Gender in UN-Habitat Policies and Programs. Past and Present, 1978-2025

This article provides a detailed account of the development and present state of gender equality policies in human settlements within the UN system. The first section describes the institutionalization of policies addressing housing and the built environment within the UN: from the creation of the first agency called United Nations Center for Human Settlements in 1978, to the present-day UN-Habitat, their mandates, governance structure, and key policies. The second section presents the early development of gender equality policies at these agencies, which happened with certain delay and against the background of previous important efforts within the UN system, including its 1945 Charter, the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) of 1978, and the Beijing World Women’s Conference of 1995. The third section considers the advances achieved during and between the international conferences Habitat II and Habitat III, the key role played by women’s organizations, and the consolidation of gender policies in human settlements at UN-Habitat, demonstrated during the process of developing the New Urban Agenda. The account shows how the integration of gender equality policies in human settlements at the UN has required and will continue to require fire from all sides, that is, continued pressure from outside by women’s organizations, support by governments, support from other UN agencies, and from internal forward-thinking UN personnel, as well as the uninterrupted contributions of professionals, academics and grassroots women.