她的城市（英）

A year ago, champions for gender equality prepared for celebrating 25 years of advancement of women’s rights and place in society, as set out by the 1995 Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action. The occasion felt particularly urgent as the last years had witnessed a pushback on gender equality in many parts of life and in many locations.

Then came a global pandemic. COVID-19 has for more than a year now disrupted lives and economies around the world. Global poverty is expected to increase for the first time in three decades. The social and economic fallout is reversing development gains and is pushing back the possibility of attaining the Sustainable Development Goals by as much as a decade.

With over 90 per cent of COVID-19 cases coming from urban areas, cities are the epicentres of COVID-19. The pandemic has exposed and exacerbated underlying inequalities in cities and shown regression of women’s situation. The fight for women enjoying the same basic human rights, opportunities and place in society as men, is simply losing momentum. This is despite the fact that women’s right are human rights.

Gender equality and women’s empowerment are long-standing priorities for UN-Habitat. We work to ensure that gender equality is systematically integrated into all activities, and that cities formulate and implement sustainable urbanisation policies that promote gender equality at all levels. We believe that sharing knowledge and showcasing success stories is an effective way to re-engage, re- think and re-activate gender equality in the Decade of Action.

The World Cities Report 2020 affirms that well-planned, managed, and financed cities create economic, social and environmental value that can improve the quality of life of all. Urbanisation is a transformative force that can overcome many challenges. Mainstreaming human rights, gender and social inclusion in all urban development processes will be integral to making sure that no one and no place will be left behind.

Guiding cities to make a difference on the ground is part of our mandate. Mainstreaming human rights, gender equality and social inclusion in cities’ everyday planning, design and implementation processes is therefore more important than ever. A city can only become gender inclusive, equitable, and prosperous if everyone strives to improve women’s rights, participation, decision- making, and access to services. Equality for women in an urban world is progress for all. All must be engaged in promoting every person’s right to the city, irrespective of gender or age.

Together with our partners, we support urban actors in advancing gender equality on the ground despite crises and pushbacks. This is why we have initiated Her City (hercity. unhabitat.org) that we launch today on the occasion of International Women’s Day 2021. Her City assists urban leaders, planners and actors to enhance participation and integrate gender and youth perspectives in the planning, design and implementation of urban public space initiatives. We hope that Her City will also become a forum to highlight and share solutions in order to create more socially inclusive cities.

Maimunah Mohd Sharif

Executive Director of UN-Habitat