Gender issues in UBC member cities

The Commission on Gender Equality held a working meeting in Kalmar, Sweden, in February where representatives from different countries participated. Also, the representatives from the Commission on Youth Issues and the Commission on Health and Social Affairs took part. The joint workshops that will be arranged during the UBC GC in September in Kristiansand were discussed. This is a collaboration the Commission looks very much forward to. There was an interesting presentation delivered by two students involved in the international internship program. It highlighted the important issue of human trafficking. The delegates were also informed about the EU-funded project on trafficking issues, held by the Women's centre in Karlskrona, Sweden.

One of the Gender Commission's main tasks this year, is collecting information about gender issues from the member cities. This compiled information will be printed and presented at the UBC GC. The project is funded by SIDA with approximately 27 000 EUR. The funding has enabled to hire a project assistant working in the Secretariat of the Commission. The finished report will be printed in 10 languages and spread among all UBC member cities. We are also looking for interesting experiences on gender mainstreaming in the member cities. One aim of the SIDA-project is to spread at least 10 examples of good practice among the UBC-countries. We welcome your experiences and examples of gender equality work and appreciate the value of different perspectives. Sharing and exchanging best practices, experiences and knowledge is one way of moving ahead and this is a part of a planned increased cooperation regarding gender issues. The objective of documenting and charting these practices is to provide best-practice models to improve the work with gender equality in the BSR.