Housing and Slum Upgrading

HOUSING AND SLUM UPGRADING
GENDER
ISSUE GUIDE
GENDER
ISSUE GUIDE
Gender Issue Guide: Housing and Slum Upgrading
First published in Nairobi in 2012 by UN-Habitat

Copyright © United Nations Human Settlements Programme 2012
PO Box 30030 00100 Nairobi GPO KENYA

Tel: 254-020-7623120 (Central Office)
www.unhabitat.org
HS Number HS/038/13E
Disclaimer
The designations employed and the presentation of material in this publication do not imply the expression of any opinion
whatsoever on the part of the secretariat of the United Nations concerning the legal status of any country, territory, city or
area or its authorities, or concerning the delimitation of its frontiers or boundaries regarding its economic system or degree of
development. Excerpts may be reproduced without authorization, on condition that the source is indicated. Views expressed in
this publication do not necessarily reflect those of the United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat), the United
Nations and its member states.
Acknowledgements
Contributors: Modupe Adebanjo, Prabha Khosla, Vandana Snyder, the UN-Habitat Gender Coordination and Support Unit, and the
UN-Habitat Housing and Slum Upgrading Branch
Editor: Edward Miller
Design and layout: Edward Miller, Victor Mgendi
Cover photos: Urban Renewal project, Turkey © UN-Habitat; Madagascar, 2008 © UN-Habitat
Printing: UNON Publishing Services Section, Nairobi, ISO 14001:2004-certified

HOUSING AND SLUM UPGRADING v
Acronyms
CEDAW Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of

Discrimination Against Women
COHRE Centre on Housing Rights and Evictions
DFID Department for International Development
GHS 2025 Global Housing Strategy to the Year 2025
GUO Global Urban Observatory
HIV/AIDS Human Immunodeficiency Virus/Acquired Immunodeficiency

Syndrome
M&E Monitoring And Evaluation
MEA Men Engage Alliance
NGO Non-Governmental Organization
PGA Participatory Gender Audit
UN Women United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the

Empowerment of Women
UN-Habitat United Nations Human Settlements Programme
VAW Violence Against Women

WHO World Health Organization
Contents
Section 1: Introduction................................................................................1
Section 2: Human settlement issues and housing and slum upgrading.........3
Section 3: Gender equality and housing and slum upgrading.......................9
Section 4: Introduction to gender mainstreaming......................................13
Section 5: Strategies and approaches for mainstreaming gender

equality in housing and slum upgrading....................................15
Section 6: Gender-sensitive indicators........................................................39
Annex I: Key concepts.............................................................................45
Annex II: References and resources..........................................................49

IDPs in Northern Uganda
© UN-Habitat
HOUSING AND SLUM UPGRADING 1
1
SECTION
Introduction
Access to adequate housing is a fundamental human right and is enshrined in

numerous international agreements and conventions. “Within the overall context of
an enabling approach,” states Paragraph 61 of the Habitat Agenda, “governments
should take appropriate action in order to promote, protect and ensure the full and
progressive realization of the right to adequate housing.” Yet millions of women
and men continue to live in towns and cities without security of tenure and with
inadequate housing and related services.
Housing and the related services, i.e. residential areas, are a major component of any
urban centre. They form an intimate part of the urban fabric. However, the housing
fabric of cities has diverse neighbourhoods, with housing stock of different sizes,
materials, and inhabitants. Slums and informal settlements in urban centres often
have high population densities and occupy a smaller geographical space compared to
single-family or estate housing in low-density neighbourhoods.
And as with urbanization processes themselves, the right to housing and services is
determined by gender, power, privilege, and discrimination. Since women participate less
in decision making and have less access to assets and resources, they also have less access
to land and housing. Low-income women and men in slums and informal settlements
live with the most tenure and housing-related insecurity; low-income single women and
women-headed households are often even more restricted in their access to housing.
Sustainable urbanization will remain elusive if slums continue to exist as

neighbourhoods of deprivation with violations of human rights. Slums can be
transformed into better working and living environments by the involvement of
slum dwellers themselves. Women and men in slums must be included in urban
governance, management, and planning.
Urban sustainability will only be possible when the planning and design of human
settlements takes the lives and diversity of its residents – including women and
girls – into account and is respectful of environmental integrity. Whether developing
urban land-use policies and plans, constructing water and sanitation infrastructure,
2 GENDER ISSUE GUIDE
or creating new neighbourhoods and transportation systems, the perspectives and

voices of the marginalized are crucial for urban sustainability.
The objectives of this guide are as follows:
• Increase understanding of gender concerns and needs in housing and slum

upgrading
• Develop staff and partners’ capacity to address gender issues in this area
• Encourage staff and partners to integrate a gender perspective into policies,

projects, and programmes for sustainable urban development
• Support the institutionalization of the culture of gender mainstreaming and

gender equality, the implementation of gender-sensitive projects/programmes,
and the monitoring of gender-mainstreaming progress
Key gender concepts are explained in Annex 1.

2
Human Settlement
SECTION
Issues and Housing and

Slum Upgrading
Close to one billion urban dwellers in developing countries live in slums. This is
due to the ineffectiveness of land and housing policies, among other factors. In
responding to this huge challenge, UN-Habitat advocates a twin-track approach that
focuses on (1) improving the supply and affordability of new housing through the
provision of serviced land and housing opportunities at scale, which can curb the
growth of new slums; and (2) implementing citywide and national slum-upgrading
programmes that can improve housing conditions and quality of life in existing
slums. It is important to widen housing choices and opportunities at the appropriate
scale and at an affordable price in diverse, suitable locations vis-à-vis access to
employment and income generation. This will directly impact the future of cities and
their ecological and economic footprints. Thus, enabling the housing sector to work
better is critical for preventing the multiplication of slums and promoting sustainable
urban development. Better housing and the upgrading of slums will contribute to the
reduction of gender and social inequalities and improve urban safety.
UN-Habitat provides technical assistance to city, regional, and national authorities as they
design and implement programmes to increase the supply of affordable housing and to
prevent the formation of new slums. In addition, UN-Habitat supports the improvement
of existing slums through a citywide slum-upgrading approach that provides a viable
alternative to informality. In this work, UN-Habitat promotes the following:
• The participation of residents and their grass-roots organizations in the

implementation and post-implementation phases of both formal housing
development and slum upgrading
• Energy efficiency and renewable energy use in the urban housing sector
Gender equity in access to adequate housing is in many countries still impeded by

practices that discriminate against women and women-headed households. In order
to enhance gender equality, specific projects designed to improve the access of
women-headed households to adequate housing will be implemented by three UN-
Habitat cluster areas:
1. Housing
2. Slum upgrading
3. Community development
These work sectors are described below.
1. HOUSING
The Global Housing Strategy to the Year 2025 is a collaborative global movement
towards adequate housing for all and improving the housing and living conditions
of slum dwellers. It is primarily a process, not a document. Its main objective is to
support member states in working towards the right to adequate housing as part
of the right to an adequate standard of living, particularly through the reduction of
unlawful forced evictions. The Global Housing Strategy to the Year 2025 supports
member states in organizing and updating their National Housing Strategies and
the housing components of National Urban Development Strategies. It is an integral
component of the Global Urban Development Strategy.
A National Housing Strategy is an agreed set of activities that guides policies and
planning in the area of slum upgrading and prevention. The strategy also guides the
programming of investment, management, and maintenance activities in the areas
of housing and slum upgrading and prevention. These issues need to be integral
components of the National Urban Development Strategies with the full involvement
of all relevant stakeholders. Housing strategies, at national and city levels, are
inseparable from land-use planning and infrastructure strategies, including mobility
and local economic development strategies. These all need to be integrated into the
broad participatory and inclusive urban planning and management process, within a
supportive legal and regulatory framework.
National Housing Strategies, as a part of the National Urban Development Strategies,

play a guiding role for decisions at the national level, and they provide the framework
for strategies at the local level, i.e. the metropolitan, city, town, and village levels.
They are, as a part of the Global Housing Strategy, a continuous process and a living
set of documents, updated as needed to reflect new realities in the joint efforts of all
relevant stakeholders.
National-level decisions in the areas of housing and slum upgrading and prevention
include the following:
• The majority of the legal and regulatory frameworks
• Requirements for, and support to, urban planning at the local level
• Systems of fiscal incentives
• Major infrastructure investments
• Measures to ensure the local availability of land, finance, infrastructure, and services
• Supply of building materials, as well as the development of culturally relevant

