. They consider it as a norm. KI13 • There is harassment of women in public transport like Bajaj. In my opinion this happens because most of the drivers and co-drivers are school drop outs and are mostly famous for misbehaving. The driving profession is not constituted with good behaving people. The incident of harassment on Bajajs happens mostly on evening students. KI14 • In Taxis there is harassment. This is done by men (even well-dressed people) by touching women's body pretending they are not comfortable in their seats. Especially when taxies are crowded with people. In my opinion, one of the causes for women harassment in taxis is not sticking to the 104 FINAL REPORT: Women's Personal Safety, Participation and Employment Linkage in Urban Public Transport limits of taxis seats. Taxi people they allow more people than their limits. I even remember one incident where on gentle looking man trying to touch my body pretending to take out money from his pocket. At the beginning I thought he was genuine but when he keeps on doing, I have to tell him to stop and he was ashamed. KI15 • Though there is definitional problem of harassment to them harassment includes touching women's body without their consent/interest. In line to this, they feel that in public transport including taxis and Bajaj there is harassment by drivers, co-drivers and even traffic police. 5. Is there any unsafe or an insecure environment for women in the public transportation of the city? If yes, can you mention some and suggest measures to minimize harassment (insecurity) against women in public transportation? KI1 • Yes, education that brings mental change must be performed especial on drivers and conductors; apply Sudan's experience providing priority for female during embarking. • Inclusive transport should appear and involve in laws, awareness creation on the society, KI2 • Yes, Adequate ethical education must be given for all actors and users of transport especially for drivers and conductors KI3 • Yes, awareness creation on the society • Victim female should witness the actual conditions they faced from harassment and violence KI4 • More problems are observed in Bajajs in terms of safety even in the day time. Currently is not safe and affordable to use Bajaj. • More should be done on teaching the society the mind-set towards women`s safety should be well thought • Awareness creation • There should be a law that forces the service givers to give more priority to the disadvantaged groups. • It is also better to empower the Amora city bus service to improve the quality of public transport in the city • The quality of service in Amora city bus should be improved for better and sustainable solution on public transport service and access KI5 • Taxis especially in some neighbourhoods found in the outskirts (Adiwelelo, Adikenfer, Mariamdehan). In contrary women in the city tend to use Bajaj this is because they don't get appropriate service from minibus taxis so they prioritize Bajaj. • The demand and supply of transport service in the city should be balanced • Awareness training on ethics and proper customer service should be given to conductors and taxi drivers. The way they treat women passengers is not healthy/bad • The society should positively influence those misbehaving service givers. Women should strive and fight for their right. They usually are afraid of the discrimination after taking the criminals to court KI6 • Our office does not believe that women travellers are secured in the city as several women confiscated their mobiles, bags and other properties come to appeal to our office in daily basis. Harassment (verbal, non-verbal, and physical) by male co-passenger, passenger, conductor, etc is also a common phenomenon in Taxi users. Good Taxi Terminal is very important in minimizing such a problem KI9 • Since the starting station for all taxes is found in Kedamay weyane on top of that, the space is narrow. Due to that, the harassment is visible not only for travellers but also for pedestrians passing around. In this area, it is usual to see mobile thefts which is more on women. All women from all corners come to the centre to collect their daily consumptions as it is the only potential area for different kinds of goods. This leads women to be collected in the centre and they will be venerable for harassments and unwanted talks from different persons. 105 FINAL REPORT: Women's Personal Safety, Participation and Employment Linkage in Urban Public Transport • The best solution is to revise the land use of the city so as the market centre should be reallocated to the periphery of the cities and taxi services from Kebele to Kebele should be encouraged without crossing the centre. • The taxi station should be almost far from bars and alcoholic supermarkets. • In some end taxi stations, there is lack of light. Thus, all locations of the city should get enough light. To alleviate such problems, electricity and power offices should be part of the solution. • Other possible solutions which can be considered is providing taxi terminals in the city. KI11 • I have no experience of this myself but some women complain about mobile phone theft even in the day time they snatch the phones especially as they travel with hands off the car through the window. You know robbery is a daily experience in Mekelle town. It is sad that we have hang groups who even attack men under cover of darkness 6. Have you ever received any complaints from women about unsafe or/and insecure environment or gender-based harassment of any kind in the sector of public transport? KI11 • Yes we have a few cases of a young girls who were raped. I know 3 cases. One was a health worker who was raped by taxi driver and his assistant as she drove from Quiha to down town Mekelle. Rapes used to be common among hotel workers working in rooms service. We know there may be a lot more but they are not reported for cultural reasons. Women are just afraid to report them for fear of reprisal attacks; and because they do not want to be a laughing- stock KI12 • So far there is no case in our bench regarding women harassment in public transport like Bajaj KI13 • Complaints do not come to Wereda (District) and Supreme courts. They are entertained administratively. What is more, administrative cases do not have appeal. They directly come to cassation bench. So, harassment issues do not come to the regular courts. KI14 • As far as I am concerned, I have not come across any complaint in our police commission. KI15 • As far as we are concerned, we have not come across any complaint in our office. 7. If so, please explain where and how did this happen and; how was it reported it to you; KI11 • Only the most serious cases of harassments such as rape are reported. Other forms of violation of women's rights are often ignored and often evade public attention. For example, pregnant women are mistreated and children are asked to pay the normal fare as adults, etc. • Reporting normally involves the police, women's affairs of office and the association because we are the most relevant offices. KI12 • So far there is no case in our benches or offices regarding women harassment in public transport like Bajaj. KI13 • ditto (same answer as above) KI14 • ditto KI15 • ditto 8. What do you think should be done to effectively deal with sexual harassment against women in the public transport? KI9 • Making Campaign to the community about the issue in different modes. • Giving effective training to women on how they can cope up and develop confidence. 106 FINAL REPORT: Women's Personal Safety, Participation and Employment Linkage in Urban Public Transport • Delivering training to the users. • Providing economic incentives like unique credit to the women, providing certificates to these whom are in the sector already. KI10 • The country's overall stage of socio-economic development is to blame for most of the social ills that occur in our country. There is often lack of proper awareness among the general public. Actually, there are no hard and fast rules, laws, proclamations, strategies that work complicating the problem further KI11 • In my opinion it would be good to have directives on how to prevent harassment in the traffic police regulations. The other measure is to create public awareness about the issue. It is also good to have its own litigation mechanism different from other criminal cases. KI12 • In my opinion, strong laws should be legislated; Strong penalties should be prescribed; women harassment issues should be entertained in regular courts and laws that take proactive measures should be taken ahead of time. KI13 • In my opinion, I suggest the following as solution to the problem at hand: o Interrogating the school curriculum; o Giving due attention to due process of law; o Administering training; o Recruiting professionals and well-behaving people in the transport sector; o Introducing coordinating regulatory system in the transport sector; and o Empowering the traffic police to penalize harassment issues. KI14 • In my opinion, women harassment could be solved through administering awareness training to the public at large. KI15 • Women harassment cannot be solved only by legislating different laws. We have to change the mind-set of the public which is shaped our culture. However, women are expected to play important role in changing the mind-set of the public by fighting the prevailing oppressive culture. He emphasized that the awareness creation process has to start from family to school then to the general public. • In my view, the most important thing is changing the mind-set of the public. Since we are living in a very patriarchal society, which is the very source of women harassment in our society. In a patriarchal society have no option to keep quite when harassed. The society also takes the harassment for granted. 107 FINAL REPORT: Women's Personal Safety, Participation and Employment Linkage in Urban Public Transport Research objective 2 - The incorporation of women's voice within transport planning and decision making at various levels 9. Do you think women actively participate in the planning of the public transportation? If no, why not? Respondent Response KI1 • Not practiced, no complaint, no opportunity in general not started. KI2 • Not yet in transportation, but in other programs like UNDP (UIIDP) there are experiences, practices and implementations of 50% female participation in planning and implementation KI3 • No, there is no practical consideration rather than oral propaganda. KI4 • It is not yet started • There is no platform to incorporate women in the planning and decision-making process in public transport sector • So far there are no complaints on women`s harassment on employment and service of public transport to our office. • The problem is even the transport sector doesn`t take inclusive transport for women in to consideration as an issue/agenda KI5 • It seems a new thing to give attention for women in the transport sector. Because here we are more focusing on accessibility. But if women get the opportunity, they don't have a problem in expressing their idea • In some projects like UNDP, it's mandatory to incorporate 50% women. In those projects public participation is a criterion. Such experiences could also be taken as a model. • Taxi stations in the city are not safe and appropriate especially for pregnant woman, women caring children and luggage… KI6 • Though our office (Road & Transport Office) is a male-dominated one, huge efforts are often made to let them participate in the planning of activities essential to the transport sector. KI9 • If we consider our office, there is good support to women and the result is also remarkable. The planning head of our office is female. She always gives focus to female in trainings and meetings. The management is also keen to support women in all options even beyond some guide lines. KI10 • Despite the backward thinking among the community, they participate in some planning issues. KI11 • I have no information on this but generally women, unless they are educated and posted, do not have the propensity to make or participate in important decision making processed. Most of the offices are male dominated and hence it is unlikely for women to have a say. In our context everything is taken for granted even when people do things against the rules. People just never bothered. The taxi drivers and their assistants are the bosses and sometime they add the price and nobody challenges it. KI12 • The transport sector is male dominated. Particular percentages should have been reserved for women. This could be something like 10% or 15% or more in the various sub-sectors. The reality is quite the contrary. Why women are required to have a fair share of the positions and as frontline workers (e.g., Traffic police) is because they tend to be strict in enforcing the rules without exception. Women are much more serious that men when applying the laws. 108 FINAL REPORT: Women's Personal Safety, Participation and Employment Linkage in Urban Public Transport 10. What is your overall assessment of women's role in decision making with regard to public transportation? KI1 • There is 50% female representation in the councils and 40% (or 8/20) in city Cabinet (congress). KI2 • Currently, in one sub city named Adhaki females represent 65% of the leaders. • In other sub cities females have 38% minimum representation. KI4 • There are women`s participation at different levels but not specific in the transport sector.at the city council 44%, ቤት ምኽሪ 50%, at Tabia level minimum there are 38% are women. Political participation is better but, in the engineering, especially in transportation sector it is not even mentioned as an issue. KI6 • Most women in our office are group leaders and are part of the decision-making processes KI9 • In this office, there are many women group leaders. They participate in all decision levels. There are women in the management team of the office. They express their opinion in all possible ways freely and get equal weight as it is given to men. KI11 • Ordinary women do not have a say. Let alone women even men sometimes have limited voice. Customers are not treated well in general KI12 • Poor, very poor is how we should characterize their participation in the sector. I remember a young girl who came to Mekelle city all the way from Adigrat town in 1993 to process a driving licence had to pass through a lot of ups and downs before her request was finally rejected to her dismay. Women suffer as users of public transport, let alone take part in administering it. There were few women conductors in the past but now they have dropped out apparently because it was not comfortable for them. There were also some women drivers of public transport vehicles but the number if currently on the decline because of attitudinal problems. They just prefer to engage in other less paying street vending such as selling kolo (roasted grains) to working as conductors. 