Women's Assembly

The Women’s Assembly is the key event for all those working towards women’s empowerment and gender equality, providing a platform to shape discourse on women’s rights in urban settings. It will commence with a high-level welcome and scene-setting before transitioning into six focused discussion groups. These groups will address the following topics: adequate housing for women, gender equality and climate change, ensuring no woman is left behind, funding women’s empowerment, gender equality in the digital era and women in crisis settings.

Led by thematic specialists with extensive practical and normative experience including national government experts, mayors and local government representatives, diverse women’s rights activists and practitioners, funding bodies, grassroots organizers and senior United Nations officials, these groups will offer rich, action-oriented discussions. Co-leads will assist in ensuring that key points raised in the discussion are noted and reported.

The smaller, interactive forums of these discussion groups will present the opportunity for all participants to share best practices, make their voices heard to inform the content of the WUF Declaration, and learn about approaches and practices from across the world. Attendees can select the discussion group most relevant to their interests and expertise, with the flexibility to move between groups if desired.

A 60-minute lunch break will follow the discussion groups to facilitate networking. Participants may connect with the thematic specialists, delve deeper into discussion points of particular interest, and form the basis for future partnerships.

Upon reconvening, the session leads will present summaries of the key messages from their discussion group to all Assembly participants. The moderator will conclude by presenting the outcomes of the Women’s Assembly, formulating key messages to feed into events and discussions throughout WUF12 and ultimately inform the WUF Outcome Declaration.

Background documents for each discussion stream will be shared prior to the event, ensuring participants are well-prepared for meaningful engagement. Join the Assembly to explore innovative solutions and collaborate on advancing gender equality in urban settings.

Linkage with WUF12 theme

The Assembly discussions are directly linked to the six dialogues and loosely correspond to the priorities of each dialogue. As such, the Assembly will be able to feed key points related to gender equality and women’s empowerment into the subsequent dialogue discussions.

Objectives

• Examine and propose strategies to overcome obstacles that prevent women and girls from accessing opportunities and participating in urban decision-making
• Facilitate discussions and networking opportunities among participants to share best practices and form partnerships that advance women's empowerment and rights in urban settings.
• Develop actionable recommendations to guide urban policymakers in creating inclusive and equitable cities, ensuring that insights from the assembly contribute to shaping the WUF12 outcome declaration

Expected outcomes and impact of the session

• Practical impact solutions: The discussions will emphasize practical impacts, highlighting approaches, methodologies and tools that can be adapted and applied at local, regional and national levels.
• Recommendations and best practices: Drawing from the experiences of the speakers and participants, the session will generate recommendations for urban policy makers, professionals and advocates to expand gender equality and women’s empowerment, and create more inclusive cities for women and girls.
• Shape the WUF12 outcome declaration: Key insights from the discussion will inform the WUF outcome document, ensuring that it is gender-transformative and addresses the needs of women and girls in urban settings.
• Networking: The session will enable both speakers and participants to connect with leading experts and others working on the various ensuring and expanding women’s rights.

Guiding questions

• What are the key barriers preventing women and girls from accessing opportunities, benefitting from progress in this area, and shaping the decisions and narratives?
• Please identify three effective practices at the local or national level that can support women and girls in overcoming these barriers.
• Please identify your top three recommendations in addressing the obstacles identified in Question 1 and explain the rationale behind each.