housing and green housing
2. SLUM UPGRADING
The unprecedented increase in slums and other informal settlements demonstrates

the lack of adequate and affordable housing that results from poor urban policies.
Over 860 million people now live in slums. Despite efforts that have improved the
living conditions of 230 million slum dwellers, the number of dwellers has increased
by 132 million since the year 2000. This slum growth is outpacing the improvement
of living conditions in slums. With the exception of a few success stories, there is an
urgent need to revisit housing and slum improvement to face today’s realities.
UN-Habitat’s definition of a slum is the most widely used around the world. While
a global definition may fail to account for the nuances of particular slums in
certain cities and countries, a definition with relevant indicators is important when
attempting to measure the growth or decline of slum populations. Indicators can also
be used to monitor the effects of policies and programmes, and they permit cross-
country comparison.
UN-Habitat (UN-Habitat, 2006a, p. 20) defines a slum as an area that has one or
more of the following five characteristics:
1. Poor structural quality of housing
2. Overcrowding
3. Inadequate access to safe water
4. Inadequate access to sanitation and other infrastructure
5. Insecure residential status
A slum household is therefore deemed to consist of a household or a group of

people living under the same roof while lacking one or more of the five amenities
alluded to above. The narrow definition of slum upgrading refers to improvements
in housing and basic infrastructure in slum areas. In a broader sense, upgrading also
includes enhancements in the economic and social processes that can bring about
such physical improvements (UN-Habitat, 2004, p. 3).
Thus the term ‘slum upgrading’ covers a wide range of potential interventions, and
any upgrading project or programme may include one or more such interventions. It is,
however, increasingly recognized that the broader and more integrated the approach, the
more successful it is likely to be. Interventions ideally are holistic, including physical, social,
economic, organizational, and environmental improvements undertaken cooperatively
among citizens, community groups, businesses, governments, and city authorities.
Citywide slum upgrading can be defined as “an alternative to piecemeal, project-

based slum improvement. It is a programmatic way of addressing the challenge of
slums and informal settlements in a city aiming at the physical, social, juridical and
economic integration of all slums into the official planning and urban management
systems that govern the city. It takes the entire city as the planning unit such that
upgrading is not limited to a few slum communities but becomes a programmatic
process encompassing all slums of the city. Citywide slum upgrading promotes
multiple and simultaneous interventions at the settlement level that aim to improve
the quality of urban life of their residents through investments in basic infrastructure,
settlement planning and local economic and social development processes”.1
Citywide slum upgrading represents a fundamental shift from piecemeal project

interventions to a citywide programme approach. As such, slum upgrading requires
an integrated approach to slum improvement, not a sector one. In other words,
public investment ought to be directed to a wide range of sectors, e.g. basic
infrastructure such as water, sanitation, drainage, and solid waste management and
combined with the securing of tenure rights for residents and the improvement of
urban planning, land regularization, housing (re)construction, etc.
1 http://prezi.com/sgwxojoz3a_f/citywide-slum-upgrading/
Importantly, citywide slum upgrading offers the opportunity to knit slums into their
surrounding urban fabric. The goal is to make them and their dwellers physically,
legally, and socially a part of the city, and to make them a part of the city’s official
planning and management systems.
3. COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT
This community-centred approach to housing development and settlement upgrading

has been termed the ‘People’s Process’, and it has earned wide recognition as a
viable housing development mechanism. The key principles are (1) the beneficiaries
actively participating in the decision making on housing processes and products, and
(2) the authorities taking a supporting role through such aspects as technical advice,
training, legal support, recognition, and finance.
The People’s Process has proven extremely beneficial in post-disaster situations

in aiding recovery, cultivating a spirit of peacebuilding, and fostering community
cohesiveness. The process has also been beneficial in generating a system that allows
every family in need to build a basic secure home that can be improved incrementally
over time. Problem identification exercises, community action planning, and
community contracts are some of the many tools used by communities to identify
their needs and priorities, and in turn to respond to them in a collective and forward-
looking manner.
Solidarity within communities becomes a foundation for peacebuilding and for

sustainable communities and local governments. The steps of the People’s Process
include:
1. Mobilizing of the community and organization
2. Community action planning
3. Community banking
4. Community contracts
5. Community monitoring
Figure: Control paradigm vs support paradigm
People People
Money
Technology Needs
Rules Organization
Surveys Bonding
fessional
ning Standards
pro
Technical Advice
Legal Support
s
Regulations
Standards
Designing
Planning
Planning
Respect
Rules
Rules
Trust
authorities People
Bur
plan
eaucrats
controls Organization
Money, Training
The ‘control paradigm’ that dominates much housing development contrasts with the ‘support paradigm’, the
People’s Process, which is widely used in Asia and places people at the centre of development.
Source (adapted): Lankatilleke, L. and Y. Todoroki (2009)
The figure shows the difference between the People’s Process approach and a more
conventional approach to housing development.
If people are mobilized and organized from the time of disaster, the transition from
relief to recovery to reconstruction and development is seamless. This process relies
on the ingenuity and creativity of the people to be directed at the rebuilding of their
lives and of their physical assets. This approach is now being extended to housing
development and slum upgrading.
3
Gender Equality and
SECTION
Housing and Slum

Upgrading
WHY IS IT IMPORTANT TO ADDRESS GENDER ISSUES AND

CONCERNS IN HOUSING AND SLUM UPGRADING?
The implementation of women’s rights in the land, property, and housing sector
remains one of the more difficult challenges. This is due to patriarchal attitudes and
cultural practices, as well as the lack of political will and commitment on the part
of many governments. While to date there has been some acceptance of women’s
rights to land, property, and housing, as well as some new policies and laws, their
implementation and enforcement has been far from effective.
Housing is largely a women’s issue, as women are primarily responsible for

sustaining and maintaining the home and the family. However, women have limited
rights to adequate housing and insufficient security, and the following challenges
consequently arise:
• Women face discrimination across all aspects of housing as a result of their

gender and factors such as poverty, age, sexual orientation, and ethnicity.
• As a consequence of cultural and traditional norms, women are more often

excluded from secure land tenure and housing than men.
• Women are disadvantaged further by unequal legal rights in the legislative and
policy frameworks of political systems.
• Single female heads of households are particularly vulnerable, as access to land

is often through their husbands or fathers. In these cases, they may lose access
after widowhood, divorce, desertion, or male migration, throwing the women
into destitution.
• Increasingly, women-headed households represent a high proportion of

the poorest people living in slums and informal settlements worldwide. For
example, 26 percent of the population of Brazil and 20 percent in Bosnia and
Herzegovina are women-headed households who live in inadequate housing in

poor locations, with scarce access to portable water, toilets, electricity, public
transportation, and health and education services, all of which have a great
impact on the daily life of women and girls (UN-Habitat, 2007, p. 8).
• Gender-based violence compromises women’s access and right to adequate

housing. In domestic violence cases, if the marital property is only in the man’s
name, the woman and her children effectively lose their home or property when
the only way for her to defend herself is to leave her partner or husband.
• If a woman is deserted or thrown out of the marital home, she is also left
destitute and homeless.
• Women are usually paid less than men, work in the low-paying informal
economy, or work without pay in the care economy.
• Lack of economic power further impoverishes women and hinders their right to
adequate housing. Women do not have equal access to credit and finance and
thus cannot ensure their property and land rights.
• Globalization, commodification of land, and the increasing value of real estate in

urban areas has further affected women’s rights to inheritance of land, property,
and housing. Many women are only able to access resources through their
partners or husbands. This marginalization of women is also due to top-down
land policies representing vested interests and policies that are formed with
limited participation by diverse women, including poor women, in urban land
governance.
Lack of security of land, property, and housing has multiple and overlapping impacts
on the lives of women and their children. One major global human rights crisis in
terms of gender equality is women’s inability to control, own, and access housing,
land, and property in their own right and on their own terms. This violation of
women’s human rights is intertwined with violence against women, the spread and
impact of HIV/ AIDS, poverty, and further economic impoverishment. These realities
reinforce each other with devastating consequences for millions of women and their
children in sub-Saharan Africa. A 2009 study by the Centre on Housing Rights and
Evictions (COHRE) revealed disturbing findings on HIV/AIDS, women, and housing in
Ghana, Kenya, and Uganda.
The study found the following:
• Most women can only access housing through a relationship to males, e.g.
husbands or in-laws. When these relationships break or otherwise cease to
exist, women are left vulnerable and often unable to find alternative housing for
themselves and their children.
• When women are infected with HIV, they risk being abandoned or divorced by
their spouses, and this often renders the women homeless.
• HIV/AIDS increases the number of widowed women, which in turn leads to

