WUNRN
STATE OF THE WORLD'S CITIES
2010/2011 - UN HABITAT
Link to Information: http://www.unhabitat.org/pmss/listItemDetails.aspx?publicationID=2917
BBC Review: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_depth/8573300.stm
..."Overall, the world
now has 55 million extra slum dwellers than it did in 2000, according to UN
Habitat, also known as the UN Human Settlements Programme.
Half of that increase came from
population growth in existing slum homes; a quarter by rural flight to the
cities; and a quarter by people living on the edge of cities whose homes became
engulfed by urban expansion."
_________________________________________________________________________
GENDER EQUALITY FOR SMARTER CITIES -
CHALLENGES & PROGRESS
Direct Link to Full 42-Page Report:
UN-HABITAT 2010
We
live in an increasingly urban world where providing healthy and safe living
environments, productive economies and equitable social benefits are challenges
facing towns and cities globally. Today, just over half the world’s people live
in urban areas, and we expect the percentage of urban dwellers to rise to 70
per cent by 2050. An important dimension of urban life is the condition of
women in towns and cities; it is a condition marked by historical exclusion and
multiple deprivations.
This publication serves two purposes. First, it highlights the major gender
issues we face in the context of urbanization. Second, it provides an overview
of the various efforts deployed by UNHABITAT to promote gender equality in all
its endeavors and programs.
_______________________________________________________________
Women,
Slums and Urbanisation: Examining the Causes and Consequences
Direct
Link to Full 134-Page 2008 Report
COHRE - Centre on Housing Rights and Evictions :
Urbanisation
is not a gender neutral phenomenon. The gender dimension of urbanisation
involves and affects hundreds of millions of women in very particular ways,
which must be urgently addressed in the battle against global poverty.
These
are some of the key findings of Women, Slums and Urbanisation: Examining the Causes and
Consequences, a new report by the Geneva-based Centre on Housing Rights
and Evictions (COHRE).
The report also found that
violence against women is rampant in urban slums across the world. The report
is based on COHRE’s research in six global cities (Accra, Buenos Aires,
Colombo, Mumbai, Nairobi, and Sao Paulo) where COHRE interviewed women and
girls living in over twenty slum communities.
The report confirms that, for women as well as for men, the
city’s primary attraction or ‘pull’ factor is the possibility of economic
opportunities unavailable to them in other areas. COHRE's research also
revealed significant ‘push’ factors, many of which are gender-specific. Many
women migrate to cities as a way to escape from something which threatens to do
them harm. These ‘push’ factors include domestic violence and harmful cultural
practices, such as polygamy, and disinheritance. The research cites cases of
widows in Ghana who had been disinherited of their land and property in the
north, or those whose inheritance had caused a rift between them and their
in-laws, who decided to move to Accra to start a new life.
Mayra Gomez, Coordinator of COHRE’s Women’s Housing Rights
Programme (WHRP), said, “COHRE’s research reveals that the triggers for women’s
migration to the cities are often related to patterns of gender-based
discrimination and violence which serve to push women deeper into poverty, or
which otherwise land women in crisis situations. For example, women whose
economic situation suddenly worsens as a result of disinheritance, divorce, or
domestic violence cannot be said to be moving to urban centres out of a ‘gender
neutral’ desire to work.”
According to Women, Slums and Urbanisation, women often move
into slums for a number of reasons which both propel them from the rural areas,
and attract them to the city. For example, women who find themselves infected
by HIV are sometimes convinced that relocation into the city would solve the
glaring social stigma they suffer in their home communities and would also be
beneficial in terms of being able to access health treatment and other
services, which they would otherwise not get in their previous communities.
Gomez said, “Other factors impacting urbanisation include
HIV/AIDS, disaster and forced eviction, all of which have gender-specific
dimensions. The impact of HIV/AIDS is plainly evident in Kenya, where HIV and
AIDS emerged as key factors relating to the migration of poor women to the
slums of Nairobi. In Kenya, many women whose husbands have died of AIDS-related
diseases were presumed by their communities to also be infected. Many such
women are driven away from their communities on accusation that they will
infect more people and spread the disease to the entire community.”
Once in the slums, women also face formidable challenges to
daily survival. Jean du Plessis, COHRE’s Deputy Director, said, “Our research
demonstrates that while women’s experiences are not uniform, there are
similarities in the reasons why they migrate to cities, and women face similar
challenges to their daily survival in slums across the world. While inadequate
living conditions in the slums affect all residents, female or male, women and
girls suffer disproportionately those burdens which fall on their shoulders
because of their gender. Violence, inadequate provision of services, housing
insecurity, lack of privacy, employment discrimination, and unequal
remuneration are all common experiences with profound gendered dimensions.”
The most critical cross-cutting theme to emerge from the COHRE
study is that violence against women, including domestic violence and rape, is
rampant in urban slums across the world. Gomez said, “Violence against women
and women’s insecurity in slums emerged as principal and recurrent issues.
Governments have a duty to address fundamental violations of human rights – in
this case, of women’s human rights – which, at times underlie migration in the
first place and which similarly prohibit women from realising the full range of
their human rights within the urban context.”
COHRE’s report identifies ten concrete recommendations, which,
if implemented, would go far in addressing the problems experienced by women
living in urban slums across the world. The recommendations are:
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