Leading the actions and policies that lay the foundations to better and more effectively localise the global agendas for equality, including the Beijing Declaration and its Platform for Action adopted back in 1995, Local and Regional Governments from all regions actively mobilised and took a decisive role in the 69th Session of the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women (CSW69), organised in New York from 10 to 21 March 2025.
Coming from all the regions of the world, from Asia to Americas, including Africa, Europe, Eurasia, Middle-East and including metropolises and cities of all sizes from the whole planet, local and regional leaders and official elected reunited on the occasion of the 69th Commission on the Status of Women (CSW69) convened by the United Nations, to take stock of the progress made and assess the challenges that remain ahead.
On this occasion, representatives from the self-declared Feminist Municipal Movement took an active part in a series of activities and events organised in early March in cooperation with a large and diverse range of partners going from international entities and global partners to civil society organised constituencies and national governments, including UN Women, UNDP, UN-Habitat, the International Parliamentary Union (IPU), the UN Permanent Missions of Chile, Colombia and Nigeria, the GEF Action Coalition on Feminist Movements and Leadership, International IDEA, NGO CSW/NY, GWL Voices, Cities for CEDAW, the Coalition for the UN We Need (C4UN), amongst others.
The Feminist Municipal Movement’s Call to Action at Beijing+30: Ensuring the effective Localization of Equality
The CSW69 provided a unique opportunity not only to gather the constituency of local leaders from across the world and consolid strong and relevant partnerships towards the effective implementation of global goals, including the SDGs and SDG5 on gender equality and the empowerment of women, but also to permeate the global conversation and processes on Equality with a strong pledge for the local perspective in the localisation of development and equality agendas worldwide.
In doing so, the Feminist Municipal Movement facilitated by United Cities and Local Governments (UCLG) launched its Call to Action in the wake of the 30th Anniversary of the Beijing Platform for Action, which develops around key component that aim directly at ending all forms of violences against women and girls, at converting economic justice in a thriving reality, and at enhancing public and political women representation and leadership in all regions of the world, with an overview of priorities for the coming decade that explicitly includes the following 7 key areas:
- Localizing Feminist Policies
- Gender-Responsive Public Services
- Women’s Political Leadership & Participation
- Care Economy & Just Transition
- Combating Gender-Based Violence
- Intersectional Feminism
- Women and Peace
For local and regional governments around the world and for their World Organisation, CSW69 and Beijing+30 not only presents an opportunity to strengthen local, national, and international partnerships by enhancing collaboration among actors at all levels to ensure the resources and political support necessary to advance gender equality, but also to incorporate intersectionality and address all intersecting forms of discrimination that affect women and inspire the international community and global processes through practice and the exchange of innovative ideas, fostering a culture of shared progress.
Localizing Beijing+30: the CSW69 Local and Regional Governments Days
As the most important space to make the local perspective count in the global conversation on equality and development and pledge for the a better localization of global agendas, including the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action was the Local and Regional Governments Day, convened by the Global Taskforce of the Local and Regional Governments facilitated by UCLG, on 13 and 14 March 2025. Under the theme “Localizing Beijing+30: The Municipal Movement leads the way to equality and democracy”. The encounters gathered more than 90 mayors, governors and locally elected officials from up to 77 local and regional governments from 26 countries covering all regions of the world, as well as more than 37 partners and key stakeholders from global organisations, organised civil society networks and the international community, including several UN bodies and agencies.
The Local and Regional Governments Days counted with numerous voices not only from the local and regional leadership spheres, but also from the national and international levels, including partners, global entities and civil society organisations. The first day was open by President of the Nouakchott Region, President of UCLG-Africa, President of the UCLG Standing Committee on Gender Equality Fatimetou Abdel Malick, and UN Assistant Secretary-General and UN Women Deputy Executive Director for Resource Management, Sustainability and Partnerships Kirsi Madi, with segments facilitated by UCLG Secretary general Emilia Saiz, and Advisor on Feminist Leadership and Movements | CREA, Co-President of the Generation Equality Forum Action Coalition on Feminist Movements and Leadership Piyumi Samaraweera. This allowed to develop a large range of key priorities for the local level under discussions addressing ‘Women’s Leadership and Multilevel Governance for Beijing+30 and the 2030 Agenda’ and ‘Bridging Generations: Feminist Municipalism for Present and Future Leaders’, with a special address by Felipe Paullier, Assistant Secretary-General for Youth Affairs.
Ana Redondo García, Minister of Equality, Government of Spain, opened the second day with welcoming words, together with Mayor of Banjul, President of the Network of Locally Elected Women of Africa (REFELA) Rohey Malick Lowe, and developed themes going from the question of ‘Men as Partners in Feminist Municipalism: Positive Masculinities and Local Leadership for Gender Equality’ to issues related to ‘Sustaining Political Will and Expanding Alliances: Local Partnerships Driving Equality towards FFD and the World Social Summit’, with panels moderated by Emilia Saiz, Secretary General of UCLG and Amy Gill, Head of the Local Action Unit at UNDP. A detailed synthesis of the discussions held in this context is available here.