11. What kind of support mechanisms and offer of opportunities can enhance women's participation roles and benefits in public transportation? KI1 • Awareness creation KI2 • Set motivation mechanisms like support of education and training, ethics for males KI3 • Private owners in transportation do not recruit females assuming that they will interrupt due to pregnancy and delivery. KI4 • give awareness to the society and women them selves • establish women`s associations and give continuous trainings on transportation and give some incentives and this will have an impact in the long run. This can be tried as a pilot project. • create awareness on women`s equality • Women are relatively reliable, free from corruption and sensitive toward safety in transportation • Give some incentive for women who participates in the sector-this could encourage others to participate (motivational measures) KI5 • motivate women to learn about transport • give credit for women who are involved in the sector • ethics should be taken as a criterion for recruitment in the transportation service providers • work to improve the quality and attractiveness of the sector 109 FINAL REPORT: Women's Personal Safety, Participation and Employment Linkage in Urban Public Transport • encourage associations to employ women KI9 • Continuous training should be given to women regarding their rights in the transport sector. • This sector should be considering as good means of employment opportunity for women. • Women case should be taken as crosscutting issues. • Continues campaign has to be made to address the mass community so as the issue will be clear for all individuals. KI11 • Generally, I think we need to be much more serious than we are today. Most of what we say now is lip service. Action not lips service will bring the required change. Everywhere there is a lot of blah blah without impactful change. When we talk about participation, for example, we need to be serious and put women in leadership position. Some people organize meetings and talk to the people that include a large proportion of women and they say "look we are being participatory and inclusive" this is not real participation. Everyone preaches about participation in public and goes home and becomes a different person 12. In your view, what are the major challenges that women are facing in the sector of public transport? (In terms of equal participation in employment, planning, decision making? KI9 • Response not recorded KI10 • It is the reluctant culture in the community and in most offices 13. How do you evaluate the level of gender equality in the sector of public transport in terms of participation in employment, planning and decision making? KI9 • Response not recorded KI10 • Even if it is not enough, there is good progress. First priority is given to women in some employment chances. KI11 • My response on the story /answer under Research Question 10 actually explains everything. 14. If your response to #4 is low, what measures do you recommend to ensure women equality in terms of participation in employment, planning and decision making? KI9 • Response not recorded KI10 • Giving appropriate training to women and the community at large. • Encouraging women whom are in the lower level of the management. 110 FINAL REPORT: Women's Personal Safety, Participation and Employment Linkage in Urban Public Transport Research objective 3 - The links existing between urban transport and job creation for women 15. Why do you think that the driving profession in transportation service is male dominated? Respondent Response KI9 • Response not recorded KI10 • Women's Lack of income • Lack of confidence • Worrying about the culture 16. What is your overall assessment of women's role in decision making with regard to public transportation? KI9 • Response not recorded KI10 • No training is provided so far concerning this issue 17. Do you provide training particularly designed for women to enhance their employability in the transport sector? If so, what type of training? (documentation) KI1 • Yes, training was given for station managers with 65% females. A 5% affirmative action was given and priority was given for females according to Cabinne's (congress) decision. KI2 • There is no driving licenses training encouraging females for public transportation and there is not favourable environment of public driving. KI4 • As agreed in one cabinet meeting65% of ticket officers in Amora city bus public bus service are women. This is because it is believed that women are relatively free from corruption. But such experiences are hardly seen in other sectors. In most civil service offices 5% point is added for women as an affirmative action. • Women are usually afraid of challenges/discrimination they face in transport sector. Because there is no conducive environment for women. • Awareness creation can be done but it's hard to force associations to recruit women in the public transport service. KI6 • The office often organizes capacity building training for staffs in collaboration with Mekelle University to boast staffs' understanding on the issues of gender. For instance, most of the team leaders are females and there is also a good initiation to recruit females in the organization KI9 • There are good initiatives to give trainings for women. Some important trainings are given to women even by inviting academicians from the universities in the region like Mekelle University. After such training, it was possible to see three women group leaders in our office KI11 • Our office is not that much involved in the transport sector. We provide training to women who look for jobs in the industries. In addition, those who have plans to travel abroad as migrants are also provided with appropriate skills training. But little if any is done regarding public transport. 18. Have you ever received employment related complaints from women employees in the sector of public transport? KI1 • No, as the employment related complaints belongs to bureau of civil service. 111 FINAL REPORT: Women's Personal Safety, Participation and Employment Linkage in Urban Public Transport KI2 • No KI3 • No KI4 • No KI5 • No KI6 • So far, the office did not receive any complaints from women employees since employment is usually done based on B.Sc. Criteria and affirmative action set for females. KI9 • There is no such complain in our office. In this office special attention is always given to women even out of the guide lines. Even some of them are assigned temporarily until they fit in experience to the position. Therefore, in our office there is no complain related to employment form women. In the contrary, some complain was raised from men mentioning some positions are relevant to them than to women. KI11 • No. we are not the right office for this. We are preoccupied with women working in the apparel industries that are expanding in this area since recent time. KI12 • Nope. Employment related complaints never made their way to our office. Those that are reported to us problems related serious case harassments, particularly rape. KI13 • As far as we are concerned, we have never come across any case. KI14 • ditto KI15 • ditto 112 FINAL REPORT: Women's Personal Safety, Participation and Employment Linkage in Urban Public Transport Research objective 4 - Policy framework surrounding women's empowerment in the transport sector with particular emphasis on their safety and security, their active involvement and roles in decision making 19. Are you aware of the existing transport policy? Respondent Response KI9 • Response not recorded KI10 • Yes, even if it is partially. 20. How do you evaluate the transport office in your city in strengthening women employment with respect of the following elements? a. Recruitment policy b. Work life balance c. Equality in wages d. Working culture e. Internal corporate policy KI1 • we only follow civil service`s policy we do not have corporate policy • There is nothing being done to create conducive environment to encourage women to be engaged in the transport sector. (e.g., work-life balance, maternal leave here is only 4months), Day-care centre not yet begun but it would be best for working women with a child KI2 • There is a good experience in safety net project that its mandatory/criteria for associations to incorporate at least 60% women. Otherwise, international organizations couldn`t offer funds KI3 • Even in women's association there is a directive to incorporate 50% women but that is not seen in the ground. So much need to be done on awareness creation towards women`s participation. KI4 • There is an affirmative action of 5% by proclamation for females which belongs to civil service but there are also 3% by directives which consequences complaint KI5 • There is equality in salary of public sectors however no equal wages in private sectors and in projects. KI6 • So far, the office did not receive any complaints from women employees since employment is usually done based on B.Sc. Criteria and affirmative action set for females. • Recruitment in the organization is made based on B.Sc. Guideline. However, the office sometimes violet the rule and recruit females to motivate them and enhance their employments • The office has activities like staff meeting & follow-up and supervision of cross-country buses that have always been taking place outside the normal working hours. For instance, staff meeting is most of the time taken place till 9:00 PM. Similarly, follow-up and supervision of crosscountry buses are always carried out starting from 5:00 AM in the morning. Since the office has come to understand its impact on female employees' work & their life, females will always be excused to leave and not stay outside the usual working hours. • With respect to Salary, the interviewees said their office always pays equal wage for both males and females having the same title and task. 113 FINAL REPORT: Women's Personal Safety, Participation and Employment Linkage in Urban Public Transport • The office performs its activities based on the guideline and this guideline, called "Simirit", is developed to help females cross country travels in general and disabled and old in particular. However, this guideline should be broadened to address female problems in city "Taxi" and "Buses" KI9 • In recruitment, the office follows the guide lines of the civil service office. Sometimes, internally, the BSc result of women which was given by immediate supervisors may be revised to give them first chance. • To achieve the work life balance, women may be exempted from meetings in the evening. In addition, we give priority to women in administration of bus station. Since the bus station is open at 5:00A.M, and this is night time which is difficult for women, women are assigned in the afternoon. • When this office was with construction, some binding rules was added in the agreement so as the contractor will not undermine women's payment in any sector from the male for the same work position KI11 • I have limited information on this. I cannot comment 21. Are there laws (policies, proclamations, regulations, directives, guidelines or manuals) and strategies which are sensitive to women's concerns (needs, interests) in public service transport in Mekelle city? KI1 • Yes, there are inclusions laws (policies and proclamations) to some extent stated shallowly; however, implementers, beneficiaries and users have no awareness on them. • There is an article about women`s participation on the proclamation and policy. The problem is when it comes to different sectors it becomes loose. KI2 • ditto KI3 • ditto KI4 • ditto KI5 • ditto KI9 • There are good guide lines which gives priority to women in station managers. However, there is no law in the ground forces drivers if dis obey the rule. This leads to subjectivity among officers and this leads subjectivity among officers. • There are enforcement problems in the ground. KI11 • Although I have a limited information on this, I believe there may be policies and laws. You know we are rich in policies and laws. But nobody cares about them. Full of laws that are rarely implemented. A waste of time indeed KI12 • I don't think there are appropriate policies and laws along with particular strategies and guidelines; even if there are some, they just seem to hanging in the balance. We need down to earth guidelines that are implementable. What does it mean to neglect a veteran in public transport service provision? someone who fought for change and development in the region being denied his rights to use such services; putting a lot of people in a taxi also means there will be unnecessary physical contact between men and women passengers which leads to some form of harassments. Some men deliberately place their hand in women's private parts pretending that it happened because of overcrowding inside the vehicle. Problems in the urban public transport are ticking bombs for the government. It should be corrected sooner than later. 