Monitoring and Research on Gender in Cities Increasingly, the race to achieve the third Millennium Development Goal—“to promote gender equality and empower women”—takes place in towns and cities, where half of humanity already lives, with an average of 5 million new urban residents each month, and over a billion people in slums.While most development agencies monitor development at the country level, UN- HABITAT focuses on urbanisation and contributes to an understanding of what cities, local governments and community organisations are doing to improve gender equality, so that best practices can be replicated. Some examples of gender-disaggregated data UN-HABITAT compiles on urban areas include school enrolment, literacy, malnutrition and employment. In January 2009, UN-HABITAT commissioned a global study to assess the status of women’s empowerment and gender mainstreaming in local governance. UN-HABITAT’s two flagship reports, the State of the World’s Cities and the Global Report on Human Settlements reach out to a wide audience and regularly feature evidence-based information and analysis of gender issues, especially in discussing issues faced by slum dwellers. The State of the World’s Cities reports 2006-2007 and 2008-2009 highlight the extra challenges faced by female-headed households in slums, who often suffer disproportionately from multiple shelter deprivations, relating to access to water, sanitation, amount of living space and security of tenure. The 2006-2007 report provided analysis and statistics on why many girls in slums still have a harder time accessing education and staying in school. UN-HABITAT has also published gender-disaggregated data which shows a greater percentage of young women than men working in the informal sector, which generally offers less social protection than waged employment. However, the reports do not only focus on the negative. UN-HABITAT has used the reports to highlight initiatives taken by municipalities and local authorities in different countries to improve gender balance and equal participation in decision-making. These findings contribute to the knowledge base for urban policy making. The Global Report on Human Settlements provides statistics and analysis on a wide range of urban issues affecting women and men differently, from violence and crime to disaster management. In 2007, the Global Report “Enhancing Urban Safety and Security” highlighted extra challenges women face in accessing and keeping land, especially if they are divorced, separated or widowed. UN-HABITAT is committed to meeting the challenge of compiling and producing more gender disaggregated data at the city level, and encouraging partners to do the same. This contributes significantly to monitoring progress on the Millennium Development Goals. UN-HABITAT is carrying out a gender analysis of its urban inequities survey as a contribution towards monitoring the Goals and gender equality. Monitoring and Promoting Best Practices In 2008, UN-HABITAT published Gender Mainstreaming in Local Authorities: Best Practices, a handbook to assist national and local governments and civil society to learn from the experience of local authorities in incorporating gender issues into urban development policies and programmes. UN-HABITAT also collects and disseminates information on urban development initiatives for its Best Practices database, available online. Gender equality and social inclusion is one out of 23 themes for best practise work documented. Gender is also a theme for selection of winners for the Dubai International Award for Best Practices, presented every two years. Related links: Best Practices and Local Leadership Programme Best Practices in Improving the Living Environment Database Global Report on Human Settlements 2007 Global Research Network on Human Settlements (HS-NET) State of the World’s Cities 2008/2009 Report
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