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UN-Habitat describes urban governance as the enabling environment that requires adequate legal frameworks, efficient political, managerial and administrative processes to enable the local government response to the needs of residents. These processes, which are used to design, finance, implement and monitor urban policies, have implications for gender equality. So how can gender be factored into urban governance in a way that better responds to all residents needs, supports achievement of the SDGs and creates a fairer city for all? In the following sections we illustrate some of the most important governance mechanisms, levers and processes that local authorities have at their disposal to promote gender equality.

3A. GENDER MAINSTREAMING

Gender mainstreaming refers to the process of assessing the implications for women and men of any planned action, including legislation, policies or programmes, at all levels and in all sectors. But, what does it actually mean when we talk about gender mainstreaming? The first step of gender mainstreaming is evaluating existing policies and collecting data related to their possible impacts on different

groups and genders. With this knowledge, it is then possible to change or supplement policy across the city to reduce unintentional inequalities, or even design separate policies for women and men so that multiple needs are met. Although gender mainstreaming doesn t necessarily challenge the way gender operates in the city, it can improve the everyday lives of residents substantially.

Promotion of gender equality [Bečej, Serbia]

The municipality of Bečej (Serbia) has been a signatory of the European Charter for Equality since January 2017. Their inclusive process to develop their local equality action plan is one of the town s biggest successes and is unique in the country. The municipality began by creating a working group made up of local stakeholders, including local self-government and civil society organisations. The meetings were open to and attended by secretaries of local communities, as well as representatives of rural women s associations. This cooperative process was supplemented by other activities, such as performances and workshops on the topics of feminism and countering gender stereotypes in the town theatre and additions of lessons and exercises about feminism to the high school curriculum. A special effort was made to make women of all ages, backgrounds and nationalities the direct beneficiaries of the activities. The working group conducted surveys with residents to select priorities for the action plan. These include improving the safety of citizens and the situation of women in rural areas in particular, improving public services, improving opportunities for women and girls to engage in sports, and improving the capacity of local self-government to effectively use gender mainstreaming when implementing policies and programs. After seeking public input and support from all interested residents, the plan was adopted by the Municipal Assembly of Bečej at its session held on 14 December 2018.

[ CALL TO ACTION ] Are you keen to get started with gender mainstreaming? The City of Vienna (Austria) has created a guideline for implementing gender mainstreaming, which is called Gender Mainstreaming Made Easy.

Case Study