‘disinheritance’ and property grabbing. Widows interviewed by COHRE identified
in-laws as the main violators of their housing, land, and property rights.
• While widowed or divorced women are often pressured to return to their

natal homes, women living with HIV are also likely to be rejected by their natal
relatives. With no place to go, COHRE found that many women end up in urban
slums where they can access the cheapest rents.
• When women are forced to leave their marital homes, they usually become
solely responsible for the children. Almost 90 percent of dispossessed women
interviewed by COHRE mainly used their limited resources to care for their
children’s basic needs, leaving very little for their housing needs.
• Women’s housing rights are often violated, and access to justice can be
inaccessible or expensive, lengthy, corrupt, and discriminatory. Legal protections
and safeguards do not support women’s legal claims. Out of the 240 women
COHRE interviewed for this study, only two had successfully used the law to
regain their rightful property.
• In both rural and urban communities, COHRE found that women’s rights to
housing, land, and property are largely violated within the context of HIV/
AIDS. In particular, women in urban areas were forced to resort to inadequate
and cheap accommodation, which itself increased the risk of HIV infection and
gender-based violence.
Johor Bahru © Allessandro Scotti

4
SECTION
Introduction to Gender
Mainstreaming
WHAT IS GENDER MAINSTREAMING AND WHY IS IT

IMPORTANT?
A clearly defined gender equality policy and gender action plan is required to change
the entrenched cultural, political, and socio-economic discrimination against diverse
women. This requires a commitment from senior leaders across organizations
and institutions to develop and implement gender-sensitive polices. This process
is often referred to as gender mainstreaming. There are different frameworks for
gender analysis and thus for the development of gender equality and women’s
empowerment policies and action plans.
Any process for gender mainstreaming should be accompanied by an ongoing

capacity development programme on women’s rights, gender equality, and women’s
empowerment for all involved.
Gender mainstreaming and intersectional analysis can offer tools that help integrate
gender and diversity in urban planning and design. Many civil society and human
rights organizations provide good practices for equality in access to land, security
of tenure, housing, safety in public transport systems, etc. Often this work on the
ground has led to policy development and institutional change. Having a policy
framework for gender equality and human rights will greatly advance equality for
inclusive and sustainable cities.
Gender mainstreaming means:
• Thinking about the way labour markets work and their impact on women’s and
men’s employment.
• Considering family structures, parental roles, and domestic labour – e.g. care
work – and how this impacts women’s, men’s, and children’s lives in the short
and long term.
• Analysing gender dynamics in private and public institutions to form

recommendations on how to mainstream gender-sensitive policies and practices
across all sectors.
• Reshaping the systems at large rather than adding small-scale activities.
• Responding to the root causes of inequality and putting remedial action in

motion.
• Building partnerships between women and men to ensure both participate fully
in society’s development and benefit equally from society’s resources.
• Ensuring that initiatives respond to gender differences as well as work to reduce

gender inequality and discrimination.
• Asking the right question to see where limited resources should be best diverted.
• Increasing attention to men and their role in creating a more equal society that is
empowering and inclusive of women and girls.2
2 http://ec.europa.eu/employment_social/equal/data/document/gendermain_en.pdf
5
Strategies and Approaches for
SECTION
Mainstreaming Gender Equality

in Housing and Slum Upgrading
HOW CAN GENDER EQUALITY BE MAINSTREAMED IN

INITIATIVES TO ADDRESS HOUSING AND SLUM-UPGRADING
ISSUES IN ORDER TO ACHIEVE SUSTAINABLE URBANIZATION?
To ensure high impact and sustainable gender mainstreaming across projects,

policies, and institutions, it is important to go through key planning, design,
and implementation phases. The following gender mainstreaming steps offer
a framework to complete the initial planning, followed by implementation and
monitoring and evaluation.
PREPARATORY PHASE
• The first step is to define the links between gender equality and diversity and
the issue or sector being worked on. For example, identifying the gender
implications of new urban planning initiatives, new urban policies, or the
redevelopment of certain areas of the city.
• The second step is to understand why the promotion of gender equality is

important for securing human rights and social justice for both women and
men, as well as for the achievement of urban development objectives.
• The third step is to identify opportunities for introducing gender perspectives

into the tasks being undertaken. These opportunities or entry points can be
found in the following areas: research and analysis, policy development, use
of statistics, training events, workshops/conferences, and the planning and
implementing of projects and programmes.
• The final preparatory step is to identify an approach or methodology for

successfully incorporating gender perspectives into these tasks, doing so in a
manner that facilitates the influencing of goals, strategies, resource allocation,
and outcomes.
When deciding on an approach or methodology for gender equality, it is important to

visualize the end goal and consider what entry point will be used to reach that goal.
Some approaches include:
• Women’s and girl’s safety considerations in and around housing
• Creating and sustaining childcare facilities and programmes
• Giving budgetary priorities to slum upgrading and the development of gender-

sensitive water provision, sanitation, solid waste, and drainage infrastructure
• Ensuring that women have equal opportunity for employment in the local
government and in other sectors
IMPLEMENTATION PHASE
• Once a situational analysis or initial scoping to decide the major goals and entry
point of the project or programme has been completed, the next step is to bring
together the key stakeholders needed to reach the long-term goal.
• All stakeholders will need to have gender training and attend awareness-raising
workshops on the intersecting issues of the programme, such as gender-sensitive
urban planning, gender-based violence, or gender dimensions in access to
housing rights.
• Together, key stakeholders from the community, government officials, urban

planners, and gender experts can strategically plan for short-, medium-, and
long-term impacts and the interventions required each year to meet the
programme goals.
• It is important to build holistic partnerships to hold diverse local authorities and

actors accountable for making cities more gender sensitive, safe, and inclusive
for women and girls. This includes technical and women’s rights-based trainings
for police, urban planners, service providers, and infrastructure ministries.
• Innovative and empowering partnerships with the following actors are also key:
the private sector, to integrate technology to improve reporting on violence against
women; women’s commissions, to support building safe spaces, call centres, and
access to employment training and facilities; and media and news outlets, to raise
awareness about the challenges and exclusion women face around housing issues.
• Any gender-mainstreaming initiative must not only include women from the
local to the national level, but also offer interventions that empower women
and girls with new skills, training, leadership roles, and ongoing guidance and
support.
• Strategies and interventions should include women in decision-making

processes, from the local target communities to NGOs and state actors.
MONITORING AND EVALUATION (M&E)
• During the preparatory phase and development of a programme methodology,

an M&E framework must also be developed.
• The M&E framework will complement the programme design by providing a log
frame that measures the achievement of the major goals of the programme.
• The M&E framework must include gender-sensitive indicators that address the heart
of the problem and measure progress on reaching the goals of the programme.
• After the scoping study, it will be important to select a strong research

institution or M&E consultant to conduct baseline, midline, and endline studies
to measure the impact of the programme. This institution should have a strong
understanding of the programme as well as experience in gender, development,
and the key subject matter.
• It is best if the research institution or M&E consultant can be engaged

throughout the duration of the project.
GENDER MAINSTREAMING STRATEGIES
Gender mainstreaming can change the realities of women and girls and achieve
results when implemented through a holistic framework based on proven
international best practices.
While policies, projects, and tools must be fine-tuned to fit the local context and
specific thematic issues, general strategies can be used as a starting point to work
on a wide range of gender issues. The following strategies work together to address
the discrimination and exclusion women experience in housing and slum upgrading,
while offering a way forward that empowers women and girls and includes them
in housing rights and tenure decision-making processes (the listed strategies are
discussed in detail below).
1. Conduct gender analysis across relevant projects, policies, campaigns, and

organizations.
2. Increase gender-based data collection.
3. Apply gender mainstreaming across national and local policies.
4. Encourage grass-roots women’s participation and empowerment.
5. Engage men and boys to advocate for women’s rights and gender equality.
6. Establish women’s monitoring mechanisms (observatories).
7. Create and share gender tools, models, and good practices.
8. Build partnerships with key stakeholders, including housing, urban, and

development ministries, local authorities, legal advisors, NGOs, and local women.
1. CONDUCT GENDER ANALYSIS ACROSS RELEVANT PROJECTS,

