Urban-Act Integrates Gender and Inclusion into City Climate Action (Scan QR code for full strategy)

The Urban-Act project under GIZ introduced its Gender Equality, Disability and Social Inclusion (GEDSI) strategy in April 2024. This strategy aims to ensure equitable access and participation for all individuals, regardless of their background, in the project’s support of sustainable urban development in the Asia-Pacific region.

The foundational principle of the Urban-Act GEDSI strategy is to implement the project with a strong focus on gender and its intersectionality with disability, age, culture and socioeconomic factors, going beyond the binary discussion of gender.

The strategy aligns with the Fields of Action based on the IKI Gender Strategy, which focuses on the project’s governance structure and accountability, gender competence, knowledge management and communications, as well as resources and budget.

This approach aims to prevent unintended harm, exclusion and further discrimination against vulnerable groups while promoting their rights, equal opportunities and benefits.

Urban-Act has studied and identified significant gaps in addressing climate and gender issues in the five project countries: China, India, Indonesia, the Philippines and Thailand. The gendered impact of climate change on the intersectional needs of vulnerable groups remains to be fully understood, not only in different cultural contexts but also within cities. Access to urban infrastructure and meaningful participation in urban planning still needs to be equal for men, women, LGBTQI+, vulnerable communities and diverse groups.

Although each country has policies responsive to climate and gender, they often treat these topics separately, overlooking the integrated nature of their impacts in cities’ various development aspects such as planning, budgeting, implementation, monitoring and evaluation.

To address these shortcomings, Urban-Act is ambitious about integrating the GEDSI strategy across all project processes. It seeks to guide the mainstreaming of GEDSI and inclusive participation in the implementation of the Urban-Act project by reflecting GEDSI-related data in policy recommendations, facilitating the meaningful participation of women and vulnerable groups in urban planning processes and climate-resilient project conceptualisation, and integrating a GEDSI lens in all its capacity development and knowledge management measures.

This intersectional lens on GEDSI helps Urban-Act recognise the multifaceted impacts of climate change on people in urban settings and ensures meaningful participation and inclusiveness in all its interventions.

The Urban-Act GEDSI strategy includes practical checklists with specific actions to integrate a GEDSI lens in project management, technical implementation, capacity development, communications and public relations, administrative processes and monitoring and evaluation.

Dr Nozomi Kawarazuka, an anthropologist and scientist at the International Potato Center and gender focal point for CGIAR Asian Mega Deltas Initiative, and Ms Eva Kail, a leading expert for gender planning in Europe, delivered the keynote address to launch the GEDSI strategy. They discussed gender and intersectionality in urban climate resilience and the experience of Vienna, Austria, on gender-inclusive urban planning, respectively.

Urban-Act seeks to support its partners in achieving sustainable and inclusive urban climate resilience. This involves mainstreaming GEDSI in decision-making, planning and policy programming and project development. Ultimately, the goal is to promote gender equality, disability rights and social inclusion as fundamental pillars of sustainable urban development in the face of climate change.

To explore more about the Urban-Act Project, please visit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qJX38_ijR-w