Leona Gomo, 31, is the head of Women Speak, a group at The United Methodist University in Monrovia, the capital city of Liberia. They have successfully campaigned for the government to fit lights on campus and near where women catch rides home from class. Now almost half of classes are made up of women, who feel safer due to better lighting. Leona says: “I think the men who want to sexually harass women know that they will be found out because of our group and their abuse won't be hidden. This has made a very big difference. It means these men feel they have to be careful in how they behave. However, due to electricity shortages, the lights are not always on. ActionAid and Women Speak are now calling for electricity for women’s security to be made a priority.ActionAid work across the world and, from doing that work, have learned of how garment workers in Cambodia, girls living on the fringes of society in Brazilian slums, and British office workers all face issues along the same spectrum.When I ask what she thinks of the fact that there is an overlap in the sexual violence affecting women in Liberia and the UK, Lakshmi tells me: “Women’s rights are usually seen as the other or the box you tick off. So you build cities without putting that gender analysis into it, you do urban planning, you expand opportunities into a global market. But if you’re not putting women’s rights at the core of the development agenda then you are simply enabling the prohibition of women’s freedom of movement.”Far from meaning we must be ashamed of the similarities our streets share with those in the global south, the solidarity this provokes must be endorsed and fulfilled. Economically, we can help women elsewhere by joining ActionAid UK in calling for an increased proportion of government foreign aid to go directly to grassroots women’s groups in countries like India, Thailand, Brazil and Liberia. And in return, we can feel imbued with pride and recognition that, if women in challenging environments are making a stand against women’s issues being kicked to the kerb, then we should too. Because this isn't just a problem that affects certain cities, but all cities, across the globe.