22. Do you think these policies are well known to government officials at various levels and are these being implemented properly? What are the main problems related to policy, in your view? 114 FINAL REPORT: Women's Personal Safety, Participation and Employment Linkage in Urban Public Transport KI1 • No, if they had it they would incorporate it at the grassroots level. That major problem is the lack of awareness. If the community is convinced it becomes easier to implement. KI9 • Since there are very few, it is better to say that there is less attention. KI10 • Response not recorded KI11 • I don't think so. Like with other laws, the papers are there but nobody implements them or are just implemented in the wrong way. People do as they please because there is no one who sees to it that such policies are being implemented in the right way. COVID-19 23. How COVID-19 affect the transport sector Respondent Response KI1 • The system of isolated seating was advantageous for pregnant females • There was a better comfort and safety during COVID 19 lockdown /restriction time since all the taxis and Bajajs were forced to serve with half capacity. But the fee was not affordable since it was double of the usual cost. KI2 • ditto KI3 • ditto KI4 • ditto KI5 • ditto KI9 • As the sector is service provider, all users from different corners are vising our office. This makes our office to be venerable to the pandemic. We limit our service to number of users per day. This affected us not to give the service as to the maximum possible level. • The cost for taxi service users was doubled and this harms the low-income community in their income. KI10 • We were highly affected economically. The transport cost was doubled, daily consumption goods were costly and soon. KI11 • COVID-19 is a real disaster. It has disoriented as right and left to the extent that some people stay away from office even when they catch ordinary flu because no one wants to take the risk if interacting with them. The pandemic has a limit to our scope of operation. As developing country, I don't think we will afford this catastrophe. 115 FINAL REPORT: Women's Personal Safety, Participation and Employment Linkage in Urban Public Transport APPENDIX E. INDEPTH INTERVIEWS (IDI) Case 1- Mrs Sara`s story I live in Mekelle city. I am married. I have two children and now am expecting my third child after a month. I live here in Mekelle since I was born. I grew up, pursued my education, and got married in this city. After college graduation, I started working in an NGO that focused on entrepreneurship and women empowerment. When I was engaged in that job, I used to travel two routes per day to reach at my work place (round trip from Ayder to Downtown and from Downtown to Kebele 18). I worked 4 years in that organization. After the projects phased out, I started working in a private bank called Dashen Bank and am still working there. I use one taxi to go to my work place but I usually use Bajaj to save time. Since my work by nature demands punctuality, so saving time is my priority on choosing the type of public transport I use. My preference is to use Bajaj. Since I have a responsibility to take care of my family (treat my children, cook, breast feed etc…) and to be on time at my work place I prefer to use Bajaj to save time. If I have enough time, I use minibus taxi. I never used Amora city bus. The station of Amora city bus buses is not convenient for me. My main purpose of travel is to my work place and also as household head I sometimes go for shopping and other social life. I would like to categorize the kind of harassment I have faced so far, before marriage and after I got married. Before I got married, there were times when I wanted to stay with my friends until late evening chatting and having fun with them. When it gets dark it becomes totally unsafe. My privacy is often violated in mini-bus taxis especially if the passenger sitting beside me is a male. I often got abused verbally and was nagged to the core to give my phone number. An atmosphere of fear haunted me until I reached home. It is often better when the vehicles are illuminated inside but this was often not the case. The vehicles were packed with people as conductors added one more person in each seat meant for 2 people. In such circumstance the male passenger seating beside me usually tried to touch and harass me physically. There were many experiences I faced I usually reached home with no comfort and safety and unfortunately this is usually accepted as a normal thing by the society. Hence, when I thought of using taxi, I could only wish that the fellow passenger that will seat beside me to be a woman or an old man. It seems it is a must to be verbally harassed if you are female passenger. If I don't give a positive response to them, they insult and discourage me. Such sexual harassments were common and happened in my everyday life before I got married. After I got married, most of the safety and security issues I faced were related with my pregnancy. It was at this time that I became even more sensitive start to give attention to women`s safety on public transportation. From the experiences I had there are only few who think pregnant women needs special service and seat in public transport. I almost fight daily with conductors who try to abuse and miss treat me. They don't care even if I try to explain them that I am pregnant even if it was visible. Even most of the fellow passengers don't give attention. I usually beg for my right. I had lots of experiences of seating in inappropriate seat when I was pregnant. I take this as a deep-rooted failure and problem of the society. It's a curse, I think. One of the most heart-breaking experiences I faced after I get married was four years ago. It was at evening after work, I dressed a short dress since the dressing code of my office (the bank) forced us to wear. I am banker and I am supposed to dress that way. One male passenger came and seat beside me. After the taxis starts moving, the man sends his hand to my leg. I was so shocked and shouted. I kicked him with my bag. But the saddest thing was that none of the fellow passengers supported and defended for me. Rather they started to blame me as if it was my fault. They blamed me `why do you wear such a dress? It is the way you dressed that pushed him`. As if it was not my right to dress what I wanted. I feel ashamed and threatened to face such harassment as a married woman. After that moment I requested my office and I totally stopped wearing dress. I always recorded the plate of Bajaj's before I ride. Three weeks ago, I wanted to use Bajaj since I didn't have much time and I should arrive before our clients. I informed the Bajaj driver to slow down by explaining that the road is uncomfortable and am pregnant though it was visible. But he snubbed and told me `I am not taking you for vacation, so I will not slow down and waste my time`. And he forced me to get out of his Bajaj and left me in the middle of nowhere. I walked till my work place since I didn't have any other option. I was very sad and 116 FINAL REPORT: Women's Personal Safety, Participation and Employment Linkage in Urban Public Transport dispirited because no one abused and insulted me like that before. The response he gave me was harsh and emotional. Women`s harassment in public transport in Mekelle is everyday experience. Nobody gives it attention to that due to lack of awareness. Even the women themselves don't fight for their right. There is wrong attitude towards women`s right in the society. There is almost no respect given to women in our community. I come up to this conclusion due to the experiences I faced. I become very sensitive to such harassment and safety issue especially when I am pregnant. I am negatively influenced while using public transport. The attitude here is poor and more should be done on awareness creation. Surprisingly, I never tried to report to police. Since I don't believe that there is justice and solution from them. I try to use my force and try to defend by myself. There are even worst harassments and violence cases which are not resolved properly. There are lots of females raped under age, but they didn't get proper justice. The criminals were not punished as they had to be. So having such cases unsolved its luxury to report my cases. So, it`s better to defend myself if possible. I remember when the spread of the pandemic was high, the government ordered to taxis to give services only with half capacity (6 passengers). But there were times I got out of taxis since they were crowded. 117 FINAL REPORT: Women's Personal Safety, Participation and Employment Linkage in Urban Public Transport Case 2- Tirhas's story Thanks for inviting me to share my experience, my name is Tirhas. I have lives in this city for more than 20 years. I used to live in Adigrat town and decided to move to Mekelle for work. I am married and have 5 children and I am a government employee. I have had the chance to participate in the survey and have given my inputs during the workshop. I am a regular user of the public transport because neither I nor my husband has a private vehicle. I am now retired and live on pension money. I also rent out houses. I travel at least twice a day for different purposes mainly social (e.g., churches, wedding or funeral, shopping, visit relatives etc.). I often use mini-bus taxi for transportation although there is also Amora city bus city bus service in the place where I live, but I often prefer taxi because of easy access. There are not a lot of buses running in the city. I would like to share you an experience encountered by a fellow woman passenger. We were actually travelling together in the same taxi. She was very fat. The conductor said to her, "you are going to pay double." The woman asked, "Why should I pay double?" the conductor answered in a straight forward manner, "Because you are too fat." The real reason was that he shouted at her because he was not able to add a third person in a seat that was designed for two. This was disturbing to all customers in the car. Once upon a time, I and my friends were coming back home after visiting one of our colleagues who had arranged a get-together event. We were walking down the street when a taxi conductor asked if we want his service. We said no. He replied, "Who would take old ladies like you" insults like this are common. We were supposed to be respected, but got ridiculed instead. Another time we came into conflict with a driver because he tried to charge as above the tariff. I have also witnessed many instances of neglect for people with disability and those with children or/and loads. When passengers demand conductors to give service to them, the usual reply is, "I don't have time for these; who will waste his time trying to carry all their stuff." There is no strong reaction to mistreatments like this. Nobody wants to take time to go to the police and report because we know no strong action is taken against them even if we try to report. No one wants to waste his/her precious time trying to take these cases to the police or court of justice. I have one experience of taking such cases to appropriate authorities. One day I was asked to pay more than what the tariff permits and so I took the case to the police and the driver was reportedly fined. I registered the plate number of the car, place and time of the incident which had to be reported to the police in due course. But it took me more than an hour and half to get things done. Actually, I cannot be sure about the fine because I was asked to follow the matter by phone. I was simply told appropriate measured were taken when I called the police but I cannot be sure about it. The system is discouraging because there are often long queues in the stations and we had to wait for hours to present our case to the appropriate body. It is obviously a problem of social justice. