UN SDG Summit- The symbiotic relationship between women and cities towards regenerative urban environments
The 2023 SDG Summit marks the midpoint of the 2030 Agenda and - hopefully - a new phase of accelerated progress towards the SDGs. But is 'sustainable' development enough? This side event within #SDG Summit explores the symbiotic relationship between women and cities towards regenerative neighbourhoods.
Women and cities are key elements within the indivisible SDGs agenda and are therefore key for achieving world-wide progress across the economic, social and environmental dimensions of sustainable development.
This dialogue is at the intersection between two megatrends informing the world we live in: women’s repositioning in society and the accelerated pace of urbanisation. It builds upon a series of recent documents and reports by international ‘knowledge brokers’ reaffirming that the systematic exclusion of women from urban planning means women’s daily lives and perspectives rarely shape urban form and function
Hosted by UNITAR and facilitated by May East, UNITAR Fellow and author of the book What if Women Designed the City, the dialogue:
· Examines the interdependencies and gaps between SDG 5 Gender Equality and SDG 11 Sustainable Cities and Communities;
· Explores how women are de facto contributing to the SDGs urban targets through a mosaic of women-led regenerative interventions in cities at the forefront of gender-sensitive urban planning;
· Considers a disaggregated data revolution's impact on urban policy and practice for greener, inclusive, liveable cities.
Seestadt on the outskirts of Vienna- one of Europe’s largest urban developments with a ‘female face’
Hear from Vienna
From master planning to women-led place-making interventions, the city has since 1992 developed over 60 gender-sensitive projects including the Aspen Seestad neighbourhood and has embedded gender-mainstreaming in its urban planning decisions. Vienna’s creative patterns of place making pays particular attention to the soft measures democratising the way women and girls use and experience public spaces.
Lyon spearheading the process of ‘Budgétisation Sensible Genre’
Hear from Lyon
Hear how Lyon became the largest city in France to implement a gender-sensitive budget conceived as a transformative instrument addressing societal inequalities and ensuring that funds are spent equally between women and men in all the public policies. Started in 2021, the city is adopting the budget genre in sports facilities, fine arts, green spaces and in public policies informing urban planning.
Barcelona is recognising the contribution of women the city and renaming 153 metro stations with their names Picture by Antonio Cansino
Hear from Barcelona
Hear how the feminist urbanism of Barcelona is deeply informed by participatory processes embedded in community and neighbourhood networks where women are seen as experts of everyday life and active players in urban diagnosis and transformation.
Hear from Glasgow
Declared the first “Feminist City’ in UK, Glasgow is re-inventing itself a gender-sensitive city by promoting walkability, proximity to services, safe public spaces and open green spaces.
Glasgow is puttingt women, non-binary and genderfluid people at the centre of cityplanning and policy development.
Urbanization is often associated with greater independence and opportunity for women. However, it is also characterised by housing inequality, a transport infrastructure informed by private car ownership, intersectional violence, inadequate disaster preparedness, and decision making that reflects deep gender-based inequalities. Understanding the key urbanization trends likely to unfold over the coming years, and revisiting the role women may play in their mediation of space and making of place, are crucial to forging a timely gender-sensitive framework of urban development. This Dialogue advocates that it is in the experience and practice of the city that we have the best chance of making a just world.
About the Event
Date/Time: Monday, 18 September - 2:00- 3:30 pm EST
Location: United Nations Headquarters in New York. Conference
Room UNCA (S-301) located on the 3rd floor of the Secretariat Building right in front of the escalators that come to the floor. You need the SDG Summit pass to access UNHQ.