As the number of the poor in the world increases, adequate shelter for all is becoming an increasingly difficult objective and well beyond the capability and resources of national and local governments. It is estimated that globally at least one third of households are de facto women-headed, and evidence suggests that urban households headed by women are likely to be poorer than those headed by men.

Women play multiple roles in the human settlements development process as economic producers, as managers of households, as producers of houses and services, as workers providing the household with all of its necessities, as reproducers rearing children, and as community managers, caring for their neighbourhoods. The obstacles they face are directly related to their low economic status. Women’s unequal access to human settlements resources, such as property and finance, training, and appropriate technology undermines their capacity to perform their roles and reduces their economic productivity.

At the outset of the United Nations Decade for Women: Equality, Development and Peace in 1975, it was noted that women continued to constitute 50 per cent of the world’s population but owned only 1 per cent of its property. Even when women have legal rights to land and property, customs often prevent them from exercising such rights.

Human settlements decision - and policy-makers have made several erroneous assumptions regarding women and shelter, notably: that the household consists of a nuclear family of husband, wife and children; that within the family there is a clear division of labour in which the man of the family, as the “breadwinner”, is involved in productive work outside the home, while the woman takes overall responsibility for reproductive and domestic work; that there is equal control over resources and power of decision-making within the household between the man and the woman in matters affecting the household’s livelihood. These misconceptions have led to the formulation of shelter policies that have failed to take into account women’s specific needs. The problem is recognized in the Global Strategy for Shelter to the Year 2000, and it is high time that human settlements planners and decision-makers take these facts into consideration when formulating policies.

The Fourth World Conference on Women: Action for Equality, Development and Peace, to be held at Beijing in 1995, will be followed in 1996, by the second United Nations Conference of Human Settlements, (Habitat II), 20 years sitter the first one held in Vancouver. Habitat II will examine the current situation and look for new solutions to human settlements development, with special emphasis on improving the living conditions of the world’s urban and rural poor.

In the process leading up to these two important events, the theme for World Habitat Day 1993 was “Women and shelter development”. Since 1985, UNCHS (Habitat) has, with the support of decisions of the Commission on Human Settlements and the General Assembly, stressed the importance of improving the status of women, enabling women to take a more active part in the human settlements process as a whole, and incorporating gender issues into its entire work programme.

The Women in Human Settlements Development Programme of UNCHS (Habitat) has initiated a comprehensive programme of action to address the particular problems of women in the area of shelter and human settlements development. The Programme is based on the following three major strategies:

· (a) Capacity-building, targeting different groups active in the human settlements field at various institutional levels; providing gender competence training for high-level officials of governments, non-governmental and community-based organizations and Professional staff of UNCHS (Habitat); providing managerial and advocacy skills training for women who are already in the human settlements field, and construction, maintenance and environmental protection skills training for women in general.

· (b) Participatory action and research which involve: gathering and processing data and developing indicators in order to measure the participation of women in the human settlements development process; evaluating the field experiences of women in the construction field and in credit schemes, documenting experiences of women in decision-making positions in the human settlements field; and developing, producing and testing handbooks for gender-awareness building within the human settlements development process.

· (c) Networking activities which include: supporting regional newsletters and the inter-regional Habitat International Coalition Women and Shelter Network; collecting and disseminating case studies on successful integration of gender issues in specific areas of human settlements development; developing and disseminating training materials such as videos, manuals, posters, and flyers related to essential topics; supporting regional exchange and inter-regional meetings for women working in local governments, and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) active in the human settlements development field; and collaborating in the system-wide effort to have closer coordination of activities and to share information on gender-awareness activities among United Nations agencies.

This booklet which is based on material originally produced for World Habitat Day 1993, is intended for a wide audience: policy-makers, practicing professionals, NGOs and community-based organizations (CBOs) of developing and industrialized countries involved in formulating policies or implementing strategies in the human settlements development process.

Dr. Wally N’Dow
Assistant-Secretary General,
United Nations Centre for Human Settlements (Habitat)
and
Secretary-General,
United Nations Conference on Human Settlements (Habitat II)