The objective of the Gender Policy Unit is to ensure UN-HABITAT's effective implementation of its Gender Policy and to address the Habitat Agenda commitment to gender equality. UN-HABITAT's Gender Policy has three overall objectives: (a) To promote women's equal rights and women's empowerment internationally within the area of human settlements development; (b) To support governments, NGOs and other partners in capacity building and development in order to mainstream gender equality in human settlements development; (c) To mainstream a gender perspective throughout the Programme's activities.
For more information, visit "Gender Mainstreaming Unit".
Gender Friendly Sustainable Cities in Asia and the Pacific
The UN-HABITAT Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific, with support from the Government of Norway¹, has launched a 2007 'Gender Friendly Sustainable Cities' programme, composed of three components:
* Gender and Rights-Responsive Sustainable Cities Award to recognize excellence and innovation in gender related policies and programmes in the Asia and Pacific Regiona. It promotes gender mainstreaming by looking at policies and programmes that directly address issues facing communities and cities in the urban areas throughout the region.
* Expert Group Meeting on Gender Friendly Sustainable Cities on June 25-26, 2007 focused "Rebuilding Communities Affected by Disaster and Conflict" convened imminent personalities and practitioners from the region. They discussed core questions of gender, safety and sustainability through the presentation of issues, good practices and recommendations for strengthening the gender components of UN-HABITAT's normative and operational programme in the region.
The new gender page of the UN-HABITAT Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific website contains links to research, studies and surveys; training materials; speeches and presentations; press releases and current news; best practices and personal stories; offering these and other up to date resources on the gender dimensions towards the creation of sustainable cities in Asia and the Pacific.
The Government of Norway has assisted UN-HABITAT to reach its objective of reinforcing its capacity in addressing gender as a cross-cutting concern in all its activities through the global programme "Promotion of Best Practices on Gender Mainstreamingand Women's Empowerment in Human Settlements Development Programmes 2006-2007", of which "Gender Friendly Sustainable Cities in Asia and the Pacific" is a component.
