The policy also seeks to ensure that recommendations arising from these assessments are actually implemented, something city officials acknowledged has not always happened in previous projects. Paris published a reference guide on gender and public space in June 2023, launched at the Pavillon de l’Arsenal, and had run pilot schemes across six sites in 2021. Defending the measure, deputy mayor for gender equality Barbara Gomes of the French Communist Party (PCF) argued that public space had been designed neither for women nor by women. Gomes said the council intends to make Paris a feminist city through education and public planning, by funding feminist associations and by countering what she called masculinist discourse. In Belgium, the Flemish government has launched a 2026 funding call for projects improving women’s and girls’ safety, access and participation in public space.