POLICIES, CAMPAIGNS, AND ORGANIZATIONS.
How can gender analysis tools be applied to housing and slum-upgrading

policies and institutions to work towards greater gender equality?
Gender analysis is a tool for understanding the realities and relationships of diverse
women and men in terms of their access to and the distribution of resources,
responsibilities, and power. To develop a policy, programme, or project with the
objective of enabling sustainable urbanization, it is important to first understand
the different gender impacts of an issue. Gender analysis is a research and planning
method that enables equality among diverse women and men. There are many
gender analysis frameworks.3
Examples include feasibility studies, community-based planning, project assessment,

institutional change, and monitoring and evaluation. Once the nature of the activity
has been established, the team must decide on a framework for their gender analysis.
3 http://www.ilo.org/public/english/region/asro/mdtmanila/training/unit1/plngaps1.htm
For example, if a local government decides to develop a new policy on slum

upgrading, then a gender analysis tool would help to develop it. This tool will ensure
that the new policy reflects the interests and priorities of the diverse communities
of both women and men in the municipality, and it will support equality between
women and men in the city.
A gender analysis of housing laws and slum upgrading can lead to the following
benefits (UN-Habitat, 2007, p. 36):
• Harmonization of land, housing, and family (or personal) laws that deal with
inheritance and marriage and offer a gender dimension.
• Legal remedies through improved access to information and legal support

available for women.
• Promotion of legal rights and forms of (shared) tenure – such as joint titling – as
well as other flexible and innovative tenures that support women.
• Consideration, on the part of policymakers, of gender in the pursuit of

pioneering concepts in land tenure and reform.
• Addressing of the legal basis of women’s tenure where formal, informal, and
customary tenures overlap.
• Integration of laws and policies on poverty, land, housing, property, and gender.
• Focus, on the part of governments, on vulnerable women such as household heads,

members of minority groups, displaced women, those in informal settlements, and
those affected by HIV/AIDS.
Gender analysis should be conducted during all the stages of the programme
or project cycle.
Project identification
• Ensure gender considerations are integrated into the terms of reference for fact-
finding/data-seeking activities.
• Employ a gender specialist if the relevant skills are not available in the team.
• Consult both women and men and, if relevant, girls and boys as part of any fact-
finding or assessment activities.
• Ensure that objectives and goals are relevant to both women and men.
• Prepare an assessment of gender issues that identifies institutional and human

resource capacity.
• Prepare a road map on how gender issues will be addressed in the programme
or project.
Design
The project rationale takes account of an analysis of gender differences, inter-

dependence, and inter-relationships, and their implications regarding the following:
• Division of roles and responsibilities
• Opportunities and access to resources
• Barriers and constraints to participation
• Decision-making processes
• Control and ownership of resources
Operational actions
Project interventions or activities include the following:
• Policy measures to equalize opportunities and access
• Specific actions focused on women
• Capacity building/institutional strengthening to promote equality
• Building partnerships that improve service delivery to women and men

Women repair their house using mud in

Haveli, Pakistan © UN-Habitat
Implementation mechanisms
Strategies and procedures facilitate and promote the following:
• A consultation process with the diversity of female and male stakeholders
• Equitable participation in decision making (planning, implementing, and

monitoring and evaluation)
• Access to information, services, and resources for women and men
• Equitable control of resources
Monitoring and evaluation
Design includes indicators for each component which can be measured with sex-
disaggregated data:
• Are gender considerations integrated into the monitoring system?
• Do progress report formats include gender considerations?
• Are terms of reference for the assessment of results gender-aware?
• Are there measurable gender and diversity indicators for each component?
• Is sex-disaggregated data used to show changes in process, outputs, and outcomes?
Outcomes
The project achieves one or more of the following:
• Policy developed which recognizes and addresses gender inequalities
• Improved opportunities, access, and capacity
• Shared control over decision making and resources4
4 Adapted from: http://info.worldbank.org/etools/docs/library/192862/Module3/Module3b.html

Broadly speaking, the following questions are among the gender-related

considerations to use when doing a gender analysis.
Identifying the issue5
• Are both women’s and men’s experiences identifying the issues?
• Do the issues affect diverse women and men in different ways? If so, why?
• How are gender and diversity taken into account?
Defining desired/anticipated outcomes
• What does the organization want to achieve with this policy, programme, or service?
• How does the policy, programme, or service fit into the organization’s objectives?
• Who will be affected?
• What will be the effects of the policy, programme, or service on women

and men of different ages, ethnicities, socio-economic groups, occupations,
geographical locations, etc.?
Gathering information
• What types of sex-disaggregated data are available?
• Are gender-specific data available regarding specific groups (including indigenous

women, women from culturally and linguistically diverse communities, and
women with disabilities)?
• How is the input of women’s organizations and other equality-seeking groups

being pursued?
Conducting research
• How will the research conducted address the different experiences of gender
and diversity?
5 This outline has borrowed generously and been adapted from: Office for Women’s Policy (2005), ‘Gender Analysis:
Making Policies, Programs and Services Gender-Aware’, Department for Community Development, Perth, Australia,
http://www.communities.wa.gov.au/women/Resources/Documents/Gender_Analysis_Brochure.pdf and Status of
Women, Canada (no date), ‘Gender-Based Analysis Plus’, http://www.swc-cfc.gc.ca/pol/gba-acs/index-eng.html#tab5
• If conducting primary research, how are gender and diversity considerations

incorporated into research design and methodology?
• Any new data collection should collect data disaggregated by sex, age, ethnicity,
socio-economic groups, ability, sexual identity or orientation, etc.
Developing and analysing options
• How will each option disadvantage or advantage diverse women and men?
• Does each option have different effects on women’s or men’s socio-cultural and/
or economic situation?
• If gender considerations do not apply, why not?
• What are the solutions that affected groups have suggested?
• How will innovative solutions be developed to address the gender and diversity
issues identified?
Making recommendations
• In what ways are diversity and gender equality a significant element in weighting
and recommending options?
• How can the policy, programme, or service be implemented in an equitable

manner?
Communicating the policy, programme, or service
• How will communication strategies ensure that information is accessible to both

women and men and takes into account the communication needs of diverse
communities?
• Has inclusive language been used in communicating?
Evaluating the analysis
• How will diversity and gender equality concerns be incorporated into the
evaluation criteria?
• How will this be demonstrated?
• What indicators will be used to measure the effects of the policy, programme, or
service on diverse communities of women and men?
Using the information
Make sure that the outcomes and recommendations from the gender analysis are
used to inform the policy, programme, or service. A gender analysis as described
above is crucial to integrating gender equality and diversity into the programme or
project cycle.
2. INCREASE GENDER-BASED DATA COLLECTION.
Why is gender-based data collection important for programming on urban

planning and design?
Data collection offers a way to assess various changes in the social, political,
economic, and environmental behaviours and actions of individuals and diverse
communities. Gender-sensitive data collection reveals the specific challenges women
and girls experience in their daily lives, which often are overlooked by gender-neutral
research and therefore continue to remain invisible.
In order to effectively serve the gender mainstreaming process, gender analysis requires
sex-disaggregated data or information and the competent analysis of this information
from a gender perspective. The analysis provides the links between gender equality
and sustainable development; it provides quantitative and qualitative information and
data that can enable informed decision making for the benefit of men, women, boys,
and girls; it points us towards more targeted and effective solutions, minimizing risk
and maximizing impact. More gender-sensitive data and analysis will help maximize the
impact of development work and guarantee the credibility, efficiency, and effectiveness
of any projects/programmes or policies developed.
There are many benefits of collecting gender-sensitive data:
• Gendered data collection can be applied to all sectors. In the case of housing
and slum upgrading, a gender perspective will advance systems and services to
better meet the needs of women and girls. In the long term, this will improve
women’s health and safety, as well as social and economic opportunities for all.
• Quality data collection can help direct government attention and investment
towards neglected issues.
• Gender-sensitive data will offer a deeper understanding of the challenges

women and girls face today, helping to better shape projects and policies to
support their specific priority needs.
• Data findings can empower local communities to raise awareness about a

problem and bring the issue to the policy table with a strong evidence base.
3. APPLY GENDER MAINSTREAMING ACROSS NATIONAL AND LOCAL

