UN-HABITAT´s first Gender Equality Action Assembly concluded last weekend with strong support from partner organizations to take a stronger role in promoting the Gender Equality Action Plan and strengthened collaborations between urban planners, local governments, and grassroots women’s networks. The meeting 19-20 March on the eve of the World Urban Forum in Rio de Janeiro was the first time UN-HABITAT had hosted a Gender Assembly. A total of 361 participants attended the Assembly over two days. They included government ministers, councillors, mayors, urban planners, architects, researchers, campaigners, UN-HABITAT staff, representatives of non-governmental organizations (including grassroots women’s networks) and other gender experts.  | Nilcéa Friere, Brazil's Minister of the Special Secretariat of Policies for Women addresses the Gender Equality Action Assembly. Pic © UN-HABIAT |
The meeting’s mandate came from UN-HABITAT’s Governing Council, which had in April 2009 given approval to the Gender Equality Action Plan (2008-2013) and requested UN-HABITAT’s Executive Director to facilitate a partners’ forum to meet in conjunction with the sessions of the Governing Council and the World Urban Forum to assess progress made in the implementation of the action plan. In the opening ceremony, the Executive Director of UN-HABITAT, Mrs. Anna Tibaijuka explained that the Assembly was about holding UN-HABITAT and its partners to account, while providing a valuable space for women leaders to work together on solutions to urban challenges. A full report of the Gender Equality Action Assembly will be published after the conclusion of the World Urban Forum. Click here to read the opening speech of UN-HABITAT's Executive Director, Mrs. Anna Tibaijuka |
