Coverage: UN Women Deputy Executive Director Lakshmi Puri at Habitat III
Date:
The Third United Nations Conference on Housing and Sustainable Urban Development, Habitat III, is underway in Quito, Ecuador, from 17 - 20 October. The conference will adopt the New Urban Agenda—a robust, action-oriented outcome document which will set global standards in sustainable urban development, rethinking the way we build, manage, and live in cities.
Welcoming the New Urban Agenda and its gender-responsive language, UN Women Deputy Executive Director Ms. Lakshmi Puri stressed on the need to continue working with all stakeholders to ensure that the Agenda delivers to and for women, young women and girls in the cities and everywhere, in sustainable, measurable and accountable ways.
18 October
In the margins of Habitat III, a number of Ecuadorian Government and high-level representatives met to discuss the critical role of gender equality in advancing sustainable development and endorsed UN Women's HeForShe solidarity movement.
“Gender equality is a precondition to sustainable development; strong political and economic commitments are fundamental to incorporate the full potential of women into the road map drawn by the Agenda 2030,” said Deputy Executive Director Ms. Lakshmi Puri during her opening remarks. Four male Cabinet Ministers from the Ecuadorian Government—Defense, Security Coordination, Sports and Foreign Affairs—as well as the Head of the National Tax Office and the Public Ombudsman officially signed on to the HeForShe campaign. Local authorities present pledged to take action against gender-based discrimination, biases and violence.
17 October
Deputy Executive Director Lakshmi Puri participated at several events and meetings and highlighted that the transformative and ambitious approach of the New Urban Agenda requires bold gender mainstreaming efforts to ensure capacities are in place for the urban sustainable development policies and programmes to deliver for all women and girls.
15–16 October
Speaking at the opening of the “Women’s and Youth Assembly” on 15 October, UN Women Deputy Executive Director, Ms. Lakshmi Puri said, “The New Urban Agenda contains important transformative commitments to further strengthen the gender equality compact of the SDGs. Among those, ensuring women’s participation in decision-making at all levels—including in the local governments—and securing land tenure rights for women, promoting safe and secure cities so to ensure women’s right to a life without violence, fear or intimidation. The New Urban Agenda also recognizes women’s equal rights to economic access and opportunities as well as to decent jobs…”
“We have before us an unmissable opportunity. Our challenge now is strategizing on how to ensure the ink on paper translates promptly into effective implementation on the ground,” she added. Speech>>
Ms. Puri also thanked the Ecuadorian Government and the Secretary of Habitat III for opening the space where women can raise their expectations, needs and petitions around the building of the New Urban Agenda. “It is an honor to be here in Quito, the land of Manuela Sáenz and other women who started the fight for freedom, not only theirs but also the fight of peoples and regions as a whole,” she said, at the Women’s Assembly.
The conference has created a gender-sensitive space, installed diaper-changing units at the venue and in order to help participants balance their professional work and parenthood, offered free child care facilities.