Cairo - New York: Europe and the Arabs
One of the key messages conveyed by women leaders, activists, youth and others at the World Urban Forum in Cairo on Wednesday was: “A safe city for women is a safe city for all.”
As the 12th session of the forum continued in the Egyptian capital, speakers discussed issues such as finance and housing, exploring ways to ensure adequate housing and building partnerships to empower women at the local level. According to the UN Daily News Bulletin, which we received a copy of this morning, Thursday,
These topics were viewed through the lens of the Beijing Platform for Action, a landmark global agenda for gender equality and women’s empowerment adopted by UN member states in 1995.
It all starts at home
Speaking to UN News after addressing the roundtable, Dr Maimunah Mohd Sharif, Mayor of Kuala Lumpur and Special Envoy for Sustainable Urban Development, said that while women make up 50 per cent of the world’s population, “we are not at the table in decision-making” even on issues such as climate change that severely affect women.
“Yet the role of women is so important… Leaders at all levels must genuinely engage women in decision-making,” said Dr Sharif, who was head of the United Nations Human Settlements Programme, the agency that convenes the biennial forum.
Programmes and Equipment
Dr Maimunah Sharif stressed the need to adopt a whole-of-society approach to achieving the goal of “leaving no one behind and no place behind”. There are two things that go into supporting women’s participation, she said: “software and hardware.”
“Software” in this context is the emotional support, which can open up “women’s access to education, public services, employment and then housing.” In terms of “hardware,” Dr. Sharif pointed to governance and decision-making in Kuala Lumpur and wider Malaysia, which included not just strategies but actual policy-making.
Women can lead
Sarah Syed, a 20-year-old climate justice activist from Toronto, Canada, told UN News that she believes that so far, the World Urban Forum has “started off strong.” Syed, who was moving between panels, is a member of the UN-Habitat Youth Advisory Board.
“We need to keep this momentum going and ensure that by the end of the World Urban Forum we have a strong idea of ​​how to engage young people,” Syed added.
“We need to invest in the education of young girls, especially in science, technology, engineering and mathematics,” she stressed. “We need to invest in young girls, in startups, in businesses and in entrepreneurship, and ensure they have access to accessible funding to scale up their own ideas.” She stressed the need for women to be able to lead within their communities, local governments and urban planning councils. The forum continues until tomorrow, Friday, November 8.