POLICIES.
How can gender mainstreaming be integrated into housing and slum-

upgrading policymaking to strengthen women’s inclusion and participation in
city life?
National urban policies are critical for establishing guidelines on sustainable urban
development, access to housing, and gender equality. It is important to develop
accountability frameworks for local governance that affirm the human rights of
women and girls, such as the right to adequate housing and secure tenure.
Developing gender-sensitive national urban policies lead to some of the following

benefits:
• Highlighting gender inequality in access to housing and tenure and fostering

more equitable access
• Securing the right to housing for the millions of low-income women and men
living in slums and informal settlements by providing gender-inclusive land
management tools for security of tenure and housing
• Promoting the development of policies and programmes to address violence

against women and girls in both the public and private spheres, with a positive
impact on access to housing
• Facilitating economic opportunities for the millions of women and men engaged
in the urban informal sector
Examples of how to mainstream gender into national and local policies on housing
and slum upgrading include the following:
• Facilitate local and national policies to align with international human rights
standards. Measures include public ordinances, decrees, and protocols.
• Support advocacy and technical assistance for policy and legal reforms.
• Increase local authorities’ knowledge, skills, and commitments on women’s

representation, inclusion, and participation in housing policies, slum upgrading,
and urban development.
• Provide training and other capacity development support to key actors such
as local councillors, housing officials, and judges, including orientation on
normative frameworks to guide policy and legal reforms, and the development
of operating procedures and protocols.
• Increase participatory mechanisms for policymaking consultation and monitoring

with civil society to build effective accountability frameworks within local
government, with full participation from community representatives, especially
grass-roots women and adolescent girls.
• Increase engagement between local authorities and civil society at community

and local levels to coordinate, monitor, and analyse the progress and facilitation
of policy implementation.
• Raise awareness via media outlets, journalists, and outreach plans on the specific
housing concerns of women and girls to influence policy discussion on the issue
(e.g. through radio, television, and public service announcements in the mass
media and public transport).
• Provide training on and undertake gender-responsive budgeting exercises at local

levels. The purpose is to cost, assess, and promote adequate local government
budgetary appropriations for sustaining and expanding gender-sensitive housing
and slum upgrading. Adequate appropriations will incorporate the costs of the
relevant programme or departmental budget in order to mainstream gender
investments in strategic policy frameworks (e.g. in the security sector, urban
revitalization and housing, economic development, sports and recreation, crime
prevention, etc.).
4. ENCOURAGE WOMEN’S PARTICIPATION AND EMPOWERMENT.
How can women’s empowerment needs be integrated into the programmes/

projects/initiatives developed for housing and slum upgrading to ensure
gender equality and inclusiveness?
Due to the institutional discrimination against women over the centuries and
the disadvantage this has created for women today, it is necessary to develop
programmes to support women’s meaningful participation in housing and slum
upgrading.
Key to empowering women in housing and slum upgrading is a commitment to the

engagement and participation of women, including grass-roots women, in decision
making at all levels of the urban planning structures and processes.
In order to measure progress made on gender mainstreaming in housing and slum

upgrading, it is vital that women’s empowerment is included in programme design as
well as monitoring and evaluation. It is not enough to merely include women in the
process – the quality of women’s participation and training and their actual level of
empowerment must be measured in concrete terms. On the programmatic level, this
can be done by selecting strategies and interventions that increase the participation
and capacity of women, such as increasing their understanding of their human rights
and power in mobilizing together and holding duty bearers accountable.
There are various levels that women’s empowerment and inclusion can be improved
on in the areas of housing and slum upgrading:
• Strengthen global and national policy frameworks to be more women’s rights-

based and gender-sensitive from the beginning. These include the Global
Housing Strategy to the Year 2025, Habitat National Committees, National
Housing Strategies, and slum-upgrading processes.
• Offer leadership training or a crash course on housing and its legal context as
relevant to marginalized women. This will enable women to participate more
effectively.
• Ensure grass-roots women are engaged and participate in decision making at

all levels of the housing and slum-upgrading programmes and projects. Special
efforts should be made to engage low-income women as key stakeholders and
decision makers.
Locals of Chamazi, with drawings of

a housing plan, Ghana
© Ruth McLeod
• Engage women in their own right and not only as wives or partners of
men. Sometimes this requires the creation of new structures as well as the
modification of existing policies and processes.
• Increase gender-sensitive studies on housing and slum upgrading to increase

understanding around the issue and gain financial investment and technical support.
• Support women’s groups’ dialogue with local and national authorities to share
gender-specific challenges around access to land and tenure, and hold officials
accountable for delivering services.
• Mobilize local communities to take action on their own and reach out to new
partners and more receptive government officials in the case of inadequate
response.
• Create mechanisms and tools that recognize affirmative action for housing for
single women or women-headed households.
• Develop credit and finance options to support the housing needs of low-income
women and their families.
• Share best practices on successful interventions and sustainable solutions locally,

nationally, and transnationally.
The United Nations Special Rapporteurs on the Right to Adequate Housing have
defined “seven elements of the right to housing and women’s lives”.6 These provide
guidelines for realizing women’s right to adequate shelter:
Security of tenure – All people have the right to live without fear of being evicted and
receiving undue or unexpected threats.
Habitability – Adequate housing must present good conditions of protection against

cold, heat, rain, wind, and humidity, and also against the threat of fire, landslides,
flooding, or any other factor that may put people’s health at risk. Apart from that,
the size of the house and the number of rooms (bedrooms and bathrooms, mainly)
should be in accordance with the number of residents. Adequate space for washing
clothes and storing and cooking food are also important.
6 See http://direitoamoradia.org/?p=4671&lang=en
Availability of services, infrastructure, and public facilities – Houses should be connected

to water supply networks, sanitation, gas, and electricity; in the neighborhood, there
should be schools, kindergartens, health clinics, and sports and leisure areas. There
should also be accessibility to public transportation, cleaning services, and garbage
collection, among other services.
Adequate location – To be adequate, housing must be located in a place that offers

opportunities for economic, cultural, and social development. This means that in
the neighbourhood, there should be jobs and income sources available, means of
livelihood, public transportation, supermarkets, chemists, post offices, and other basic
sources of supply.
Cultural adequacy – The construction of houses and the materials used for them should
express both the cultural identity and the diversity of inhabitants. Renovations and
modernizations should also take into account the cultural dimensions of the house.
Accessibility – Non-discrimination towards and prioritization of vulnerable,

disadvantaged, and marginalized groups.
Affordable cost of housing – The cost of housing should be affordable, so as not to

undermine the family budget and also to allow access to other human rights, such
as the right to food, to leisure, etc. Expenses for running a house, such as electricity,
water, and gas, should also not be very costly.
5. ENGAGE MEN AND BOYS TO ADVOCATE FOR WOMEN’S RIGHTS

AND GENDER EQUALITY.
Why is it important to include men and boys in women’s rights related to

housing and slum upgrading and what are some proven best practices?
Although there have been minimal evaluations of working with boys and men, with
more learning required, a review of the evidence from 58 programmes around the
world by the World Health Organization (2007) indicates that this can lead to many
positive changes.
Some of the benefits of engaging men and boys for women’s rights include the
following:
• Decreased self-reported use of physical, sexual, and psychological violence in

intimate relationships (for example, Stepping Stones in South Africa and the Safe
Dates Program in the United States)
• Increased social support of spouses through shifts in community norms and

greater awareness of existing services (for example, an initiative in South Africa,
Soul City, changed community perceptions around issues of domestic violence
and taking action against it)
• More equitable treatment of sons and daughters
• Increased contraceptive and condom use
• Increased communication with partners about child health, contraception, and

reproductive decision making
• Increased women’s presence in male-dominated institutions such as security,

justice, and other public institutions vital for ending violence
The Men Engage Alliance and Promundo are some leading organizations that engage
men and boys for gender equality and ending violence against women and girls.
Some useful approaches used by these organizations include the following:
• Gender-sensitive educational approaches provide men and boys with knowledge

that can positively transform in workshops and trainings.
• Media and advocacy campaigns centred on collective responsibility, inclusion,

and positive images of men as local leaders, fathers, and husbands can shift
perceptions and actions of men and boys in cities.
• Programmes engage the broader community of non-violent men and other

groups on gender-sensitive approaches. These include bystanders, the male
population at large, and those in male-dominated or hyper-masculine institutions
(e.g. the military, police, government offices, transportation, and sports).
• Men and boys are encouraged to understand the gender biases and barriers
behind development policies and practices. A case in point is urban planning
and design, which lacks gender analysis, safe spaces, transport, activities, and
services for women and girls.
• Positive male leaders and celebrities can work with men and boys and increase
their engagement in projects for gender equality as allies for change.
6. ESTABLISH WOMEN’S MONITORING MECHANISMS.
The best way to monitor progress on gender equality in the city is by having women
and girls track the development of the projects in their own communities. This
can also be called a participatory form of monitoring and evaluation, which is one
way to overcome the many challenges and the distrust associated with ‘outsiders’
conducting data collection.
An example of an innovative participatory monitoring and evaluation system is the

