WUNRN
International Institute for
Environment & Development - IIED
URBANIZATION: A DOUBLE-EDGED SWORD
FOR WOMEN
Urbanization is often associated with
greater independence and opportunity for women – but also with high risks of
violence and constraints on employment, mobility and leadership that reflect
deep gender-based inequalities.
These
issues – along with climate change, waste, water and other topics -- are
explored in the April 2013 issue of the IIED journal Environment and Urbanization,
published today.
"Urbanization
is among the defining features of current times, but it can mean very different
things for men and women," says the journal's guest editor Cecilia Tacoli
of the International Institute for Environment and Development. "Unless
policymakers, urban planners and development agencies understand these
differences, urbanization will fail to meet its potential to improve the lives
of all urban citizens."
The
journal’s editorial – available online here – highlights the key
points from each paper. These include papers on the following topics under this
edition’s main theme of ‘Gender and Urban Change’:
·
where and when urban women enjoy
advantages over their rural counterparts;
·
community savings schemes that build
women’s leadership and support upgrading;
·
how transport planning still fails to
respond to women’s travel needs;
·
how urban contexts can reduce gender based
violence, although often they can increase it;
·
how income and ideology influence
women’s decision making in rural and urban areas in
·
the changes in women’s participation in
labour markets in
·
what was learnt from a project working
with girls and boys with disabilities in
·
and, the particular roles of women in
seeking to get better services for their low-income/informal neighbourhoods in
This
issue also has two papers on climate change:
·
a detailed benefit-cost analysis applied
to
·
the different responses of low-income
tenants and squatters to adaptation to climate change in
The
subjects of other papers include:
·
the limitations in the Indian
government’s Basic Services for the Urban Poor Programme;
·
the politics of non-payment for water in
low-income communities in
·
community-managed reconstruction in Old
Fadama (
·
developing a solid waste collection
service in informal settlements in
·
how well-connected individuals control
land allocations and water supply in an informal settlement in
·
and an assessment of provision for
water, sanitation and waste collection in two informal settlements in