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, there were new arrangements now with passengers required to wear masks and keep distance. A seat meant for 2 was now assigned for one; but that also meant that we had to pay double. One day I took my seat we started travelling inside a taxi. All of a sudden, the conductor sat beside me and I told him to leave because we had to keep apart and after all I was paying double anyway. He refused. [There were other male passengers in the vehicle and he deliberately avoided sitting with them because he was afraid of the consequences]. The conductors and drivers don't even wear masks and it does not give sense for the customers only to wear them. I personally preferred to walk on foot in those times especially at the beginning when everyone of us was overwhelmed with fear about the pandemic. I deliberately avoided people without masks. I was even afraid of touching things, whereas for them everything was still okay as long as they can make money. Mrs Tirhas finally recommended comprehensive studies that cover every category of women urban public user, participatory and decision-making processes with women's views taking centre-stage, and creating conducive environment for women with special needs. She was optimistic there will be some positive changes in the foreseeable future in this line. 118 FINAL REPORT: Women's Personal Safety, Participation and Employment Linkage in Urban Public Transport Case 3- Abrehet's story I live in Mekelle, Kebele 05 Semien Woreda. I am divorced and have one child. I currently live with my son. I live in Mekelle since I was born. I do hand crafts like knitting and hair making for living. My son gets free education in a school called SOS. The government gave me a land for doing my own business but I couldn't use it. I have no initial money to start a business. It is not even allowed to rent the land so I couldn`t utilize it. I usually use minibus taxi to go for shopping. It is affordable for me it is 3 Birr, though currently due to the current political crisis it becomes 10 Birr. I don't use Bajaj it is too expensive for me. I face challenges while using public transport as a woman, as disabled and as a single mom. It's a multiple burden. Most of the challenges I face is from taxi drivers and conductors. When they see my disability, they say it is full, even if there is enough space. They don't want to wait and help me to ride. So, I face even more challenge than other female public transport users. Most of the conductors are not willing to load my wheelchair. The conductors miss treat us especially. For me it's stressing and harassment when we are mistreated in transportation. When I am exposed to such harassment, I do nothing and never reported to police. Let alone for such easy cases, they don't even help us /give us a solution/ when we face physical sexual violence in other places. I only try to protect my son from any attack. But I do nothing for myself. I am always late if there is an event or meeting, I am invited. I couldn't go to work or other social activities due to my disability and the uncomfortable transportation system in the city. It is better for me to stay at home. And it is not economical to use Bajaj. Mobility is too difficult for us. When I ride a taxi since I am disabled and couldn't ride with my leg, I use my hand to ride. So, it means I always touch where people walk through. This is dangerous and I am always afraid I might get infected by COVID 19 easily. Even when I try to enter to the taxi someone should help me. During this time, I get in touch with people I don't know and there is a chance of being infected. If I seat home, I can't do anything and no one can help me. It's a very miserable experience. To create safe and secure environment for women in the urban public transport: • Taxi stations should be located near service areas (market, offices…). When I go for shopping, I usually carry what I bought. The taxi station is far from the market. So, I suffer to reach there since I am disabled. • The tariff should be constant and consistent according to regulation • There should be a special regulation that considers gives priority to the disadvantaged group with a special need 119 FINAL REPORT: Women's Personal Safety, Participation and Employment Linkage in Urban Public Transport Case 4- Rahel's story I live in Mekelle. I am married and have three children. I live more than 25 years in Mekelle. I work in governmental academic institution. I serve as a teacher for the last 10 years and am still working there. My work place is almost 4km far from my house and I usually take two taxis to reach my work place. From home to down town from downtown to my work place. Sometimes if I am in a hurry, I take contract Bajaj to save time. In general, I use public transport almost every day to go to my work place and rarely do I travel for shopping and to visit family and friends. The challenges I face usually come from the conductors. Such incidents happen when they want to load more passengers that it is allowed and when they ask me to pay more than the tariff. I try to correct them but they insult me. One day I remember I was traveling from down town to my work place. The conductor was nagging and insulting women passengers throughout the journey. I begged him to come down and give me a change. He replied saying `this is not your business, and I will give your change latter you talkative'. I became angry I only asked to give me my change. I again asked for my change then he starts insulting me with insane words. Unfortunately, there were my students at the back seat of the taxi. I was ashamed but he continues insulting me till I reach my destiny. I wanted to go to the near community police to report about the case. When I brought the police to the taxi, they hide him and he escaped. I couldn't even recognize his face in the crowed anymore since they all gathered to one place. The other experience I had was physical harassment it was in the time of COVID 19 pandemic and we were 6 passengers. Since they were ordered to serve only with half capacity. My colleague seat beside at the back seat. Another fellow passenger seating in front of us seemed drunk. He was with his friend. They were loud. They repeatedly stared at me. It was around 7:00 PM and was getting dark. When I arrived to my destination I moved to get out from the taxi. By then one of the passengers in front of me dragged me towards him and I almost fall. I was upset and asked him what is he trying to do? I and my colleague asked the driver not to move till I call the police. But the driver and other fellow passengers tried to negotiate us. But I refused this person should be punished and learn from his mistakes. I reported immediately to the nearest community police. They were really cooperative. They come to the taxi and took the boy and his friend. I explained the case in detail. They advised and warned him. The police also took his ID card and asked him to come in the next day to hear the final decision of punishment and since he was drunk. Such experiences are common and everyday life of women public transport users. So, attention should be given to it. To create safe and secure environment for women in the urban public transport sector more should be done on: • Behavioural change as a society towards women`s right • Awareness creation • Female drivers and conductors should be encouraged to be engaged in the transport service • Trainings and ethical advices should be given to conductors and drivers • There should be equivalent punishment or low enforcement 120 FINAL REPORT: Women's Personal Safety, Participation and Employment Linkage in Urban Public Transport Case 55 - Mrs Tsega`s story (The only woman Mini-bus taxi driver in Mekelle) I live in Mekelle city. I am married. I have one four-year old child. I grew up in Adama with my family and come to Mekelle in 2019 due to the political instability in the country. I felt attracted towards garages and vehicle cares since my childhood. The garage which was in front of my residence in Adama was the main cause for me to like working in garages and vehicle maintenance related issues. Even if there was high influence from the community not to participate in car driving, I was supported and encouraged by a woman Mini-bus taxi driver in Adama. In Adama, there were about four women minibus drivers. One of them was very close with me and delivered her support to me unconditionally pushing me to be active in driving. In the first phase, I served her as conductor for about four months. Later, she recruited me as driver in her Minibus taxi with full confidence and honest. The driving was not new for me and did not worry about it as I used to be close with the sector since my childhood. This profession is not difficult for women despite the culture influence from the community. When I come to Mekelle in 2019, my family helped me to start working in Mini-bus taxi driving. I had not enough money at that time to own Mini-bus taxi. For woman, if you are going to be Mini-bus taxi driver, it is advisable to have her own Mini-bus taxi. Due to that, I was able to buy Mini-bus taxi with the support that I got from my family. Currently, it is obvious that, I am the only woman Mini-bus taxi driver in Mekelle so far. My associations (Hawelti Mini-bus taxi association) and Mekelle traffic polices always encourage me in my work. Moreover, there are many taxi users who always encourage me and becomes happy when they got me in Mini-bus taxi driving in Mekelle. Unlikely, there are so many Mini-bus taxi users who discourage me for being woman Mini-bus taxi driver. They insulted me with words which are difficult to express in this format. They considered me as I crossed the border of the culture. It is funny also there was some women whom are not happy in my driving job. One day they discourage me by expressing using words like "Do not you have any work? Who is going to bake your food, care your child? Or you are widow and you have not child'' This was heart breaking for me. I replied them with strong words. In Mekelle, the Mini-bus taxi service is from the morning 6: 00A.M up to 9:00 P.M the night time. It is obvious that the night time is not comfortable to women due to the insecurity issues. Considering this problem, the Minibus taxi associations and transport office allow me to enter home at 6:00 P.M. I had not any record of violating the traffic rules which may not lead to conflict with traffic polices. My husband is also supporting me in the profession despite he always worries by my tiredness in the driving. He preferred me to take rest always on Sunday. I have one daughter. I drive while I was pregnant for her until I become six months pregnant. After I got birth, I feed breast my child until six months. Then, I get back to my driving profession after six months of caring my child. When I got back to my profession, the child caring burden was taken over by my mother. Had I have been recruited at this time, my client would have been replaced me by other profession. But as the Mini-bus taxi was my own, I was not suffered more and adjusted as much as possible. In Mekelle, there are some Bajaj drivers and always contact me if they can drive Mini-bus taxi. I advised them to have their own Mini-bus taxi. This helps them to adjust their schedule as per their interest. If not recruiting in others Mini-bus taxi may lead them to work over program which is difficult for women and may not properly lead the work-life balance principle. The main reason why the number of women Mini-bus taxi driver becomes rare is the cultural influence up on women. In addition, the economical incapability of women hinders them to not own their own Mini-bus taxi. There are some automobile women drivers in the city but almost none in taxi driving. 5 Cases 1-4 were part of the previously submitted data collection report. 121 FINAL REPORT: Women's Personal Safety, Participation and Employment Linkage in Urban Public Transport As to my understanding, the taxi driving profession is not considered as one sector of job opportunity for women even in the government level. Off course, the gender-based harassment in the sector is another tackle for the sector that make it inconvenient for women. Harassing women is just considered as a norm in the city. 122 FINAL REPORT: Women's Personal Safety, Participation and Employment Linkage in Urban Public Transport Case 6 – Ms. Alem`s story (woman Bajaj driver) My name is Alem. I have lived in city of Mekelle since I was born. I am single and have no children. I used to be professional cyclist for almost seven years. We had a cycling club and we used to compete with other clubs and individuals within Tigray region and beyond (at a national level). I like the profession and had passion to it. But due to lack of budget from the government the club couldn't continue. Though I had the interest, I was unfortunately forced to quit cycling. There was obviously lack of attention for women cyclists because the male cyclists didn't encounter similar problems and were allowed to stay in the sport while women cyclists were discouraged. Currently I am working as TVS Bajaj driver. It`s almost seven years since I embarked on this work. There are only six women Bajaj drivers here in Mekelle and I was the pioneer. If given the opportunity I would like to resume my sport as a side activity. I have developed interest in driving Bajaj as well because I earn my livelihood from it. That was the kind of business I could financially afford to take up. I like this job because I have respect for it. I feel proud to be the first woman Bajaj driver in the city. So far, I am lucky that I have never faced challenges big enough to make me quit my job. Of course, there are some incidents which occasionally put me in a state of dilemma whether to continue or not. I usually don`t work during evening hours or late at night due to safety issues. And I don't work in the weekends because I want to spend some time with my family and exercise some social responsibilities. I don't pressurize myself too much because I want to enjoy my job and never get bored with it. I don't want to take it as an obligation. While giving this service, there are some who encourage me and give me moral support but there are also few customers who don't rely on my driving ability. They sometime say 'you will crash the Bajaj; I don't want to ride with you'. Sometimes even female customers stop me on the road and when they see that it is a woman driver, they refuse to embark, change their mind and prefer