Global Urban Observatory developed by the SUR Corporation of Social Studies and
Education and adopted by UN-Habitat. The observatory is designed as a global
database, capturing data from governments, local authorities, and civil society
organizations in order to “monitor the global progress in implementing the Habitat
Agenda and to monitor and evaluate global urban conditions and trends”.7 The
model focuses on setting up Local Urban Observatories, where projects are involved
in urban policy and planning and women’s rights.
The Global Urban Observatory does the following:
• Develops monitoring tools and participates in consultative policymaking processes
• Provides capacity building for local women and young people on how to collect,
manage, maintain, and use information about urban development in the local
observatories
• Supports local communities by showing them how to effectively use information

and indicators, which has proven to be a successful participatory tool in the
monitoring process
• Promotes discussion among actors from different sectors (civil society, the state,
etc.)
• Spreads awareness and information on issues among stakeholders through tools

and materials (publications, editorial competitions, workshops, and research)
7 http://ww2.unhabitat.org/programmes/guo/
7. CREATE AND SHARE GENDER TOOLS, MODELS, AND GOOD

PRACTICES.
What kinds of gender-sensitive tools are needed to make progress in housing

and slum upgrading? Some examples.
More gender-sensitive tools on land, property, and housing need to be developed that
are pro-poor, scalable, and affordable. Successful initiatives should be seen as local
models of good practice and the gendered tools should be replicated on a wider scale.
Tool No. 1: Mainstreaming gender in a programme or policy cycle
There are numerous manuals, toolkits, and guidance documents on how to

mainstream gender into policies, programmes, and projects (see the list of
resources at the end for some of these). Most were developed for particular sectors,
institutions, or programmes. They can and should be adapted for use in other sectors
or for developing new programmes and projects.
However, there are some common principles that inform gender mainstreaming in
programmes and projects. These include the following:
• It is necessary to understand and incorporate the different realities of women’s

and men’s needs, priorities, and constraints.
• Differences among groups of women and men should be recognized and their
impacts included in the mainstreaming efforts. This could include differences based
on age, income, ethnicity, gender identity and sexual orientation, location, etc.
• Gender concerns should be addressed at each stage of the programme or project

cycle, including the gender implications after the end of the programme or project.
• Gender trainings and assessments need to take place at the beginning and
throughout any programme or project cycle and should include all staff and
partners.
• Finally, programme and project budgets should include the costs of hiring gender
specialists, as well as the costs of gender trainings and mainstreaming.
Tool No. 2: Participatory Gender Audit8
Below is a brief outline of the Participatory Gender Audit (PGA), a tool for
institutional gender assessment. This tool has been used by various organizations
for over ten years to ensure accountability to women’s human rights and gender
equality in both structures and operations. A PGA can be adapted and used by any
organization or institution. It can also be combined with other gender audit methods
to produce an audit most relevant for the institution under examination.
However, the use of a PGA is premised on an existing gender equality and women’s
empowerment policy and an accompanying gender action plan complete with
objectives, expected outputs, and time-bound targets and indicators.
What is a Participatory Gender Audit?
A Participatory Gender Audit is a tool based on a participatory methodology. It

promotes organizational learning on mainstreaming gender practically and effectively.
A PGA does the following:
• Considers whether internal practices and support systems for gender

mainstreaming are effective and reinforce each other
• Monitors and assesses progress made in gender mainstreaming
• Establishes a baseline for the audited unit
• Identifies critical gaps and challenges
• Recommends ways of addressing the gaps and suggests new and more effective
strategies
• Documents good practices towards the achievement of gender equality
Using this participatory self-assessment methodology, PGAs take into account

objective data and staff perceptions of the achievement of gender equality in an
organization. This tool is used in order to better understand facts and interpretations.
Audited units receive a preliminary presentation and a full report on the findings.
8 International Labour Organization (2012), A Manual for Gender Audit Facilitators: The ILO Participatory Gender Audit
Methodology, second edition, Geneva http://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/---dgreports/---gender/documents/
publication/wcms_187411.pdf
Aim and objectives of Participatory Gender Audits
The overall aim of a PGA is to promote organizational learning on how to implement

gender mainstreaming effectively in policies, programmes, and structures and
assess the extent to which policies have been institutionalized at the level of the
organization, work unit, and individual.
The PGAs’ objectives are as follows:
• Increase the level at which gender mainstreaming has been internalized and
integrated by staff.
• Increase gender mainstreaming in the development and delivery of gender-

sensitive products and services.
• Identify and share information on mechanisms, practices, and attitudes that have
made a positive contribution to mainstreaming gender in an organization.
• Increase the level of resources allocated and spent on gender mainstreaming and
gender activities.
• Increase the extent to which human resource policies are gender sensitive.
• Equalize the staff sex balance at different levels of an organization.
• Set up the initial baseline of performance on gender mainstreaming in an

organization to introduce an ongoing process of measuring progress in
promoting gender equality.
• Measure progress in implementing action plans on gender mainstreaming and

recommend revisions as needed.
• Identify room for improvement and suggest possible strategies to better

implement the action plan.
8. BUILD PARTNERSHIPS WITH KEY CITY STAKEHOLDERS, INCLUDING

HOUSING, URBAN, AND DEVELOPMENT MINISTRIES, LOCAL
AUTHORITIES, LEGAL ADVISORS, NGOS, AND LOCAL WOMEN.
There is a need to strengthen collaboration between various stakeholders and the

social movements, NGOs, and women’s groups involved in the urban land and
housing sector. Land professionals, development agencies, analysts, and researchers
ought to be encouraged to participate more in the planning, implementation, and
monitoring and evaluation of women’s security of tenure.
Furthermore, it is important to offer specialized training to key sectors directly

responsible for implementing gender-sensitive housing and slum upgrading. This
includes government bodies, public operatives, technical specialists, and community
members. Offering gender trainings to strategic partners can lead to positive change
in mindsets as well as changes towards greater gender equality in infrastructure
and housing development. These trainings will increase awareness of gender
discrimination and place such discrimination on the agenda of policy and public
dialogue, while building capacity to implement projects using a women’s rights-based
approach.
As mentioned earlier, the right to adequate housing cannot be fully realized if

separated from other rights (e.g. to food, water, sanitation, electricity, health,
work, property, security of the person, security of the home, and protection against
inhuman and degrading treatment). For millions of slum dwellers, the right to
adequate housing is directly linked to policies or programmes for slum upgrading
and prevention. Thus, it is crucial to build partnerships with these key actors in mind,
while combining policy agendas to meet collective basic needs and services.
CASE STUDY OF GENDER-SENSITIVE HOUSING AND SLUM UPGRADING
People’s housing and infrastructure development – Windhoek, Namibia
• In Namibia, a woman-dominated NGO known as Saamstann undertook their own land

development using cooperative groups and the following process: They first obtained land;
as single plots were too expensive, members decided to apply for a block of land from
which they would subdivide the plots themselves.
• The land negotiations took two years, and they first had to register as a welfare
organization to meet local authority requirements.
• They had to buy the land for cash, and this was done through a revolving fund.
• Members developed their own layout and house plans, with technical input from
volunteers.
• The rules and regulations for land administration were developed through a workshop
process. These were drawn up as a contract for the land rights of individuals, which could
be transferred to other members or which could be inherited.
The work of Saamstann is echoed by the organizing of the Shack Dwellers Federation of
Namibia. As women have fewer opportunities than men for raising their income and socio-
economic status to acquire secure tenure, they form the majority of the members of the
federation. Thus, women are the main participants and managers of group loan schemes to
obtain secure land and tenure for themselves and their families.
For its part, the Municipality of Windhoek, the largest in the country, has taken a leading role in
developing solutions for informal settlement challenges:
• The city demonstrated a willingness to overturn conventional approaches to standards and
regulations in order to reach low-income groups with improvements that are affordable to
them.
• Windhoek’s land use and town planning policies acknowledge the importance of
representative organizations, seeking to create and nurture them to strengthen local
networks and group savings schemes in low-income neighbourhoods.
• This led to a cost-effective and participatory strategy that provides better housing and
services for the most marginalized members of the society and partnerships with the Shack
Dwellers Federation of Namibia.
Source: UN-Habitat, 2003, p. 76 and 2006b, p. 68

