ComWLG and gendered cities 

Supporting women in local government to increase their impact within local government is a key priority for the ComWLG Network. To date CLGF has undertaken work on political leadership, election campaign development, and mentoring for work in local government, and in 2024 CLGF has added a new focal area to the work of the ComWLG looking at Gendered Cities. Focusing on the intersection of gender, urbanisation, and development CLGF recently held two dialogues bringing together technical experts, local political leaders and technical practitioners from across the Commonwealth regions.

The session touched on mainstreaming gender into planning processes; amplifying the voice of women in council to raise and address key issues of importance to women; urban space and the intersectionality of exclusion experienced by women from different cultural backgrounds; informal settlements and the challenges around safe public space and equitable access to services.

Introducing the new ComWLG Chairperson

The sessions also provided the opportunity to introduce the new chair of the Commonwealth Women in Local Government Network, Cllr. Frazette Gibson, Chief Councillor of City of Freeport, Grand Bahama to the wider membership. Cllr Gibson shared her priorities for upcoming work in the network, including increasing the voice and leadership of women at all levels of government, promoting female empowerment, ensuring equal access to services and decision making at the local level, challenging traditional gender roles and encouraging women and girls into public service.

CLGF will be following these areas of focus at the upcoming ComWLG Regional meeting for Asia taking place 25-27 June 2024 in Colombo, Sri Lanka. The meeting, which is expected to bring together +100 elected women from across the region will allow the network to reflect on the specific priorities for Asia with regard to economic empowerment, gendered cities,  capacity building and increasing the number of young women in local in Commonwealth Asia. The meeting will also review and ratify a regional gender charter for South Asia which will guide CLGF’s advocacy in the region for the coming period.

To watch the recent Gender Cities webinars please use the following links

• Session 1: Caribbean/Canada/Pacific on 14^th May 2024
• Session 2: Africa/Asia/Europe on 16^th May 2024

Links for the upcomming ComWLG regional meeting 

To find out more about the upcoming women in local government regional meeting and to register as a self-funding delegate please use the following link:

• ComWLG Save the Date Flyer
• ComWLG Asia Regional Meeting - Registration form

The Commonwealth Women in Local Government Network brings together women political and technical leaders from across the local government sector for the 56 countries of the Commonwealth. To find out more about the priorities of the Network and the work to date click here.