Inclusion of Women and Girls and Ensuring Their Rights: A Toolkit for Arab Cities

Even though women and girls represent close to or more than half of the population of most Arab cities, they are one of the groups that are historically and structurally excluded from decision-making and development planning in the cities. They face many barriers in accessing cities services, and inequality participating in cities activities. Developed on the basis of a virtual regional consultation workshop, as well as in-depth interviews with cities officials and representatives from the Coalition of Arab Cities against Racism, Discrimination, Xenophobia and Intolerance, this Toolkit provides tools and practical advice to enable Arab cities achieve a better inclusion of women and girls, and ensure their full right to benefit from local development programs. The toolkit mainly targets local authorities in Arab cities including Mayors, Members of Municipality Councils, Municipal executives, and Entities concerned with the design, implementation, follow-up, and evaluation of local projects and programs. “Since wars begin in the minds of men andwomen it is in the minds of men and womenthat the defences of peace must be constructed”Inclusion of women and girls in Arab cities: challenge or opportunity?This publication is the result of a joint effort involving the European Training and Research Centre for Human Rights and Democracy in Graz, UNESCO Coalition of Arab Cities against Racism, Discrimination, Xenophobia and Intolerance, and UNESCO Cairo Office.