Women, Gender Equality and Local Governments with Aisa Kacyira
TALKING about women in local government, UCLG ASPAC was eager for the opportunity to ask Aisa Kacyira, the Deputy Executive Director and Assistant Secretary-‐ General of UN-‐Habitat regarding her opinion on women, gender equality, and what local governments need to highlight. Below is our interview question and her explanation that inspires us. Nowadays, women have many more opportunities to expand themselves than they did before. Do you think they have explored the many possibilities and the provided opportunities or do you think there are still a number of obstacles that actually hinder them, particularly in Local Government? There can be no doubt that advances have been made. However, the march towards equal rights is a longer process than anyone may expect. As of now, there are only 5% of
women mayors globally and yet this is the closest level of leadership engagement and is one of the basic platforms for women to tackle urban issues, as they reach out for higher positions of leadership to the wider local government, civil society, the private sector and international organizations working at local levels. Women and girls possess more than just their gender identity and urbanization can either be an enabler or a challenge in supporting women to explore and exploit their potential to the best of their ability. For instance, one of the major challenges for women and girls is the management of their time and resources as they manage multiple tasks and roles, whether productive, reproductive, caring, leadership, etc. With good urbanization comes better access to services and opportunities and more efficiency, which helps them to fulfill their roles and have time to invest in their own capacity building to achieve more. On the other hand, beyond infrastructure, the safety and availability of public space for women to interact and to reach out for these opportunities is critical. Urbanization also provides a platform for intercultural engagement, innovation and creativity, which provides a bigger job market for women, which unfortunately is still undervalued and under-‐recognized (these are mainly informal sector, underpaid and unpaid, care work, and other services). When urbanization is unplanned, there is a lack of safe space and the city is disconnected, creating time wastage in commuting and congestion, creating gaps between family/work balance, education services which all threaten the safety, wellbeing, and development capacity of women. This is why the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, specifically goals 5 and 11, recognizes the role of cities to empowering women and need to be supported. Local leaders and senior management support is needed as well as National Urban Policies, and all this is very well covered in the New Urban Agenda. The New Urban Agenda presents a true framework for the empowerment of women and girls in the urban space and in human settlements as a whole. What important factors do leaders need to highlight? At present, achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls is listed as number 5 on the list of SDGs, but as former Spanish President José Luis Zapatero pointed out, when these goals expire in 2030, the incumbent list of global goals must see Gender Equality and Women’s empowerment at number one. My advice to local governments comes in five points: a. Safety and Security: Women and girls are more at risk of facing gender-‐based violence (GBV) than men and boys. This is to say, they are more likely to experience violence on the basis of their gender than men and boys. This is not
to say that men and boys do not experience violence, rather that the reasons behind the violence may include dimensions other than gender. Therefore, safety in cities is paramount in allowing women and girls to access their right to health, education and decent work, which in turn will improve prospects in leadership and economic empowerment. b. Participation in governance: specific measures must be taken to include women in government; there are varied ways to approach this: quota systems, funding of local women’s rights CSOs and NGOs, etc. c. Recognize and address the unpaid care-‐economy: We often wear blinders when approaching the reality of economies. There is a massive amount of labor in urban economies that depends on the unpaid responsibilities/duties of the care-‐economy. Women and girls are predominantly responsible for the various duties in the care-‐economy, which present women with a reality of extreme time-‐poverty that hinders their access to paid labor, skill building, recognition of their rights and fair pay. The economies of cities are dominated by the secondary and tertiary sectors: these are cash-‐based, which means that women face a harsh reality in cities as they simultaneously suffer from time-‐poverty and the demands of cash-‐based economies. For this reason, it is paramount that cities plan and address the demands of the care-‐economy in order to allow women the space and time to engage in urban economies successfully. d. Bring men and boys onboard: as Martin Luther King Jr. noted, “An Injustice Anywhere is a Threat to Justice Everywhere”. This must be the mantra of local governments to involve men and boys into the dialogue on gender equality and women’s empowerment at the local, national, regional and international levels. e. Institute gender budgeting: local authorities have to plan and track for gender equality allocation and spending. Budgets must be allocated to the process of creating a fairer inclusive society. In your opinion, what circumstances will give evidence that gender equality goal is “achieved”? Gender Equality goal is achieved when: women, men, girls and boys enjoy the same rights and opportunities across all sectors of society, including economy and decision – making participation, and when they are equally represented in a range of roles. It does not mean that men and women will become the same but that their responsibilities and participation will not depend on whether they are born male or female. They should have access to all the opportunities they need and the opportunity to try out new things. Well planned urbanization would facilitate the achievement of gender equality as it enhances inclusive access to basic services and opportunities both in education and jobs, it allows for creativity, diversity, and therefore should be embraced and reduces the cultural barriers. Any messages you would like to share to local leaders in Asia-‐Pacific regarding to gender equality implementation?
The World Mayor Project, which since 2004 has awarded the World Mayor Prize to “honor those who have made long-‐lasting contributions to their communities and are committed to the well-‐being of cities nationally and internationally,” declared Mayor Tri Rismaharini of Surabaya, the second runner-‐up of the 2014 edition of the award. She also received the World Mayor Commendation for services to the city of Surabaya. The World Mayor project said of Risma, as she is fondly called: “Tri Rismaharini often talks of the need to govern not only for the people but also with the people,” it said. “She learnt from the experience of other fast-‐growing cities in Asia and Europe that massive new developments can alienate people. The mayor is therefore keen to match built development with social programs.” We have to think critically and creatively. We must engage women, men and boys, youth, indigenous communities, environmental groups and the disabled. We must represent the change we want to see in this world. If we want our world’s cities to be safe, to be environmentally sound, to become hubs for future innovation, we have to think big. Urbanization brings together minds from different expertise and genders and creates space for dialogue and creativity, which we should use to think transformatively. Much has been done on gender equality and women’s empowerment in Asia and the Pacific. ESCAP member states and local leaders were actively engaged in the Beijing+20 review process, and therefore had a major role in implementing gender equality implementation in Asia-‐Pacific region. There is a growing recognition of the impact that women have on political institutions and agendas. Their different approaches to governance have been defined as a version of transformative leadership. Urbanization creates a space for dialogue, innovation and creativity to enable transformation. To the local leaders: • Women’s entry into local politics has the potential to influence a wide range of policy decisions and local community programmes. • Broadening the focus on women’s political participation to local level political decision-‐making provides new opportunities for monitoring progress and setbacks in gender equality at the local level. • Having available, reliable quantitative data on a global level on the number of women in local government will give visibility to local women leaders’ contributions, and thus to the need to empower more women to take up leadership roles. • Strengthening institutions, including the capacities of national women’s machineries to mainstream the needs and interests of women and girls in national policies, legislation, and public institutions. • Major improvements have been made in the Asia-‐Pacific region and more can be achieved in order to champion gender equality. Local leaders are the voices and role models through which this goal can be reached.