Urban Thinkers Campus: Towards Gender Balanced Urban Development

Cities around the world are increasingly developing climate adaptation and resilience strategies. Due to the different effects of climate change on men and women, these urban adaptation actions need to take on a gendered approach to ensure that proposed solutions do not exacerbate existing gender inequalities in cities. Yet, many adaptation plans fail to capitalize on women’s knowledge who are often the first responders when disaster strikes and also hold the role of the household and community educators. Since women tend to be poorly represented in urban decision-making on climate action, gender dimensions are rarely prioritized in urban planning and policies on climate action and adaptation.

Cities Alliance and the Université Libre de Bruxelles organize an Urban Thinkers Campus to discuss how the EU can support women-led climate adaptation actions in cities and what is needed to improve gender mainstreaming across urban climate adaptation plans. The event will collectively identify a set of concrete recommendations and actions.

The main questions the event will address are:

• What are the challenges and opportunities to the incorporation of a gender mainstreaming approach into climate adaptation actions and plans? 
• How to best translate international adaptation and gender mainstreaming agendas into local initiatives and projects on the ground? 
• How can the EU improve its impact on the ground by fostering gender-sensitive and resilient cities?
• What can we learn from local initiatives focusing on the topic in Europe and abroad?

Speakers

• Giulia Maci, Urban Specialist, Lead of the Cities for Women Programme, Cities Alliance

• Margaux Bonnet, Gender and Development Advisor, French Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs 
• Mar Merita Blat, Gender Expert - Gender Project Officer, Agence Française de Développement
• Katerina Fortun, Policy Analyst, DG CLIMA, European Commission
• Lajana Manandhar, Executive Director, Lumanti Shelter Group - Lalitpur, Nepal
• Carmen Ledo, Coordinator, Planning and Management Center (CEPLAG), University of San Simon - Cochabamba, Bolivia
• Chloe Salembier, Co-founder, Angela D Association - Brussels, Belgium
• Diana Angela Wachira, Programme Officer, Pamoja Trust - Nairobi, Kenya
• Leone Drapeaud, Project Manager, Perspective Brussels - Brussels, Belgium 
• Angele Khoury - Researcher, ULB Architecture Department
• Sophie Cottier - Researcher, ULB Architecture Department
• Moderator: Didier Vancutsem, Associate Professor, ULB Architecture Department

Attend the event in person: Auditorium Bourgeois, Faculté d’architecture de l’ULB: La Cambre Horta, Pl. Eugène Flagey 19, 1050 Bruxelles, Belgium.