not to take a ride. They don't believe women are able to operate such a vehicle. I try to challenge them. I believe I should have the capacity to drive before I give service. I give the priority for my customers. Since I had the experience of riding a bike, driving Bajaj was not as such difficult thing to operate. There is lack of public confidence on women`s technical capacity; and I don't think it will improve any time soon. Personally, I want to drive in the outskirts of the city; I don't like driving in the city centre since it is usually crowded and not safe. There are some Bajaj drivers who work day-in and day-out but I try to advise them not to, since it's risky and not safe for woman to work at night. I didn't work for the last six months due to the current conflict and crisis in Tigray. The city becomes unsafe for us. I am planning to start to drive again this week because the Ethiopian Easter holiday is approaching and there is high demand for transportation. Those of us who are driving Bajaj are very few considering the proportion of women inhabitants of the city, which is nearly half of the total population. There is lack of awareness in the society. People sometimes consider us as if we are drug traffickers; as if we are rebellious with little or no respect for local tradition. Some people think that we are unethical and behaving against existing norms of the society. They sometimes say 'who is going to marry you' because driving is Manish. Besides, driving is considered as job of the poor. I get at least 300 Birr per day which is enough for me. If one is visionary enough and take it seriously it is an interesting career. It is necessary to create awareness on this. The other thing I can tell you is that women who want to be involved in this job need to capacitate themselves first. They should take the training seriously before they secure the driving licence. Most male drivers look for shortcut ways to obtain the licence and immediately start driving. The law enforcement bodies also tend to be stricter with women drivers. One day, I forgot my licence at home and was stopped by the traffic police. He had to follow me to my place to check if indeed I have the licence. This is not common among male Bajaj drivers. This indicates how much they don't trust female drivers. But I still respect and like my job no matter what happens. In addition to awareness creation some trainings and incentives should be given for women to participate in the sector. Practically women are relatively poor in our society. So, they should be encouraged to participate, but the first and main thing is that women should accept it as respected profession. The few Bajaj drivers should also be role models for others to be involved in this job. 123 FINAL REPORT: Women's Personal Safety, Participation and Employment Linkage in Urban Public Transport APPENDIX F. PARTICIPANT OBSERVATION Route one: Quiha - Mekelle City Centre (Downtown) Trips summary Women passengers & their condition Trip Number 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Total no. of women passengers 4 5 9 5 2 7 5 6 Women passenger without special condition 5 5 Pregnant women 2 Carrying a baby (ies) 1 2 1 Holding children/ accompanied by toddlers Carrying a luggage/goods 1 Disable women Other (old, sick or who needs help to get in & out) 2 Trip No. Observations Trip 1 § The first journey to Quiha was at the peak hour. But the taxi starts moving only with half capacity (total of 6 passengers), 2 men and 4 women including me. One of the women passengers was woman caring a baby and carriage. But the conductor didn't help her in loading and unloading her luggage though he was supposed to. The other woman passenger asked the conductor since she want to go only to halfway but he refused to give her saying `I will give you later` she almost begged him to give her the changes since she was in a hurry both the driver and the conductor repeatedly insulted her `nagger` till she arrives at her destination as if it's her own responsibility to give him the exact amount of payment. But in practice he is the one he is giving the service and he should have the changes if needed. The problem is that the conductors misbehave upon women passengers and properly treat male passengers. Trip 2 § In the second trip totally we were 13 passengers, 8 was male and we were 5. There were no women with special need among us. During our journey I observed 3 incidents of women passenger`s harassment. When we first start our journey, the driver drives the car to the back side while there was a female passenger was at the back moving to ride. She run to escape the accident. But the driver insulted her `blind, don't you see` though it was his fault. When she rides the taxi, she asked him to calm down but he didn't rather he starts to drive fast before she seat. She nearly failed but he continues driving without giving any attention to her. § The other female passenger was seating near the conductor. He was verbally harassing her. She had 100kg of flour and he was continuously nagging her saying `are you going to finish this all food by yourself`? She didn`t say anything till she reaches to her destination though he continuously talks to her which didn't seem interesting to her. Finally, when she arrives to her destination, he asked her to give him her phone number so that he can help her finishing her food. She was angry by this time and asked him to shut his mouth. § The third incident was the female passenger gave him 100birr expecting to give her a change. But the conductor throws the 100birr to her face and asked her to give him the exact amount of tariff. When she doesn't have and asked him to find her a change, he forced her to get out of the car in a middle of nowhere. She didn't have a choice than waiting for another taxi. But it was mandatory for conductors to have a change. Trip 3 § In my third journey, from the 12 passengers there were 9 women and 3 men. Among the women passengers the two was carrying a child and the two were old women. Since the 124 FINAL REPORT: Women's Personal Safety, Participation and Employment Linkage in Urban Public Transport taxi was full one of the women tried to change to other taxi suddenly the conductor of the taxi, we were riding puled and forced her to stay in the car. The driver was driving the car with high speed and the women setting at the back chair was begging him to slow down, but he didn't. One other male passenger warned him to slow down saying `there might be a pregnant woman here, please slow down it may not be comfortable to her`. By this time the driver starts to slow down. From these journeys I observed how the drivers and conductors disrespect women and respect men. I was so sad by those incidents. Luckily, they gave good treat men to the women with children. Trip 4 § In today`s last journey, there were 7 male and 5 female passengers. There was no woman with a special need by the time.in our journey almost all the passengers were discussing about the current political situation of our country. In this journey I didn`t observe anything special except seeing the conductor was hugging all the women passengers while they ride the taxi. Trip 5 § The first journey of day 2 was during the pick hour. It was allowed to only carry only half capacity (6 passengers). We were two females and 4 male passengers. The driver wanted to add more passengers though it`s not allowed during the peak hours. But he wanted to take advantage since the station manager was female. She warned repetitively him to move but he couldn't listen. Finally, she starts to write punishment warning bill by the he starts to depart. The other thing I observed was that one of the female passengers was watching he mobile phone while travelling. The male fellow passenger beside her was continuously staring at her mobile and she couldn't have her privacy. Then finally she put her mobile in her bag when she realized someone was watching at her mobile.one of the male passenger's putted huge luggage at the door which made it difficult to get in and out to the taxi.in our way one woman carrying a baby stopped the taxi to ride. But it was difficult for her due to the obstacle. She asked the conductor to take the huge luggage away so that she can easily get in the car. But the conductor refuses and asked her to jump over. She gets in the car with strain since she didn't have an option. Trip 6 § In the second trip there were 6 male passengers and 7 female passengers including me. The two were pregnant and one was with two children who seems under 7 years old. The conductor and other passengers give the first seats and priority to the pregnant women. On the contrary I saw the conductor forcing the woman with children to pay for both the children though it's illegal. She tried to negotiate with him there was also other female passenger who tried to convince him that since they are little children they don't have to pay. But he furiously replied `it's not your business she has to pay`. Trip 7 § On the 3rd trip we were 5 female and 8 males passengers.in this specific trip I didn't see something special which can catch my gaze/attention. The passengers were leaving their seats for female passengers with children and they were treating them very well Trip 8 § In today's last trip we were 6 female passengers and 7 male passengers. In the middle of our journey one woman stops the taxi to ride assuming that there is a space. But when she sees inside, she realized there is no free seat. Thus, she asked the conductor where she shall seat. He replied it can fit though it was full. She complained that how can he allow such a crowdedness during the pandemic. He finally insulted her and forced her to get out of the car. 125 FINAL REPORT: Women's Personal Safety, Participation and Employment Linkage in Urban Public Transport Route two: Daero - Mekelle City Centre (Downtown) Trips summary Women passengers & their condition Trip Number 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Total no. of women passengers 5 6 7 9 5 6 6 8 Women passenger without special condition 4 4 5 7 4 5 4 6 Pregnant women 1 1 1 Carrying a baby (ies) 1 1 2 1 1 1 Holding children/ accompanied by toddlers Carrying a luggage/goods 1 Disable women Other (old, sick or who needs help to get in & out) 1 1 Trip No. Observations All trips (Overall summary) Conductor`s treatment to the passengers § He was not listening to passengers when they request to pullover when they arrive their destination. There was on old woman asked to stop the taxi repeatedly but he couldn't listen. When the other fellow passengers complained he insulted them all. The driver even increases the speed without giving attention to what the passengers complaining about. Some of the passengers paid more than the tariff and when one of the women passengers asks him to give her change, he insulted her. Discrimination § There was a woman carrying a child in one of our trips when she arrived and tried to ride, he pushed her by saying `this will not be comfortable for you`. He left her and take another male passenger. She remained and starts to wait for other taxi to come. Physical Harassment § In my second trip it was almost lunch time and I was seating in the 4th chair. The fellow passenger beside me pushed my leg with his hand intentionally. I moved his hand and asked him why he is doing this. But he didn't say anything and asked the conductor that he want to get out of the car immediately. On the other hand, there were also good behaving conductors who helped women passengers by carrying their luggage and children; they give changes on time, give priority and front seats for old and women with children 126 FINAL REPORT: Women's Personal Safety, Participation and Employment Linkage in Urban Public Transport Route three: Debri - Mekelle City Centre (Downtown) Trips summary Women passengers & their condition Trip Number 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Total no. of women passengers 6 3 7 9 4 6 5 14 Women passenger without special condition 5 3 4 6 2 5 4 12 Pregnant women 1 Carrying a baby (ies) 1 2 3 1 1 2 Holding children/ accompanied by toddlers Carrying a luggage/goods Disable women Other (old, sick or who needs help to get in & out) 1 1 Trip No. Observations All trips (Overall summary) Conductor`s treatment to the passengers § There were two pregnant women who complained about the uncomfortability of the road and asked the driver to stopover the car. They get out of the car and start walking. Since the road from Debri to Kelkel Debri was very narrow and uncomfortable other passengers were also complaining about it § In the evening pick hour, the driver shifts from the regular route and derived in another way. When the women in the taxi asked him to take them with the proper way he refused and asked them to get out the car. Since they didn't have another option and it was getting dark they continue with the driver's choice. The reason that the female passengers was complaining is the current route will demand them to walk extra meters to reach their destination and it was dark and unsafe. § In the morning pic hour, I arrive Debri and waited 40min to get taxi to go back to downtown. People who were waiting for taxi gave up and start to walk in all the way here. § Generally, in my today`s journey I didn't observe significant harassment. The conductors were giving changes to passengers on time, give more priority for old people and pregnant women by giving the front seats, and were helping the old to get in and out, helping women who carried children. 