Advancing LGBTI Equality: The Rainbow Cities Network
Cities are crucial actors in fighting discrimination against LGBTI. The Rainbow Cities Network connects them and supports knowledge exchange among them to make this fight a successful one.
Youth & Gender
Violence against Women and COVID-19: Can We Learn from the Pandemic?
Global lockdowns have exacerbated violence against women yet teach us an important lesson on how to protect women in times of crises. Natalie R. Gill dives into the world of tech and frontier technologies to highlight the importance of women’s right to safe mobility.
The Case for Gender Approaches to Urban Resilience – Experience from Coyuca, Mexico
A commitment to applying a ‘gender perspective’ to climate-smart planning in Coyuca, Mexico, brought to light some uncomfortable truths about bias against women. As a result, local government, researchers, and community members are more aware of how women’s and girls’ wellbeing must be addressed through climate resilience programmes.
Gender, Precarity, and Inequality in Cairo’s Neighbourhoods
Cities are experienced differently by their residents due to a multitude of factors. Analysing several neighbourhoods in Egypt's Greater Cairo Region, Professors Diane Singerman and Danielle Higgins call for an intersectional approach that considers gender, employment status, and geography when trying to understand causes of urban inequality.
Let Them Play! Nairobi through a Child’s Eye
The number of children living in urban areas is on the rise. However, this is not reflected in cities' infrastructures. Rapid development is shrinking the amount of suitable and safe play areas for children. Using Nairobi as an example, Peninah Ndegwa, founder of Wow Mom Kenya, reflects on why and how cities should become more child-friendly.
Setting the Stage for the Next Frontier of the Municipal Movement
In the spirit of equality, Durban will be the theatre of the largest gathering and most important triennial event for cities and local and regional governments across the world: the 2019 UCLG World Congress and World Summit of Local and Regional Leaders. Responding to the current main challenges that are facing local or regional governments from around the world, the summit will put equality, and in particular, gender equality, at the heart of its ambitious programme.
Cultivating Urban Queer Inclusivity in Berlin, Nairobi, and Santiago
“Queer cities” and queer urban spaces can accelerate inclusivity and safety for all. This article by Katie Cashman and Waldo Soto relates queer expression to urban life by way of the impressions of queer* citizens in three cities: Santiago, Berlin, and Nairobi.
Urban Design and Child Road Safety
Walking to school is a life-threatening endeavour to many African children, where road safety measures – if existent at all – fail to recognise the special needs of children. Ayikai Poswayo, Programme Director at Amend, outlines what urban engineering needs to focus on to make cities safer for children.
Mumbai’s Young People Stake Their Claim to Play
Mumbai, as many other Indian cities, has failed to provide its children and youth with open spaces for playing. But there is a growing movement that demands its right to play – with considerable success, as Doel Jaikishen from Youth for Unity and Voluntary Action (YUVA) writes.
Through the Gender Lens: Recommendations for Municipal Waste Management
In Bamenda, Cameroon, municipal waste management remains blind to how gender roles shape waste generation. Hedwig K. Ngwa Akum analyses how bridging the gender gap between waste generation and waste management would improve sanitation in the city.
A Place Like Too Many Others: Gender Inequality in Bawana, Delhi
In urban settlements around the world, city administrations struggle, and often fail, to provide essential services, safe spaces, and socio-economic securities to residents. While this poses difficulties and dangers to all inhabitants, the consequences of such neglect are especially severe for low-income women and girls.
Don’t Build Spaces, Build Ecosystems
When opening creative spaces, it is not enough to simply designate a space and add tools and technology, says Roman Vydro, co-Founder of Garage Hub, a community workshop in Kharkiv, Ukraine. What is way more important, is to include a variety of people and let their input create an entire creative ecosystem.
An Untapped Pool of Talent: Young Women in Latin America
Across Latin America, software developers are urgently needed. Laboratoria, an organisation launched in Lima, Peru, focusses on meeting this demand – and, at the same time, opens urban labour markets for women.
Having a Say in What Affects Your Life: Youth Participation in Kumasi, Ghana
In Ghana, several policies and laws aim at including youth in urban planning processes. In reality, however, youth do not take part in city development. Emmanuelle Laurinda Godjo analyses the causes and suggests measures that authorities should take.
Urban Futures: Youth Participation in the Baltics and the Balkans
Citizen participation in urban planning is a quite new concept to begin with. And, even if implemented, cities often neglect to extend the concept to those, whose lives will be most affected by a city's development: Youth