Cecilia Andersson is an urban and regional planner trained at the University of Stockholm, Sweden. Thereafter, she worked at the Urban Division at the Swedish International Development Co-operation Agency before joining UN-Habitat in 2001 as a Human Settlements Officer with the Safer Cities Programme focusing on women and girls’ safety in cities and covering Asia, Africa and Eastern Europe. In 2014, she moved to the Urban Planning and Design Branch of UN-Habitat as the Manager of the Global Public Space Programme. The Global Public Space Programme supports local and national governments in developing policy, conducts training and helps to improve capacity of local government institutions and communities in the area of public space, supports the establishment of local and global networks and partnerships, development of city-wide public space strategies and implementation of pilot/demonstration projects. The Public Space programme also works on global advocacy, knowledge management and tools development. Cecilia provides technical expertise and advice to on-going public space projects being implemented by local and national governments to increase the impact and improve dimensions of safety, accessibility and inclusion, leveraging public space as the tool that can lead sustainable urban development. Special mention: UN-Habitat and the Public Space Programme is a member of Expert Council on Urban Environment of the Ministry of Construction, Housing and Utilities.