127 FINAL REPORT: Women's Personal Safety, Participation and Employment Linkage in Urban Public Transport Route four: Diaspora - Mekelle City Centre (Downtown) Trips summary Women passengers & their condition Trip Number 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Total no. of women passengers 4 9 6 7 8 5 8 3 Women passenger without special condition 3 4 4 3 5 2 4 3 Pregnant women 1 1 1 Carrying a baby (ies) 1 2 1 3 2 2 2 Holding children/ accompanied by toddlers 1 1 1 Carrying a luggage/goods 1 1 2 1 Disable women Other (old, sick or who needs help to get in & out) Trip No. Observations Trip 1 (7:15-7:36am) § Attention and care provided to women with special needs = none § The conductor was not willing to let the woman with a baby inside the car saying that it was not convenient for her. She was finally boarded thanks to one the passengers who gave his seat to her § The person in charge of station manager approached on the women and asked where she was heading after addressing her as "sweetie" she did not reply; nor was she interested in the guy who was talking to her impolitely. She was then insulted and ridiculed by the man because she did not reply to his questions Trip 2 (8:20-8:42am) § Attention and care provided to women with special needs = none § The driver and conductor have little interest if at all to assist those who need special attention. They in fact prefer to drop them in the middle of the road so that they can embark more people and get more money. To get a comfortable seat in the taxi one has to push her way into the vehicle but this is simply not possible for the pregnant women as well as those with kids and loads. They were also forced to pay more money than allowed under the law. § Two women who got off the car somewhere before the final destination asked for change but the conductor refused to give them impolitely ridiculing and insulting them. But other passengers in the taxi asked him to give back their money which he did, throwing the money on their faces and insulting. He also demanded money for one of the toddlers and asked the mother to pay an adult fare. Trip 3 (10:05- 10:27am) § Attention and care provided to women with special needs = none § The conductor was reluctant to board the woman with a load and a toddler but others begged him to let her in. he requested her to pay for the load and the toddler in the most impolite and disrespectful manner. Trip 4 (10:47- 11:05am) § Attention and care provided to women with special needs= none § Those with kids were not given priorities but they rather had to fight with the men to get a seat § One of the kids actually collided with the gate as the mother tried to push herself inside the car One of the women also lost all her money (possibly stolen by pickpockets) Trip 5 (12:10- 12:32pm) § Attention and care provided to women with special needs = none § An old woman carrying some items was trying to get into the car but she couldn't because the taxi entrance was elevated. She fell to the ground and all her eggs were 128 FINAL REPORT: Women's Personal Safety, Participation and Employment Linkage in Urban Public Transport broken and onions scattered on the ground. She finally made her way into the taxi; but as if that was not enough the conductor was asking her to disembark saying the vehicle is not comfortable for her § In a separate incident, a conductor was nagging a girl whom he addressed as "beautiful" to get into his taxi almost to the point of dragging her into the car. She warned him not to tough her, but he responded to her that "it was an honour for her to be touched by him" Trip 6 (1:20-1:38pm) § Attention and care provided to women with special needs = none § The pregnant woman and those with kids were complaining because the seats assigned to them was not comfortable Trip 7 (5:45-6:06pm) § Attention and care provided to women with special needs = none § Those who needed special attention (pregnant, varying babies and those with loads) were not given special attention. Along the way another woman with a load hailed the taxi but the driver ignored her and left her behind although there was enough space; while after traveling some distance, a young man was given the opportunity to board § One of the women in the taxi apparently received a phone call from someone that made her change her plan and decided to get off the taxi. But the conductor and driver did not listen and took her some distance and then forced her to pay the full amount before she disembarked. She was unfairly treated. Trip 8 (6:20-6:38pm) § Attention and care provided to women with special needs = none § At the terminal there was a very long queue and there was finally chaos to enter the taxi. It seems some people deliberately create this problem to make advantage of the situation and violate the queue. We were pushed back twice. Another girl had to face this sort of pushing back for the third time until finally she managed to get inside. Unfortunately, she had to disembark because another man claimed her seat. In addition, there was also a man who was drunk and disturbing the women who sat in front of him All trips Overall observation regarding the route § long route § bad road conditions § people quarrel over tariffs § problem of interchanging station No mid-block taxis § There are safety problems at the taxi terminals § No alternative transport other than taxis § Impolite character of conductors especially towards those who need special attention (pregnant women, elderly, children, people with disability) § Entrance to the vehicles is not convenient for those categories of people stated above § The rear seats create favourable grounds for unnecessary contact among passengers § There is a poor law enforcement mechanism and hence drivers and conductors can do whatever they want e.g., refusing to take passengers up to end stations. 129 FINAL REPORT: Women's Personal Safety, Participation and Employment Linkage in Urban Public Transport Route five: Aynalem - Mekelle City Centre (Downtown) Trips summary Women passengers & their condition Trip Number 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Total no. of women passengers 6 11 5 11 5 4 2 2 Women passenger without special condition 6 2 2 3 2 1 1 2 Pregnant women 1 1 1 Carrying a baby (ies) 2 Holding children/ accompanied by toddlers Carrying a luggage/goods 8 3 5 3 2 1 Disable women Other (old, sick or who needs help to get in & out) Trip No. Observations Trip 1 (7:30-7:52am) § Harassment on a female, the conductor of the taxi called "X1" and said "where are you going? Aynalem?" she replied yes! He immediately said your shape is comforting me please come and get in, even though I need to board less than 50 Kg let me board you instead. You seem to be 70 Kg. § Another male passenger working in main campus of Mekelle University was sitting together with another female traveller "X2" in the same taxi. He was forcefully stimulating her to speak. Then she forcefully started to speak with frustration. He also paid for her to attract her by look himself kind. Next, he asked her are you a teacher? She replied, "No I am not". Following why do you keep silent so you are a student? She again replied "Yes". He said wow that is charming! And consecutively he asked her by saying "which campus are you?" She replied angrily "MIT". Then, by contacting her finger he also asked her "why do you make you ring here?" she replied "it doesn't belong to you". "This is unusual" he said. "May I accompany you to Aynalem?" he said her. After she replied by saying "no". He received her cell phone address and dropped in the mid-way of Arid-Aynalem. Trip 2 (8:35-8:52am) § There was no any provision of priority for passengers with special needs made by the service providers in the taxi (driver and conductor) because there was no treatment to the pregnant and to those who have burdens, instead they faced pushing during embarking and they were obliged to pay for their burdens in their shoulder and suspended in their hand and let them drop unless they pay for their property. The driver and conductor even provide service to those with burdens to board to their taxi only when they don't have option. § During travelling, the Conductor of the taxi asked and urged one adult passenger (X3) to pay for her food stuff (<25kg). She replied food stuffs are free (meant less than 25kg). The conductor insulted her after saying "pay this vehicle is not yours" Trip 3 (10:23- 10:41am) § There was no any provision of priority or cooperation for passengers with burdens made by the service providers in the taxi (driver and conductor) because passengers with burdens were pushed by another fellow passenger and collided with vehicle's body during embarking. Trip 4 (10:45- 11:01am) § There was no any provision of priority or cooperation for passengers with kids and burdens made by the service providers in the taxi (driver and conductor) because passengers with kids and burdens were equally pushed by another fellow passenger and collided with vehicle's body during embarking. 130 FINAL REPORT: Women's Personal Safety, Participation and Employment Linkage in Urban Public Transport Trip 5 (12:10- 12:41pm) § There was no any provision of priority or cooperation for passengers with kids and burdens made by the service providers in the taxi (conductor) because the conductor refused the passengers with burdens to board by saying "there is no space for you". Then the fellow passengers told and insisted him as there is enough space but he replied that "they have goods and who will load them". Lastly, they get boarded after claiming to the station manager. He contrastingly continued until they arrive their destination by saying "what are these impedimenta?" § Verbal harassment: When one female (X4) passing to board in a taxi, one of the conductors around there talked to her by saying "my pretty, my honey" while she kept silent, he followed her until the taxi shed boarded in by said "are you fresh, don't understand etc.) and denied her peace. Trip 6 (1:25-1:39pm) § There was no any provision of priority or cooperation for passengers with special needs (the pregnant) and those who have burdens made by the service providers in the taxi (conductor) because the pregnant passengers and other passengers with burdens were equally pushed by another fellow passenger and collided with vehicle's body during embarking. These passengers were using the taxi being on complaint (resentment) as they don't have any other option. § Harassment: One Male Passenger (Y1 sitting on the middle of the taxi seat who seem drunk. Passenger Y1 was very challenging to female passengers (X5 seating in his rear seat and X6 seating in his front seat), sometimes "shicorina" meant sweetie or my sugar and sometimes "please pay my taxi fare I love you". Trip 7 (6:00-6:18pm) § The conductor refused one of the female passengers with burdens to board by saying "It is not comfortable for you". Then, while she was waiting for another taxi, a male fellow passenger who has a burden of around 30 Kg came and entered in to the taxi and told the conductor to load to the top of taxi ('portomegale'). After that the male fellow passenger saw at the women and talked to the conductor "why don't you load her barrel (empty water tanker)?" and then the conductor let her board in to the taxi and load her barrel on top of the taxi ('portomegale') without tying even though she repeatedly told him to tie. Lastly the barrel is lost. This is the way they handle their customer. Trip 8 (6:20-6:36pm) § There was no any passenger who needs provision of priority or cooperation. § Harassment: a female passenger (X7) boarded in to the Taxi in the mid-way of travelling around Arid. From the very beginning the conductor harassed her verbally while she is embarking by saying "barichu" meant darkdawn or black in colour, Meanta qutsri Shemonte" meant for number 8 shaped waist. He continued making inappropriate stares at her until destination. All trips Overall observation regarding the route § There is too much queue at taxi terminals § There is so many hassling with between passengers and conductor § There are no integrated routes and stations. To transit from one station to another you need to travel at least 7 minutes or 1km. in the middle of routes there are no mid-block taxis § There is no security at taxi terminals § There are no measures taken and/or solutions made by station managers for disobedient taxi drivers and conductors when they don't serve end-to-end. § The rear seats create favourable grounds for unnecessary contact among passengers § There is a poor law enforcement mechanism and hence drivers and conductors can do whatever they want e.g., refusing to take passengers up to end stations. 