6
SECTION
Gender-sensitive
Indicators
WHAT KINDS OF GENDER-SENSITIVE INDICATORS ARE

NEEDED TO MONITOR MAINSTREAMING PROGRESS IN
HOUSING AND SLUM UPGRADING? SOME EXAMPLES.
Indicators are used to measure changes in a defined condition or to measure progress

over time. However, there are many kinds of indicators and they have multiple uses.
Gender-sensitive indicators measure if conditions are improving for women and men
or not. Indicators are frequently used as a monitoring tool in project cycles or strategic
planning. They should reflect the objectives of the change that a programme or project
hopes to achieve. For example, indicators can be developed for risk, input, process,
output, and outcome measurement. Gender-sensitive indicators can be quantitative
and qualitative and used to monitor and assess progress in policies, institutions,
programmes, or projects. They are also used to assess changes in social, political,
economic, and environmental behaviours and in the actions of both individuals and
diverse communities.
When developing gender-sensitive indicators, the following guidance is a useful

starting point:
• Research gender indicators that exist for the same subject matter and/or region
of the project.
• Select existing indicators that are relevant to the local context and develop new
indicators required to measure specific project results.
• When possible, develop indicators through a participatory process, which will help
ensure that they are relevant to the realities of women and men in each setting.
• Involve local communities in monitoring and data collection to increase local

stakeholder engagement and ownership of the work and/or results.
• Indicators should be gender sensitive and account for a wide range of diversity.
This includes disaggregation by sex, age, ethnicity, ability/disability, socio-
economic group, or any other variable that is relevant to the project and
communities.
• It is important to select indicators that will reveal not only the gaps that
exist and the challenges and exclusion women face in the city but also ask
for recommendations on the way forward towards women’s inclusion,
empowerment, and participation in social, economic, and political life.
• Finally, indicators that measure institutional progress on gender mainstreaming

must include both qualitative and quantitative analysis. For example, the number
of women in local government positions is an important indicator, but it is vital
to have additional information on what specific impacts these positions have had
in their lives and in the community towards achieving gender equality.
Indicators for housing and slum upgrading will of course be based on the context of
the housing issue under consideration. However, the following example indicators
demonstrate what is possible and measurable to ensure changes in housing and slum
upgrading that enable inclusion and gender equality.
PARTICIPATION IN DECISION MAKING – CHANGING POWER RELATIONS
• Number of diverse women’s organizations engaged in housing planning

processes/bodies
• Percentage of women and members of other marginalized communities (older,

younger, with disabilities, of different ethnicities) who participate in housing and
slum-upgrading consultations
• Percentage of diverse women in communities engaged in implementing housing

and slum-upgrading projects
• Inclusion of diverse women’s specific needs or priorities in planning policies,

plans, budgets, and by-laws
• The number of changes made to existing housing policies, plans, budgets, and
by-laws to incorporate the realities and priorities of diverse women
Women listen intently and speak out

at a public meeting © UN-Habitat
• Number or percentage change in the level of diverse women’s engagement in

decision-making
GENDER-SENSITIVE, ENVIRONMENTAL, AND REMEDIAL
• Number of projects/actions directly addressing women’s and girls’ urban

environmental concerns
• Qualitative changes in women’s and girls’ daily living environments
• Introduction of new energy-efficient technologies
• Number of gender-sensitive programmes introduced for solid waste

management
SECURITY OF TENURE AND HOUSING
• Percentage of diverse women who have security of tenure in their own names or
jointly with their partners in legalized slums
• Percentage of women with access to credit for housing
• Percentage of women who own homes in their own names or jointly with their
partners
• Number of diverse women who have access to a housing and infrastructure

fund that is based on their ability to pay and linked to their existing income-
generating abilities
ACCESS TO INFRASTRUCTURE AND SERVICES
• The number of facilities (e.g. community centres, child-minding centres, health

clinics, schools, and sexual and reproductive health centres) that were upgraded
or built in the newly upgraded slums
• The number of the above that are managed and run by women or jointly with
men
• Whether the upgraded infrastructure (e.g. water access and availability, home-
based toilets, solid waste management systems, drainage, electricity, transport,
etc.) has been built in consultation with women and girls – in other words,
whether the infrastructure and services are gender and diversity sensitive
• Whether and which safety considerations were included in the redesign and
upgrading of the slums
Kibera Slum, Kenya

© UN-Habitat
Annex I: Key Concepts
Sex refers to the biological differences between women and men. While some
people are born intersex, for most one’s sex can only be changed through medical
procedures.
Gender refers to the socio-cultural interpretations and values assigned to being a

woman or man. These are sustained by multiple structures such as family, community,
society, and ethnicity and through tools such as culture, language, education, media,
and religion. Gender is about social relationships between women and men. It is an
analytical concept. Gender is socially determined and is specific to different cultures.
It can and does change over time.
Diversity is often identified as cultural and ethnic variation among and between
people. Recognizing this kind of diversity is crucial in research, policy, and planning
because culture and ethnicity affect our values, beliefs, and behaviours, including
how we live as women, men, both, or neither. At the same time, acknowledging
and valuing cultural and ethnic diversity is vital to the fight against prejudice and
discrimination. Diversity is also used to broadly refer to the many factors or social
relations that define human societies such as sex, race, ethnicity, caste, socio-
economic group, ability, geographical location, sexual identity or orientation, etc.
Discrimination against women, according to the UN Convention on the Elimination

of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), means any distinction,
exclusion, or restriction made on the basis of sex which has the effect or purpose of
impairing or nullifying the recognition, enjoyment, or exercise by women, irrespective
of their marital status, on a basis of equality of men and women, of human rights
and fundamental freedoms in the political, economic, social, cultural, civil, or any
other field (Article 1).
Gender equality refers to women and men being treated equally and having the
same rights and opportunities. Gender equality means that both women and men
enjoy equal conditions for realizing their full human rights and potential to contribute
to and benefit from political, economic, social, and cultural development. CEDAW’s
concept of equality includes the principle of non-discrimination, the principle of state
obligation, and the principle of substantive equality or equality of results.
Intersectionality is a tool for analysis, advocacy, and policy development that

addresses discriminations. It assists us in understanding how the intersection of
multiple identities impacts on rights and opportunities. This involves recognizing that
women experience discrimination and violations of human rights not only on the
basis of gender, but also as a result of other unequal power relations owing to their
race, age, ethnicity, class, culture, caste, ability/disability, sexual identity or orientation,
or religion and a multiplicity of other factors, including if they are indigenous or not.
Gender mainstreaming is the process of assessing the implications for women and
men of any planned action, including legislation, policies, or programmes, in all areas
and at all levels. It is a strategy for making women’s as well as men’s concerns and
experiences an integral dimension of the design, implementation, and monitoring
and evaluation of policies and programmes. Mainstreaming sets out to take place in
all political, economic, and societal spheres so that women and men benefit equally,
and inequality is not perpetuated. Simply put, the ultimate goal is to achieve gender
equality by transforming the mainstream (United Nations Economic and Social
Council Agreed Conclusions, 1997/2).
Violence against women is any act of gender-based violence that results in, or
is likely to result in, physical, sexual, or psychological harm or suffering to women,
including threats of such acts, coercion, or arbitrary deprivation of liberty, whether
occurring in public or in private life. Violence against women shall be understood to
encompass, but not be limited to, the following:
a) Physical, sexual, and psychological violence occurring in the family, including

battering, sexual abuse of female children in the household, dowry-related violence,
marital rape, female genital mutilation and other traditional practices harmful to
women, intimate partner violence, non-spousal violence, and violence related to
exploitation
b) Physical, sexual, and psychological violence occurring within the general

community, including rape, sexual abuse, sexual harassment in public spaces,
and sexual harassment and intimidation at work, in educational institutions, and
elsewhere, trafficking in women, and forced prostitution (Article 1 and 2, UN General
Assembly)
Baseline study is an analysis describing the situation prior to an intervention, against

which progress can be assessed or comparisons made.
Impacts are defined as long-term outcomes. These are the higher-order objectives to
which interventions are intended to contribute. Impacts are not within direct control
of the programme.
Indicator is a quantitative or qualitative variable that provides a simple measure

of inputs, outputs, or outcomes. An indicator can be used to define targets to be
achieved and the situation at a given point in time and to measure change, which
together enable achievement to be assessed.
Inputs refer to the resources invested in the delivery of a program or project. Sample
inputs include funding, human resources (both paid and volunteer), equipment,
project materials, transportation costs, services, etc.
Monitoring is a continuing function that uses systematic collection of data on

specified indicators to provide management and the main stakeholders of an ongoing
intervention with indications of the extent of progress and achievement of objectives
and progress in the use of allocated inputs.
Outcomes are defined as a statement of a desired, specific, realistic, and

measureable programme result that must be attained in order to accomplish a
particular programme goal.
Kibera Slum upgrading

programme, Kenya
© UN-Habitat/Julius Mwelu
Annex II: References and Resources
Canadian International Development Agency (2007), Guide to Gender-Sensitive

