A City Safe For Women Is Safe For All: Women’s Voices Lead At World Urban Forum In Cairo

6 November 2024

As the twelfth edition of the Forum (WUF12) continued in the Egyptian capital, speakers weighed in on issues such as finance, housing, and exploring ways to ensure adequate housing and build partnerships for empowering women at the local level.

These themes were viewed thru the lens of the Beijing Platform for Action, the landmark a global agenda for gender equality and women’s empowerment adopted in 1995 by United Nations Member States, and who’s aims echo some of the key issues before the Forum, including women and poverty and women and environment.

‘It all starts at home’

Speaking to UN News after she addressed the roundtable, Maimuna Mohd Sharif, Mayor of Kuala Lumpur and Special Envoy for Sustainable Urbanization, told UN News that while women constitute 50 percent of the world’s population, “we are not at the table in decision-making” even regarding issues like climate change which hit them the hardest

“[Yet] the role of women is very important when we start ‘at home and localization,’ to address their needs…leaders at all levels should sincerely involve women in decision-making,” stated Ms. Sharif, who formerly headed-up UN-Habitat, the agency that convenes the biennial Forum.

‘Software and hardware’

Ms. Sharif went on to stress the need to adopt a holistic approach to society to fulfill the goal “of leaving no one behind and no place behind.”

There are two things involved in supporting women’s participation, she said: “the software and the hardware.”

The “software” in this context is moral support, which could open “accessibility for women to education, to public services, to employment, and then for…housing,” she added.

As for “hardware”, Ms. Sharif referred to governance and decision-making in Kuala Lumpur and wider Malaysia, which included not only in strategies but in actual policymaking.

‘Women can lead’

Sarah Syed, a 20-year-old climate justice activist from Toronto, Canada, told UN News that she believed that so far, WUF12 “is [off to a] strong start.”

Ms. Syed, who was rushing between panel discussions is part of the UN-Habitat Youth Advisory Board.

“We should keep up this momentum moving forward and ensure that, towards the end of the World Urban Forum, we have a solid idea of how to engage young people,” Sarah added.

She stressed that, “we need to invest in young girls’ education, especially in science, technology, engineering, and math. We need to invest in young girls and women's startups as well as businesses and entrepreneurship, ensuring they have the funding and accessible funding to scale their own ideas.”

Leadership is key too, continued Ms. Syed, who stressed that women should be able to lead within their indigenous communities, local governments, and on urban planning councils.

“Women…have the ability to lead,” she stated.

The Forum will continue until Friday, 8 November. UN News is on location in Cairo covering all the action.

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