131 FINAL REPORT: Women's Personal Safety, Participation and Employment Linkage in Urban Public Transport Route six: Adiha gravel road Trips summary Women passengers & their condition Trip Number 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Total no. of women passengers 8 11 4 5 4 8 3 10 Women passenger without special condition 4 6 3 3 3 5 2 6 Pregnant women Carrying a baby or children 1 2 1 2 1 2 4 Accompanied by toddlers Carrying a luggage/goods 3 4 1 Disable women Other (old, sick or who needs help to get in & out) 1 1 1 Trip No. Observations Trip 1 (7:07-7:44am) § All of these women whom were carrying baggage were travelling from Adiha market which lies along the route. The conductor asked one of them with baggage to pay 7 Birr in total. She was sitting beside me [the observer]. I asked her if the weight of the baggage was greater than 25kg. She replied it was not. I told her she was not supposed to pay for it as per the proclamations. All the same, her response was that ''they did not obey the laws" adding it was still better than using Bajaj because the charge could be up to a hundred birr. The dialogue between the observer (o) and passenger (P) continued as follows: o O: Is your home near to taxi station? o P: No, it is far down the sloppy street there. Upon arrival I have to normally call someone from home for help. § It was evident from the above conversation that there was problem of accessibility she had to travel some distance to catch a taxi every time she wanted to travel to and from the market place § The other woman was also kept some items in baskets. She was struggling to keep the baskets near her and wanted some assistance despite the narrow space in the rear seat. So, she asked the conductor to put the baskets in a safe place by his side. After some distance, someone had to get off the car and the taxi stopped during which the woman's belongings were recklessly disposed to the ground. After this, the owner got into quarrel with the conductor and asked him why he had not kept it properly. The conductor answered her to take it easy as it is not 'Teff'-local name for a very fine cereal, and it is possible to collect it. Her answer was 'do not you feel shame; you saw it on the ground'. After that, we all collected the onion together with passer-by and we continued our journey. The driver warns the conductor to be conscious and control all properly. We continued the trip. Trip 2 (8:30-9:01am) § I waited for 35 minutes to check if there is taxi supply problem in the station. However, the taxis were waiting for users and I understand that there is no shortage of taxi in the station. In this trip I did not observe any new occasion inside the taxi. § While we reach in Adiha market, one pregnant woman along with her young child aged 2-3 years were waiting for a taxi. She asked the driver to give her a ride. He refused although the conductor asked him to stop and provide her with the service to since there was enough space to accommodate them. The driver instead said "who is going to carry this all baggage? Moments later, two boys and one woman with bag were given the opportunity to board. 132 FINAL REPORT: Women's Personal Safety, Participation and Employment Linkage in Urban Public Transport § The above case example provides ample evidence that discriminatory behaviour of drivers and their conductors put some passengers (especially those with loads and children) in difficult condition with regard to public transport access. Trip 3 (10:07- 10:30am) § During the quantitative questionnaire-based survey most of the women respondents indicated that they prefer to make market trip in the range of 9:00-11:00. Hence a participant conservation was arranged during this time. In a particular incident observed, the vehicle was not comfortable enough for passengers because of the narrow seats and people had to seat very close to each other. Women passengers were pulled and pushed creating an unpleasant condition for customers. Hence latent forms of harassments were observed. Trip 4 (11:01- 11:25am) § In times of taxi scarcity, customers often compete for seats as a result of which conflicts arise during boarding. The fight for entry into a taxi often ends in favour of males because they are more muscular. Often the competition is among men as women simply stand and watch. § The participant observation in adi-haki also revealed that girls can be occasionally be the subject of various forms of harassments that are often taken for granted as normal by the general public. The above picture (right) shows a man addressing a young girl as "his pretty" while asking the girl if he was travelling to the city centre. Even if she gave him a "no" answer the man continued to touch her hands almost to the point of dragging her to use the service against her will. He was mad at her refusal and insulted the girl in a disgusting and culturally inappropriate manner. Trip 5 (12:08- 12:24pm) § A conductor was caught red handed charging taxi fare beyond legally set tariffs. At a particular moment during a trip from the city centre to Adiha market, a woman paid her bill which was far more than appropriate. Besides, the conductor also failed to give her change but in vain because he refused to pay back the difference pretending that there were new tariff regulations. Those who insisted on getting back their changes were humiliated although the conductor was ultimately forced to accept such requests. It then looks evident that travellers that are humbler at a disadvantage because taxi drivers and the conductors can make use of their politeness as a sign of weakness to exploit them. A significant number of women tend to belong to this category and become the victims of their own approach. Some conductors would pretend as if they forgot to give back change by engaging the passengers in side talks during the travel. 133 FINAL REPORT: Women's Personal Safety, Participation and Employment Linkage in Urban Public Transport By the time they get out of the vehicle, it would be too late to ask for it because the conductor would then give no attention as the taxi continues to hit the road again. Trip 6 (1:20-1:24pm) § I noticed that most of those waiting for taxi were males. I was told that only few taxis depart from the station. The shortage and scarcity forced women to look alternative means of transport such as Bajaj on contract basis which is much more expensive but otherwise women had to travel long distance on foot which is difficult to do especially during the day time. Women had to pay substantial amount of money to avoid scorching day time sun or/and other dangerous situations that might occur to them in the night. § An old lady stopped a taxi running along this route. The taxi was apparently full but a young boy provided his seat to the woman as a sign of respect for the elderly. She returns poured words of blessings on him and people happily travelled together. Trip 7 (5:47-6:18pm) § An old woman was asked to seat in the front cabin near the driver which she refused to do because it was not convenient for her. Instead, a young man had to exchange his seat with her and people travelled in peace and without much discomfort to anyone. Trip 8 (6:22-6:42pm) § The driver was driving with high speed. But we were close to facing accidents three times Once he was about to collide with a Bajaj. Another time he almost hit a young girl; it was entirely his fault but to the surprise of the passengers he begun insulting the girl who was in a state of shock herself by the unprecedented event. "Don't you have eyes, you blind!" roared the driver in a manner that was not expected of him. As if that was not enough, when the passengers advised him to lower his speed, he refused to listen. He continued with his rush-drive even in the gravel road making the trip utterly uncomfortable. 134 FINAL REPORT: Women's Personal Safety, Participation and Employment Linkage in Urban Public Transport Route seven: Lachi - Mekelle City Centre (Downtown) Trips summary Women passengers & their condition Trip Number 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Total no. of women passengers 12 6 7 7 8 7 3 5 Women passenger without special condition 8 4 6 3 8 4 3 4 Pregnant women 1 Carrying a baby or children 3 3 Accompanied by toddlers Carrying a luggage/goods 1 1 1 3 1 Disable women Other (old, sick or who needs help to get in & out) 1 Trip No. Observations Trip 1 (8:09-8:34am) § There was long queue as there was shortage of taxi. There was no priority to older women or those having children. I waited for 14 minutes to get hold of a taxi. This shows there is difficult for older and women having child in this taxi station. § At one moment, the queue was being administered by a female station manager who handled well for some time. After a while, another bus comes and starts to admit people from the queue. In meantime the queue was disturbed as the people the back made their way into the newly arrived vehicle. Nobody cared about the women with children although some of them finally got the chance to be boarded. Traditionally, women apply butter on their heads as hair conditioner and to beatify themselves. When the women use public transport, fellow passengers often get irritated and show their disapproval using bad facial reactions. Some may even react by insulting the women and complaining to the drivers or/and conductors. In one instance a man said, "why do you have to carry these women while there are plenty of others who don't have problems" 135 FINAL REPORT: Women's Personal Safety, Participation and Employment Linkage in Urban Public Transport Trip 2 (10:21- 10:42am) § The conductor was showing bad hospitability to the woman of approximately 50 years of age or above. § After some distance, all the people but the pregnant woman disembarked. Although the latter wanted to travel up to station end, she was asked by the conductor to dislodge before reaching her destination against her will. She was alone in the car and hence could not protest for fear of worse eventualities. The taxi driver and conductor meanly dropped her in the wrong place and she had to walk down to her destination on foot. Trip 3 (11:08- 11:38am) § At a particular place in Lachi route, a conductor got a space for a couple of people and met a woman with a kid; and two boys. They were standing at the same place when the car stooped. The conductor had to choose the latter and denied access to the service. He should have given her priority but to her disappointment this did not happen. § Moments later another woman with a child stopped the taxi and asked the conductor to give her a place. The only empty seat was the rear seat; neither the conductor/driver nor the passengers wanted to exchange seats and put her in comfortable place. Instead, another man who was also waiting a taxi took the back seat, left the women behind and departed. Trip 4 (12:25- 12:47pm) § I met a rebellious woman who was told she would pay a total amount of 15 Birr including her stuff. She refused and went to another taxi impatiently insulting the conductor along her way § Another woman who was already boarded with her baggage refused to pay for her goods. This was followed by heated arguments and quarrel that ended in the woman's favour § Yet another one also carrying a baggage was placed near the door way where the conductor normally seats and suffered pushes from those getting into and leaving the car at each station. Trip 5 (2:00-2:47pm) § This time was selected to check if there is supply shortage during peak hours and see the difficulties especially for employed people. But there were enough taxis with each carrying only 8 passengers when it departs as per the rule. Hence taxi drivers were not allowed to board as many people as possible. Attempts to do so are always there but the next taxi operator in the queue wouldn't allow it. I have seen one woman who was in hurry wanted to get into a car which was already full (with 8 people on board) but the taxi conductor for the second taxi in the queue blocked her Trip 6 (5:50-6:11pm) § At one moment, a woman carrying a child who sat near a broken window asked the conductor to change her seat because of the harsh wind blowing through the window was affecting her child badly (there is a belief that excessive wind going into the body can cause cold). Neither the driver nor the conductor felt pity for the woman and her child but instead told the woman to be patient. § Once upon a time while travelling from the city centre to Lachi, an unexpected political debate broke out between the driver and the passenger seating next to him. In no time, the heated debate turned into a quarrel that led to conflict. The passenger forced the driver to stop the car and took him to a nearby police station. As a result, all the passengers including the women had travel to their respective destinations on foot. This was particularly difficult for the woman with the baby because it was already getting late and she had to move fast to get home before it is completely dark for fear of possible assault by hooligans. Trip 7 (6:30-6:56pm) § There was no incident of particular interest recoded in this trip. 136 FINAL REPORT: Women's Personal Safety, Participation and Employment Linkage in Urban Public Transport Trip 8 (7:05-7:35pm) § Some taxi drivers and conductors are so infidel that they sometimes drop the passengers in the wrong place before reaching the final destinations. This is particularly common during evening hours because they can easily evade follow-ups by traffic policemen. One day, a woman carrying goods requested the conductor to take her to the end station when she was told to get off the car in the wrong place. The reply from the conductor was 'you better buy your own private car, lady; you think this car belongs to your father?" Another young girl who was dropped in the middle of the route decided to go on foot. She was scared because it was past 7 pm but she had no other option. 