A year ago, champions for gender equality  prepared for celebrating 25 years of  advancement of women’s rights and place  in society, as set out by the 1995 Beijing  Declaration and Platform for Action. The  occasion felt particularly urgent as the last  years had witnessed a pushback on gender  equality in many parts of life and in many  locations.

 Then came a global pandemic. COVID-19 has  for more than a year now disrupted lives and  economies around the world. Global poverty  is expected to increase for the first time in  three decades. The social and economic  fallout is reversing development gains and is  pushing back the possibility of attaining the  Sustainable Development Goals by as much  as a decade.

 With over 90 per cent of COVID-19 cases  coming from urban areas, cities are the  epicentres of COVID-19. The pandemic  has exposed and exacerbated underlying  inequalities in cities and shown regression  of women’s situation. The fight for women  enjoying the same basic human rights,  opportunities and place in society as men, is  simply losing momentum. This is despite the  fact that women’s right are human rights.

 Gender equality and women’s empowerment  are long-standing priorities for UN-Habitat. 

We work to ensure that gender equality is  systematically integrated into all activities,  and that cities formulate and implement  sustainable urbanisation policies that promote  gender equality at all levels. We believe that  sharing knowledge and showcasing success  stories is an effective way to re-engage, rethink and re-activate gender equality in the  Decade of Action.

 The World Cities Report 2020 affirms that  well-planned, managed, and financed cities  UN-Habitat Foreword create economic, social and environmental  value that can improve the quality of life of all. 

Urbanisation is a transformative force that can  overcome many challenges. Mainstreaming  human rights, gender and social inclusion in all  urban development processes will be integral  to making sure that no one and no place will  be left behind.

 Guiding cities to make a difference on the  ground is part of our mandate. Mainstreaming  human rights, gender equality and social  inclusion in cities’ everyday planning, design  and implementation processes is therefore  more important than ever. A city can only  become gender inclusive, equitable, and  prosperous if everyone strives to improve  women’s rights, participation, decisionmaking, and access to services. Equality for  women in an urban world is progress for all. All  must be engaged in promoting every person’s  right to the city, irrespective of gender or age.

Together with our partners, we support urban  actors in advancing gender equality on the  ground despite crises and pushbacks. This  is why we have initiated Her City (hercity.

unhabitat.org) that we launch today on the  occasion of International Women’s Day 2021. 

Her City assists urban leaders, planners  and actors to enhance participation and  integrate gender and youth perspectives in  the planning, design and implementation of  urban public space initiatives. We hope that  Her City will also become a forum to highlight  and share solutions in order to create more  socially inclusive cities.