Cecilia 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. In 2014, she moved to the Urban Planning and Design Branch of UN‐Habitat as the Manager of the Global Public Space Programme. The Programme helps to improve capacity of local government institutions and communities, establishment of local and global networks and partnerships, support the development of local and national policy and development of city‐wide strategies and pilot/demonstration projects, knowledge management, advocacy and tools and provides expertise and advice to on‐going projects by local government in order to increase the impact and improve dimensions of inclusion and leverage public space as a development tool.