137 FINAL REPORT: Women's Personal Safety, Participation and Employment Linkage in Urban Public Transport APPENDIX G. POLICY BRIEF: INCLUSIVE TRANSPORT Policy Brief on Women's Personal Safety, Participation and Employment Linkages in Urban Public Transport in Mekelle city, Tigray 1. Introduction This policy brief summarises key findings and recommendations of the report related to the women's personal safety, participation and employment linkages in urban public transport in Mekelle city, The National Regional State of Tigray, Ethiopia. The report examined the knowledge about women's safety, employment opportunities and their involvement in decision making within the urban public transport sector. It described the existing situation with regard to women and public transport, and identified outstanding gaps for policy interventions. Data were collected from end users and relevant officials. The report identified major gaps related to women's safety and security, participation in planning and decision making; and outlined the way forward for an integrated approach to build women's capacity to be competent in the transport job market; and foster a conducive working environment for women. The result of the report clearly reveals that achieving gender inclusiveness in the transport sector continues to be a major challenge in Mekelle city. This is reflected in all the indicators including safety and security, women's participation in employment and decision-making processes as well as legal and policy frameworks. Efforts to reverse unfavourable conditions impacting women urban public transport users have hitherto remained meagre. For example, the lack of an empowering and enabling environment is seen in the fact that women tend to remain submissive to offenders regardless of their educational status. In the next sections of this policy brief the methodology, purpose of the policy brief, discussion on findings, conclusions and recommendations will be provided. 2. Methodology The study on Women's personal safety, participation and employment in urban transport in the report comprises a two-pronged approach of reviewing relevant existing literatures using systematic review, and primary data collection using various quantitative and qualitative methods. To this effect, women whose age are above 18 years of age who use public transport Amora city bus, Mini-bus taxi and Bajaj at least once in a day to engage in opportunities and activities that would build their economic or human capital within the seven sub cities of Mekelle city were considered. To meet the study objectives in the report, both primary and secondary data (relevant literatures) of those target women had been collected. Multi-stage stratified cluster sampling was used as sampling technique strategy to draw representative women who use public transport to travel from one place to another within the city for their day-to- day activities one or more times a day. Mixed research method was also instrumented; exploratory and confirmatory data analysis using SPSS for quantitative data, and thematic/content analysis for qualitative data was utilized to obtain the findings, and extract evidences from the data. The Exploratory data analysis is predominantly made use of simply to summarize the demographic characteristics of participant women. Confirmatory (inferential) data analysis such as the chi-square independence test, is used to determine if two categorical variables of interest, namely women's age and sexual harassment and frequency of facing to harassment, women's education level versus reaction to harassment, women's reaction to harassment versus their awareness to laws, women's age versus user's mode of transport, user's mode of transport versus reason of preference to the mode of transportation, mode of transport versus reasons for usage, , were independent (not related) or were related (dependent/associated). The contingency coefficient was also computed to know the extent/magnitude of association between the two attributes. Qualitative data (interview transcripts, notes, video and audio recordings, images and text documents) obtained from key informant interviews, participant observations, and in-depth interview to address the study research objectives were first audio taped, transcribed, and translated 138 FINAL REPORT: Women's Personal Safety, Participation and Employment Linkage in Urban Public Transport from the local language in to English; and then, categorized under relevant themes and features that are characteristics of the majority of the respondents and eventually analysed by thematic analysis. 3. Purpose of the policy brief The purpose of this policy brief is to present the project report on the research "Women's Personal Safety, Participation and Employment Linkages in Urban Public Transport." in Mekelle city, The National Regional State of Tigray, Ethiopia. The overall aim of the research project was to examine gender inclusiveness in urban public transport with particular reference to the situation of women in Mekelle city, The National Regional State of Tigray, Ethiopia. The policy brief aims to serve as a vehicle for providing evidence-based policy advice to government policy makers and other concerned stakeholders to make informed decisions. For this reason, it is designed to indicate research findings in plain language and draws clear links to policy incentives. 4. Discussion on the findings As the findings of the study in the report reveals, the bulk majority of women use taxis because of ease of access and better network of coverage. However, it was found out that transport service provision did not enable women to fulfil their daily social and economic functions because of the inefficiency of the sector. Harassments were found out to be common at particular hours of the day (especially during nightfall) with those running service causing the bulk majority of the harassment cases. Women tend to be submissive to sexual harassment incident in the transport sector which is often not considered an offence by the community of commuters in particular and the public in general. According to the Ethiopian and regional constitutions women have the right to full consultation in the planning, designing and execution of projects, and particularly in the case of projects affecting the interests of women. However, women in the city are not the recipients on this regard. More than 95% of respondents never participated in any transport planning process. This implies how the transport sector undercuts women`s participation and engagement against the provisions in both constitutions. Women's role at the regulatory body and at the leadership level is also invisible. This might demand revising the recruitment criteria and labour regulations. Incorporating gender aspect in transport strategies, guidelines and sub-laws that will remove discrimination could help for better participation of women in the sector. The recruitment policy and guide lines adopted in the sector are not uniform. Some offices follow the civil service guide line while in some offices there is corporate guide line which is developed to encourage women recruitment. Even if gender equality has been constitutionally guaranteed since 1995, equality did not materialize, as it does not come by mere constitutional enshrinement. Besides, a constitutional scheme of affirmative action, aiming at reversing the effects of a history of gender injustice, can never realize its goals unless it is accompanied by elaborate executory statutes and action plans detailing quota, activities, strategies, timeline, and specific situations for implementation in all sectors, private or public. Hence, the constitutional commitment of the government to grant affirmative action has not been translated into concrete action at all levels. 5. Conclusions Public transport in Mekelle city is unsafe for women commuters. They feel insecure because of incidents of harassments perpetrated by all categories of people but particularly by taxi conductors and drivers. Harassments tend to be common during nights and pick hours. Women tend to be generally unsatisfied with the current public transport provision in the city which in turn negatively affects their daily routines. The findings of the research clearly reveal that the concept of women's safety and security as well as overall empowerment in the urban public transport sector in Mekelle city is not well developed. Incidents of harassments are common but rarely reported because of repressive cultural norms; and weak legal and regulatory frameworks. Issues like safety and security are not integrated into planning, design as well as implementation stages of urban transport projects in the city. 139 FINAL REPORT: Women's Personal Safety, Participation and Employment Linkage in Urban Public Transport In the context of Mekelle city, there seems to be a reasonable amount of awareness and political will to bring change but the progress and achievements made so far has remained slow. The ultimate outcome is those women's special needs and priorities are not being adequately addressed putting the issue of inclusiveness at stake. In recent years, women are reported to have been very well represented at a political level, but their role in regulatory and leadership positions is constrained due mainly to attitudinal problems. Today, despite continuous media campaigns on the need to engage women in participatory planning and action, their visibility remains to be low; and what has been planned is usually not properly implemented. Gender issues, in general, are part of the propaganda machinery in political platforms, but little is done on the ground to achieve the desired goals. Women's equitable access to employment in the transport sector, though prescribed in policy and laws, is hampered by the lack of participatory planning and decision making at all levels. The practice on the ground demonstrated poor institutional coordination in addressing the issue of inclusiveness and women's empowerment in the sector. As a result, Mekelle public transport fails to be women-friendly in all its forms. Despite the modest progress on legal protection, violence against women and girls is still widespread and is recognized as being a major barrier to the advancement of women. What is more, in Mekelle city, there is no law that prevent and define harassment and punishments for those responsible. There should have been law that includes both verbal and physical harassment, intimidation, and abuse that may affect a person's dignity, freedom, free transit, and the right to physical or moral integrity motivated by gender, identity, and/or sexual orientation. The study of the legal frameworks in Mekelle city in the report also found that despite the limited legislation and progress on domestic violence in general, harassment in the transport sector is not dealt with effectively. In Mekelle city harassment is not currently typified as a crime and there is no clear procedure for reporting, responding, or bringing the perpetrator to justice, making it widely underreported and difficult to track in statistics. 6. Policy recommendations In this section, the policy implications and recommendations of the report are provided. The recommendations are provided as follows: • Awareness creation among the general public about the need to respect women's rights to safe and secure access to transport services; • Design projects towards the provision of 'gender sensitive' transport services; • In the long run, pertinent authorities should consider introducing technology assisted crime-tracking related to harassments against women; • Guidelines or policy frameworks – that set the share of women participants in any transport projects in the city should be determined. However, these guidelines also need policy enforcement tools; • Recruitment criteria and labour regulations that are suitable for women and that can remove discrimination should be in place; • Including gender aspect in transport strategies can help on improving women`s participation and inclusiveness; • Sub-lawsthat will remove discrimination and improve participation could help for better enforcement, minimize gender-based violence and give legal ground for women`s participation create awareness at all levels; • There should be strong policy in all offices which gives high priority for making the working environment conducive for women. One of the issues in this regard is work-life balance. As the domestic work is handled solely by women, this burden should get enough weight in the offices and has to be supported by policy; • The recruitment policy needs some guide lines to make it uniform among offices; • Strong institutions to monitor and evaluate the existing different laws on safety and security, women participation and job creation with strong emphasis on investigating incidents on women harassment 140 FINAL REPORT: Women's Personal Safety, Participation and Employment Linkage in Urban Public Transport in the public transport sector in Mekelle city should be put in place and strengthen. Currently, though there are institutions, they are not well functioning in respect of their capacity, personnel and autonomy. Sometimes the existing institutions have the problem of coordination; • Since Mekelle city did not have specific legislation against harassment and punishment in the public transport sector. It is imperative for the city to introduce such legislation which criminalise and punish women harassment in the public transport sector. Of course, the legislation to be introduced need to put in place clear procedure for reporting and responding to harassment, or bringing the perpetrator to justice; and • Introduce awareness creation programs to curb women harassment in public transport sector that originate from the existing repressive cultural norms; and weak legal and regulatory frameworks. FINAL REPORT: Women's Personal Safety, Participation and Employment Linkage in Urban Public Transport ALERT Engineering Plc. N/S/Lafto Sub city, Woreda 03 House No. 3062 P. O. Box 31890 Addis Ababa, Ethiopia Tel: +251 11 384 9009/ 91 198 2909 Email: alerting.consult@gmail.com Web: http://www.alertconsult.com