The open-air arena in the township of Galeshewe in Kimberley, South Africa, is being transformed under the Cities CHALLENGE 2.0. The centrepiece is a new “Informal Traders Hub” offering a safe, sustainable, and gender-responsive environment for local female traders.
Achieving a just energy transition in the urban housing sectors of the Global South demands recognition and engagement with their heterogeneous energy networks and rapidly evolving spatialities. Marie Urfels explores the challenges of achieving a just energy transition in the housing sector of the Global South while emphasising the importance of embracing these complexities to create targeted, context-specific solutions.
India has a long tradition of building climate-friendly houses. But in the case of informal settlements, applying this knowledge presents many difficulties. This leads to intense heat stress for residents. However, there is hope on the horizon, as we highlight an exciting initiative: utilising innovative design solutions for thermal comfort in community buildings in Chennai and Coimbatore - an Urban Living Lab approach.
For years cities have been planned and built for only half the population: Women’s needs are represented sparsely at most. The BMWSB project “Dialogues for Urban Change” implements the approach of international peer learning to create safe public spaces for everyone.
From accessing public services to just being able to survive, the city can be a vastly different place for different genders. Join Paula Meth as she explores gender inequalities in informal urban environments.
Implementing the concept of Leave No One Behind (LNOB) often correlates with facing multiple challenges on a municipal level. Hannah Schabert discusses lessons learnt.
Who plans cities for women? Feminist urbanism challenges traditional urban planning and design paradigms to account for women's experiences. Legal researcher and creator of the “Feminist City” podcast, Sneha Visakha, on the real-world impacts of masculinist urban planning in our cities and the power of feminist urbanism.
How can cities move beyond fossil fuel-driven transportation systems? Bogotá’s bike-share programme demonstrates that sustainable mobility is sometimes just a pedal step away. Laura Simsek and Carolina Hernandéz G. highlight how the initiative’s inclusive components help close the mobility gap, promote gender equality, and simultaneously foster a just transition in Colombia’s capital.
Gender equality and climate neutrality are two interconnected topics that are integral to urban development. Gender Equality Officer Annika Dalén highlights the importance of understanding the relationship between gender and sustainability and provides a glimpse into the strategies Umeå has adopted.
In many African cities, informal food traders sell everything from fresh produce to fried chicken feet at affordable prices to people who need the food most. Luke Metelerkamp is convinced: informal trading is hunger-proofing Africa's cities, arguably providing the continent's largest nutritional safety net.
Echoes of the same story can be heard in cities across the globe – homelessness is on the rise and the cost of housing is increasing at an alarming rate while the availability of decent housing dwindles. Kirsten McRae with recent statistics on the global housing crisis and why we should no longer financialise our most basic human good.
When faced with stereotypical images of refugee camps as isolated places without ways of contribution or interaction the example of Palestine refugee camp Marka proves these expectations wrong. Dina Dahood Dabash sheds light on factors that contributed to the current agency of the Marka camp in Jordan.
Informal workers contribute greatly to countries’ economic growth. Over 43 per cent of the national GDP in Bangladesh is generated by the informal sector, where women are overrepresented. In times of crisis, however, they are often left unprotected. Jahid Nur on the situation of female informal workers in Bangladesh during COVID-19.
Forced evictions and displacements should be stopped, but it is not enough. Muhammad Azka Gulsyan wants us to think about how to rebuild the evicted homes, and restore affected communities and their livelihoods. Vertical Kampung-projects in Jakarta show that rebuilding and restoration are possible.
Leave on one behind is a catchy phrase which is used in various contexts so often that one might forget it is also a promise. One that is unfulfilled, Franka Bernreiter argues and reminds us that neither slums nor the responsibility to create sustainable cities are exclusive to the Global South.
