The campaign for secure tenure, which has already been launched in India, Kosovo and the European Union, aims to support member states in their efforts to promote housing rights and to improve conditions for over one billion inadequately housed people. It also supports the removal of social and legal discrimination against women, particularly in respect of access to property title and equal inheritance rights. Fighting for the rights of women is especially important to Tibaijuka. It is crucial to fight the institutions of exclusion of women, she said. The assumption is that men provide for women, but the reality is that the majority of the world s poor are women.
Women heading households is a growing phenomenon, as are single mothers.
Sustainable human settlements require recognizing the role of women and the rights of women in the family and encouraging their participation in governance. Let s face it, I m a woman manager and so these issues are very important to me. The implementation of the new strategic vision has led to a continued upward trend in voluntary contributions from governments. The increase in funding is good news for Habitat, which has seen its share of trouble over the last few years. The agency s former Executive Director, Wally N Dow, come under criticism for his handling of some financial aspects of the Istanbul conference.