URBACT brings Gender Equal Cities to the EU

The Report

Read the full report here!

Gender Equal Cities is an initiative from the URBACT Knowledge Hub, in collaboration with the CEMR, raising awareness of gender-based inequalities at a local level and highlighting how cities can take action. By reaching out to cities, participating in EU events and facilitating expert exchange, URBACT translated existing knowledge into clear, actionable recommendations. Gender Equal Cities shows how creating space for women’s voices, needs and capacities is a necessary step towards building thriving cities.

The report themes mirror city departments and sectors, providing practical guides for professionals who work both in specific policy-areas and across sectors. It is relevant for citizens and citizen organisations too, to help them and support their local administrations. Case studies were sourced from a combination of first-hand accounts, URBACT networks, good practices and examples from the CEMR Observatory. It is designed to inform and inspire policy makers to take action in their cities.

The report is available as a PDF to download (here) and will be available as a digital version in April.

Report Themes

Gender equality is a cross-cutting issue, to be integrated into many aspects of the city’s work. To make the information as accessible as possible in the report, the content is broken into 6 key themes.

1. Representation and participation;
2. Governance;
3. Economic equality;
4. Public services;
5. Planning and public space;
6. Migrant Integration.

Online

URBACT ran two Facebook lives on the 7th March: first with Mayor of Umea, Marie-Louise Rönnmark (Watch here) and second one with Corina Crețu relating to Gender Equal Cities and URBACT (Watch here).

Launch event

The report was launched during a high-level roundtable, in Brussels, with DG Regio Commissioner Corina Crețu in Brussels, with the participation of contributors including URBACT Gender Equal Cities Lead Expert, Sally Kneeshaw, representatives of the Commission, representatives of CEMR and UN-Habitat’s Executive Director Maimunah Mohd Sharif.
The discussion also benefited from key input from recent EU events focused on gender equality such as Europe4Her (Committee of the Regions) and Power2Her (Council of European Municipality and Regions), looking forward to the EUROCITIES Mayors Summit, which took place in March. The Monitoring Tool for Regional Gender Equality from the European Commission and the Gender Equality Enhancer from UN-Habitat was introduced.

With thanks to...

We are delighted to contribute to this high-level debate on such an important topic, taking stock of progress towards gender equality and encouraging cities to go further to implement change at a local level.
With special thanks to all contributors involved in this year long successful research and collaboration including the Gender Equal Cities Core Team:

- Sally Kneeshaw
- Nuala Morgan
- Ania Rok of URBACT
- Linda Gustafsson of Umeå
- Jaimie Just and Bela Tskhelishvili of CEMR

As well as the gender experts:
- Ursula Bauer (Vienna, AU)
- Chris Blache (Genre et Ville, FR)
- Léa Delmas (Villiers-le-Bel, FR)
- Eva Kail (Vienna, AU)
- Marta Mazurek (Poznan, PO)
- Siobhán McKenna (Greater London Authority, UK)
- Mihaela Onofras (European Association for Local Democracy)
- Segolene Pruvot (European Alternatives ‏)
- Maria Sangiuliano (Smart Venice IT)
- Maria Stratigaki (Athens, GR)

During the Launch event, keynote speakers included :

• Yordanka Asenova Fandakova, Mayor of Sofia (BG);
• Marie-Louise Rönnmark, Mayor of Umeå (SE);
• Marta Mazurek, Municipal Councillor of Poznań (PL);
• Maria Stratigaki, Vice Mayor of Athens for Social Solidarity, Welfare & Equality (GR);
• Geneviève Letourneux, Vice President of the Metropolis of Rennes (FR);
• Anna Scavuzzo, Vice Mayor of Milan (IT);
• Barbara Hackenschmidt, Member of the State Parliament of Brandenburg (DE);
• Ibon Uribe, Mayor of Galdakao (ES-PV);
• Tamar Taliashvili, Member of Tbilisi Assembly and Vice President of the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities (GEO);
• Carola Gunnarsson, Lord Mayor of Sala, Sweden and CEMR Spokesperson on Cohesion Policy (SE);
• Pearl Luthuli, City Councillor of EThekwini/Durban (ZAF);
• Sirpa Hertell, City Councillor of Espoo, Kuntaliitto, Association of Finnish Local and Regional Authorities (FI)