Women

We invite you to participate in the conversation in the weeks leading up to WUF9.

Join the discussion here!

Urban planning has traditionally focused on the needs of men in cities. This has impacted on everything from street design to public transport routes, public consultations to building codes. Although it is now recognised that women and men experience cities differently, urban planning has been slow to shift. There remain significant barriers to women having equal access to opportunities in cities, including safety, poor access to public transport, unequal use of public space and limited access to economic opportunity. This is clearly recognised in the New Urban Agenda, which continually highlights the importance of gender-responsive policies and programmes. Implementation the New Urban Agenda will only be achieved with the active participation of women, the collection and use of sex-disaggregated data, and the implementation of gender-responsive policies and planning.

Similarly, climate change mitigation and adaptation, and disaster risk reduction has traditionally been approached in a gender neutral manner. However, women and girls become particularly vulnerable following a natural disaster, as gender equality falls down the list of priorities of governments and stakeholders. Girls are often pulled out of school, whilst women suffer loss of land and housing due to poor security of tenure, lack of access to information and poor involvement in reconstruction efforts.

Panel 1
1. From your own experience and expertise, how do you see women's participation and doing to mitigate climate change effects? What experiences could you share with us?
2. How do you see or had experienced national government commitments related to women's resilience on environment crisis?

Panel 2
1. From your own experience and expertise, what are the challenges to engender urban planning, to have a gender responsive urban planning?
2. What reflexions do you have regarding the rural-urban linkages, the borders of the cities for women's lives?
3. What opportunities or experiences, what issues would be central in your consideration, for the fulfilment of government commitments on gender responsive planning?