Indicators, http://www.acdi-cida.gc.ca/acdi-cida/acdi-cida.nsf/eng/REN-218124839-
P9K, retrieved 21 November 2012
Centre on Housing Rights and Evictions (2009), Shelter from the Storm: Women’s
Housing Rights and the Struggle against HIV-AIDS in Sub-Saharan Africa, Geneva,
http://www.cohre.org/sites/default/files/shelter_from_the_storm__womens_
housing_rights_and_the_struggle_against_hiv_aids_in_sub-saharan_africa_31_
july_2009.pdf
Derbyshire, H. (2002), Gender Manual: A Practical Guide for Development

Policy Makers and Practitioners, Social Development Division, Department for
International Development, UK, http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/+/http:/
www.dfid.gov.uk/Documents/publications/gendermanual.pdf
Gender and Water Alliance (2006), ‘Gender Mainstreaming the Project Cycle’ in
Gender and IWRM Resource Guide, http://www.genderandwater.org/page/2829.
html
International Labour Organization (2012), A Manual for Gender Audit Facilitators:

The ILO Participatory Gender Audit Methodology, second edition, Geneva, http://
www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/---dgreports/---gender/documents/publication/
wcms_187411.pdf
Jagori, in collaboration with Women in Cities International (2010), ‘A Handbook

on Women’s Safety Audits’ in Low-income Urban Neighbourhoods: A Focus on
Essential Services, New Delhi, November, http://jagori.org/a-handbook-on-womens-
safety-audits-in-low-income-urban-neighbourhoods-a-focus-on-essential-services/
Khosla, P. (2012), ‘Our Urban Future: Gender-Inclusive, Pro-Poor and Environmentally

Sustainable?’ in Powerful Synergies: Gender Equality, Economic Development
and Environmental Sustainability, first edition, United Nations Development
Programme, New York
Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (2012), Women and the Right
to Adequate Housing, Geneva, http://www.ohchr.org/Documents/Publications/
WomenHousing_HR.PUB.11.2.pdf
UN-Habitat (2012), Gender and Urban Planning, Nairobi, Kenya, http://www.

unhabitat.org/pmss/listItemDetails.aspx?publicationID=3351
UN-Habitat (2011), Affordable Land and Housing in Asia, Vol. 2, Nairobi, http://www.
unhabitat.org/pmss/listItemDetails.aspx?publicationID=3225
UN-Habitat (2007), Policymakers Guide to Women’s Land, Property and Housing

Rights across the World, Nairobi, http://www.unhabitat.org/pmss/listItemDetails.
aspx?publicationID=2355
UN-Habitat (2006a), State of the World’s Cities Report 2006/2007 – The Millennium
Development Goals and Urban Sustainability: Thirty Years of Shaping the
Habitat Agenda, Nairobi, http://www.unhabitat.org/pmss/listItemDetails.
aspx?publicationID=2101
UN-Habitat (2006b), Namibia: Law, Land Tenure, and Gender Review – Southern
Africa, Nairobi, Kenya
UN-Habitat (2004), Dialogue on Urban Resources, paper prepared for World Urban
Forum, Barcelona, HSP/WUF/2/7
UN-Habitat (2003), Handbook on Best Practices, Security of Tenure and Access to

Land: Implementation of the Habitat Agenda, Nairobi, Kenya
UN-Habitat/Global Land Tool Network (no date), Gender Evaluation Criteria for Large-
scale Land Tools, http://landportal.info/resource/global/gltn-gender-evaluation-
criteria-large-scale-land-tools
United Nations General Assembly (1993), Declaration on the Elimination of Violence

against Women, Articles 1 and 2, in the 85th Plenary Meeting, 20 December, 1993,
Geneva, Switzerland, http://www.un.org/documents/ga/res/48/a48r104.htm
Wikigender, http://www.wikigender.org/index.php/New_Home
GENDER ISSUE GUIDE
Access to adequate housing is a fundamental human right and is

enshrined in numerous international agreements and conventions.
Yet millions of women and men continue to live in towns and
cities without security of tenure and with inadequate housing and
related services. This guide’s objectives are:
• To increase understanding of gender concerns and needs in

housing and slum upgrading
• To develop staff and partners’ capacity to address gender issues

in this area
• To encourage staff and partners to integrate a gender

perspective into policies, projects, and programmes for
sustainable urban development
• To support the institutionalization of the culture of gender

mainstreaming and gender equality, the implementation of
gender-sensitive projects and programmes, and the monitoring
of gender-mainstreaming progress
HS Number HS/038/13E
December 2012
United Nations Human Settlements Programme

PO Box 30030 00100 Nairobi GPO Kenya
Tel: 254-020-7623120
[email protected]
www.unhabitat.org

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HOUSING AND SLUM UPGRADING

First published in Nairobi in 2012 by UN-Habitat

PO Box 30030 00100 Nairobi GPO KENYA

Printing: UNON Publishing Services Section, Nairobi, ISO 14001:2004-certified

CEDAW Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of

COHRE Centre on Housing Rights and Evictions

DFID Department for International Development

GHS 2025 Global Housing Strategy to the Year 2025

GUO Global Urban Observatory

HIV/AIDS Human Immunodeficiency Virus/Acquired Immunodeficiency

M&E Monitoring And Evaluation

MEA Men Engage Alliance

NGO Non-Governmental Organization

PGA Participatory Gender Audit

UN Women United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the

UN-Habitat United Nations Human Settlements Programme

VAW Violence Against Women

Section 2: Human settlement issues and housing and slum upgrading.........3

Section 3: Gender equality and housing and slum upgrading.......................9

Section 4: Introduction to gender mainstreaming......................................13

Section 5: Strategies and approaches for mainstreaming gender

Section 6: Gender-sensitive indicators........................................................39

Annex I: Key concepts.............................................................................45

Annex II: References and resources..........................................................49

Access to adequate housing is a fundamental human right and is enshrined in

Sustainable urbanization will remain elusive if slums continue to exist as

or creating new neighbourhoods and transportation systems, the perspectives and

The objectives of this guide are as follows:

• Increase understanding of gender concerns and needs in housing and slum

• Encourage staff and partners to integrate a gender perspective into policies,

• Support the institutionalization of the culture of gender mainstreaming and

Key gender concepts are explained in Annex 1.

Issues and Housing and

• The participation of residents and their grass-roots organizations in the

Gender equity in access to adequate housing is in many countries still impeded by

These work sectors are described below.

National Housing Strategies, as a part of the National Urban Development Strategies,

• The majority of the legal and regulatory frameworks

• Systems of fiscal incentives

• Major infrastructure investments

• Supply of building materials, as well as the development of culturally relevant

The unprecedented increase in slums and other informal settlements demonstrates

1. Poor structural quality of housing

3. Inadequate access to safe water

4. Inadequate access to sanitation and other infrastructure

5. Insecure residential status

A slum household is therefore deemed to consist of a household or a group of

Citywide slum upgrading can be defined as “an alternative to piecemeal, project-

Citywide slum upgrading represents a fundamental shift from piecemeal project

This community-centred approach to housing development and settlement upgrading

The People’s Process has proven extremely beneficial in post-disaster situations

Solidarity within communities becomes a foundation for peacebuilding and for

1. Mobilizing of the community and organization

2. Community action planning

Figure: Control paradigm vs support paradigm

Housing and Slum

WHY IS IT IMPORTANT TO ADDRESS GENDER ISSUES AND

Housing is largely a women’s issue, as women are primarily responsible for

• Women face discrimination across all aspects of housing as a result of their

• As a consequence of cultural and traditional norms, women are more often