The 13th session of the World Urban Forum in Baku concluded with a high-level Women’s Roundtable focused on advancing gender equality and women’s empowerment in housing and urban development.
Building on the Beijing+30 Action Agenda and the New Urban Agenda, the two-hour discussion provided an action-oriented platform aimed at strengthening the right of women and girls to safe, adequate and affordable housing.
The session brought together policymakers, urban experts, civil society representatives and human rights advocates to share policy recommendations and practical examples from different countries. The outcomes are expected to feed into the WUF13 final outcome document and future policy processes.
Speakers highlighted how the global housing and climate crises are disproportionately affecting women, particularly through unequal land rights, insecure tenure, discriminatory laws and limited access to basic services.
Civil society representatives also shared personal experiences, drawing attention to the daily realities faced by women living in unsafe or unstable housing conditions.
The discussion emphasised that housing insecurity is closely linked to gender-based violence, with participants noting that a lack of safe and affordable housing can trap women in abusive situations or push them into homelessness and poverty.
Female-headed households were identified as especially vulnerable because of economic exclusion and restricted access to credit and housing systems.
United Nations Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed attended the session and delivered opening remarks, underlining that access to housing is directly linked to dignity, safety, health and inclusion.
Participants called for stronger gender-transformative approaches to housing and land governance, urging governments to integrate women’s needs more effectively into national urban policies.
The roundtable also focused on strengthening women’s leadership in housing and land management, with recommendations aimed at improving participation in decision-making and policy design.
The session featured a multi-stakeholder panel presenting best practices and policy tools to support more inclusive housing systems. These proposals will be incorporated into the official WUF13 outcomes and used to guide future international urban policy discussions.
Like other stakeholder-driven sessions at WUF13, the roundtable was developed through a participatory process led by experts in women’s access to housing and gender equality, ensuring broad representation and diversity.
The Women’s Roundtable took place on the final day of WUF13, which brought together more than 40,000 participants from 182 countries under the theme “Housing the world: Safe and resilient cities and communities”.
Throughout the week, the forum featured ministerial meetings, leaders’ summits, civil society assemblies, business sessions and thematic discussions on urban resilience, climate change, artificial intelligence in urban governance and sustainable development.
Among the key developments during the forum were discussions on the global housing crisis, the launch of new co-operation platforms and the expansion of international urban partnerships, including preparations for future World Urban Forum gatherings.
A Russian strike on a gas station in Kyiv has killed two people, the city's Mayor Vitali Klitschk...
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian arrived in New Delhi on Friday to attend the weekend BRICS summit, amid the ongoing U.S.-Iran conflict, joining...
Shanghai Enflame Technology, one of China’s leading artificial intelligence chipmakers and a domestic rival to Nvidia, surged more than 200 p...
Four people were killed, including a child, in Ukrainian strikes on the Russian port city of Novorossiysk overnight, according to the governor of the Krasnodar region. Ukraine's drone forces commander, Robert Brovdi, said Russian military ships were destroyed in the attacks.
Overnight Iranian strikes on an air base in Jordan damaged multiple U.S. aircraft and left one without a wing, American media reported. Meanwhile, explosions were heard across parts of southern Iran according to local media reports.
Iran’s Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) said on Wednesday they attacked two U.S. vessels and eight oil tankers in the Persian Gulf, calling the strikes a response to a U.S. attack on five Iranian tankers.
Ukrainian forces struck a Russian oil refinery in Siberia and a seaport in Dagestan in the past 24 hours, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said. He will meet Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney on Thursday to discuss air defences for Ukraine over winter.
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian arrived in New Delhi on Friday to attend the weekend BRICS summit, amid the ongoing U.S.-Iran conflict, joining a host of foreign dignitaries.
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian arrived in New Delhi on Friday to attend the weekend BRICS summit, amid the ongoing U.S.-Iran conflict, joining a host of foreign dignitaries.
Georgia’s top security official has held face-to-face talks with his Azerbaijani counterpart in China, with both sides pledging to deepen intelligence cooperation amid growing global security challenges.
More than 46,000 people have been displaced in Yemen since fighting escalated last week, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) said on Friday, warning that the number is rising “by the hour”.
Turkic states are considering the creation of a new law enforcement agency, TURKPOL, as members of the Organization of Turkic States (OTS) step up security cooperation.
Overnight Iranian strikes on an air base in Jordan damaged multiple U.S. aircraft and left one without a wing, American media reported. Meanwhile, explosions were heard across parts of southern Iran according to local media reports.
You can download the AnewZ application from Play Store and the App Store.
What is your opinion on this topic?
Leave the first comment