Page:Brundtland Report.djvu/255

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.

A/42/427
English
Page 255


BOX 9–4

Misunderstanding Women's Needs in Housing Projects

Housing projects often use a gridiron layout that does not allow women to work in their house and at the same time keep an eye on their own or their neighbouring children. House designs and plot sizes rarely consider the fact that many women will want to use their houses as workshops (to make clothes, for instance) or as shops, which in fact are often forbidden in low-income housing projects. Application procedure for low-income housing sometimes requires 'husbands' to apply; this excludes women-headed households - between 30 and 50 per cent of all households. Women's special needs in different cultures are ignored in Islamic societies, for example, women's need for private open space within the house is rarely considered in house designs, while their need for relatively sheltered pathways to get to shops and clinics is not acknowledged in site layouts.

Source: Based on C.O.N. Moser, 'Housing Policy: Towards a Gender Awareness Approach', Working Paper #71, Development Planning Uit, London, 1985.

to supporting independent research groups working in housing and urban issues, particularly those providing advice to local governments and community groups; many are doing so already, especially in Latin America.

67. International cooperation can also contribute to developing low cost technologies for urban needs and studying ways of meeting the housing needs of women. (See Box 9–4.)

68. Many technical agencies within the UN system have the appropriate knowledge bases to play a valuable role in advising and supporting governments. notably the UN Centre for Human Settlements (UNCHS, or Habitat). They should identify the information and guidelines that city governments need and the form in which it can be made accessible and usable by them. This could be patterned, for example, upon the ongoing efforts to prepare guidebooks for community workers on identifying disease vectors and mobilizing communities to deal with them, and on interventions to promote chi]d survival and health. More generally, Habitat can strengthen international cooperation at the global level, as in the UN International Year of Shelter for the homeless, The capacity of the UN system to provide leadership on human settlements issues through Habitat needs to be strengthened.

/…