photo credit: The European Business Review

The side event will be considered part of the review of the Beijing Platform for Action and the process build-up to the Habitat III Conference in 2016. It will provide an opportunity to learn from the opportunities and challenges that public space offer to women’s empowerment and to advance the gender equality goal. It will also aim to discuss how gender mainstreaming of urban planning and policy can help create public spaces for women that empower them to live fulfilling and wholesome lives. While access to public spaces in cities is highly contested for due to pressures from rapid urbanization and large-scale migration, creating public spaces that cater to women’s needs and skills can give them an oft-missing space of their own to set up a business, network and interact with other members of the community to exchange ideas and information. It is important to include the voices of women and girls, especially living in poor urban areas and coming from marginalized communities, in all the processes of decision-making such as research, consultation, policy-making etc. By doing this, public spaces can bring about greater social cohesion, develop stronger community networks and give women a voice and enhance and make more visible women’s agency. The development of safer public spaces also contributes to safer cities for women, so they can live without fear of gender-based harassment or victimization, and can instead contribute more fully and freely to developing gender-balanced policy decisions for the future of cities.

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Event is free, please register here: http://www.eventbrite.com/e/public-space-opportunities-and-challenges-for-empowering-women-tickets-15813269916?aff=erellivorg