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Women in Cities

Wikis > Women in Cities

 

Women in Cities International is meant to be an exchange network for various partners concerned with gender equality issues and the place of women in cities on the five continents.

Background

With the increasingly important role played by cities throughout today’s world, women’s participation in urban development and the consideration of the differing needs of women and men in municipal management and planning are central to developing “good urban governance.”

Since the early 1990s, and especially since the UN World Conferences on Women (Beijing, 1995) and Human Settlements (Istanbul, 1996), many partners have organized and mobilized around these issues. There are a now a number of networks uniting women’s groups, NGOs, cities, municipal bodies, researchers, governments, and international and UN agencies.

We would like Women in Cities International to be one of these hubs for international discussion that contributes to the advancement of knowledge and practices in this field.

Main objectives

Women in Cities has 5 overarching objectives:

  • To develop an international exchange network on women’s participation in the development of cities and communities as well as the consideration of a gender-based approach in municipal planning and management;
  • To promote local exchange on this topic within and between communities;
  • To encourage exchange among diverse actors who can play a role (women’s groups, non-governmental organizations, cities and municipalities, researchers, the private sector, media, international agencies and so on);
  • To promote and organize expertise-sharing and training activities, the use of good practices as well as future international seminars and conferences;
  • To advise local and national governments as well as international organizations on gender issues and the importance of mainstreaming gender in the management of cities and communities.

Projects

The main current project is the “Gender Inclusive Cities: Increasing Women’s Safety by Identifying and Disseminating Effective and Promising Approaches to Promote Women’s Equal Access to Public Spaces” project, 2009 – 2012.

This programme is funded by the UN Trust Fund in Support of Actions to Eliminate Violence Against Women. It is being administrated by Women in Cities International (WICI) and is being implemented by four international project partners in cities across the globe:

The aim of the programme is to create cities that are inclusive and respect the right of all people, including women, to live, work and move around without fear or difficulty.

Gender Inclusive Cities seeks to identify the factors that cause and perpetuate inequalities and exclusion, as well as the policies and programme approaches that enhance women’s inclusion and “right to the city”. The first stage of this programme consists of knowledge-generation using the methodological tools of mapping, research and review. Afterwards, WICI, in partnership with local governments and NGOs, will use this knowledge to pilot interventions designed to reduce the public vulnerability and exclusion women and girls face. Pilot interventions will also promote women’s and girls’ access to and understanding of their rights.

How to get involved?

Cities in both the North and South have identified women’s safety as a priority issue and a first International Seminar on Women’s Safety was held in Montreal in May 2002.

We hope to continue to develop related areas of work through discussions and collaboration with our partners, which means you.

If you share these objectives and wish to share your expertise and learn from the experiences of others through our network, you can become a member of Women in Cities International. Women in cities international is member of the Huairou Commission.

To do so, please take a few minutes to fill out our Membership Form.

See also

  • Access to land
  • Gender in Local Government: A Sourcebook for Trainers – by Prabha Khosla, Publication UN-Habitat, 140 p, 2008

Women in Cities International website (available in English, French and Spanish)

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