On the occasion, the constituency of local and regional governments adopted a set of Policy Recommendations that includes their Statement at the CSW69, which urges the international arena to acknowledge the critical role that local and regional governments play in bridging global agendas and local realities by delivering the goals of the Platform for Action at the community level and their stand as political actors and the sphere of government closest to our communities, still missing in the UN SG Report on Beijing+30 and the Beijing+30 Political Declaration adopted on the first day of CSW69, on Monday 10 March 2025. With cities and regions at the forefront of delivering inclusive public services and ensuring equitable political participation, the constituency of local and regional governments called for the explicit recognition of their direct engagement with local communities as well as for more women empowerment in local decision making, more investment in local care systems, strengthening capacity and accountability and fostering high-impact multilevel partnerships and governance towards Equality for all, everywhere.
Consolidating alliances: Strengthening partnerships towards equality for all, everywhere
Together with UNDP, UCLG organised on March 13 a session on Improving the lives of women: concrete actions by local governments where several women elected officials and local representatives highlighted innovative approaches taken by local governments to promote gender equality and women's empowerment at all levels. The session, facilitated by Emilia Saiz, UCLG Secretary General and Diana López, Advisor, Cities and Local Governments, United Nations Development Programme, welcomed the opening remarks of UCLG Co-President and Chair of the UCLG Standing Committee on Gender Equality, and President of the Nouakchott Region, Fatimetou Abdelmalick, and UN Under-Secretary General and UNDP Assistant Administrator and Director, Bureau for Policy and Programme Support Haoliang Xu.
Following, Maria Eugenia Gay, Sixth Vice President and Delegate Deputy for International Relations and the 2030 Agenda, Councilor of Barcelona, Laura Tami Leal, Secretary for Women, Municipality of Bogotá, Carlos Martínez, Mayor of Soria, UCLG Special Envoy for the New Urban Agenda, Johanna Nuñez, Prefect of Santo Domingo de los Tsáchilas, Ana Muñiz Neyra, Mayor of San Mateo Atenco, President of the Latin American Network of Women Municipal Leaders of FLACMA, Executive President of the National Federation of Municipalities of México (FENAMM), and Élise Pereira Nunes, Deputy Mayor of Tours for Gender Equality and International Relations, and Chair of the Gender Thematic Group at CUF showcased various tangible examples of achieved SDG targets and shared their perspectives and challenges on how municipal policies contribute to localizing the SDGs, particularly SDG 5 focused on gender equality.
Gaining momentum: Sparkling the voices of local leaders in the global conversation on gender equality
UCLG co-organised various sessions featuring local women and feminist leaders’ voices at CSW69. Opening the week, the World Organisation celebrated on Monday 10 March an official CSW69 side event on Social Norms change, Networking and Global Advocacy to Advance Women’s Political Participation and Decision, together with UN Women, IPU and International IDEA and under the WYDE Women’s Leadership initiative and thus with the support of the European Commission, where Emil Broberg, Councillor of the Östergötland Region and Member of the UCLG Standing Committee on Gender Equality shared views about redistributing power towards more women’s leadership and the parity factor as crucial for democracy.
The session on Women in Politics: Obstacles and challenges to gender parity in subnational governments in Latin America 30 years on from Beijing, held on Tuesday 11 March, was hosted by the Permanent Mission Chile at the UN, and organised in collaboration with the Permanent Missions of Colombia, UN Women, GWL Voices, UCLG and Colmena Fund. It counted with the participation of several women local elected and network representatives including Johanna Nuñez, Prefect of Santo Domingo de los Tsáchilas, Natalia Paratore, Executive Director of the Federation of Municipalities of Argentina, Michelle Bachelet, Former President of Chile, Former Executive Director of UN Women, and Former United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Maria Fernanda Espinosa, host of the event and CEO of GWL Voices, and Emilia Saiz, UCLG Secretary General who recalled the great challenges faced by, and invaluable boost of praising the Municipalist Movement to the Feminist Municipal Movement.
On Wednesday 12 March, the special event entitled How Can the Leadership of Women and Girls Help Save Our Cities and Planet? was organised in partnership with the UN Permanent Mission of Nigeria, Cities for CEDAW, Cities for CEDAW History and Futures Project, UCLG, the Coalition for the UN We Need (C4UN), WADHI, UN-Habitat and NGO CSW/NY. It included the leadership perspective of Mayor of Banjul Rohey Malick Lowe, who also actively participated together with Councillor of Sala Carola Gunnarsson in a session on the following day and addressing Gender-Responsive Infrastructure for Women's Safety and Inclusive Climate Resilience, organized by Cities Alliance and UNOPS.
On Friday 21 March, UCLG organised virtually the NGO CSW/NY Forum Parallel event entitled “The Municipal Movement for Beijing+30: CSW69 Reflections and Future Milestones”. Home to more than 40 participants from all continents, the event permitted to highlight achievements and challenges in the localization of the Beijing Platform for Action, reflect on CSW69 discussions, prepare for upcoming milestones including the review process of SDG5 at the upcoming UN HLPF, and strategize to centre the equality agenda in the World Social Summit including through the UCLG Local Social Covenant, reaffirming the commitment of the Municipal Movement to equality beyond CSW69.
Among other contributions, UCLG also featured the local perspective in a number of other sessions, such as the event Gender-transformative approaches to adequate housing for all women and girls, organized by UN-Habitat, and the session on The Care Agenda 30 Years After the Fourth World Conference on Women: A Reflection on Achievements and the Way Forward, organised by the Global Alliance for Care where Nomvuyo Mposelwa, National Chairperson of the South African Local Governments Association (SALGA) defended the voice of LRGs as providers of essential services based on housing and safe environments, including in rural areas, and as the guardians of care systems, being frontline actors in the promotion and effective provision of, and access to, basic care services. Among those, another important session was the NGO CSW/NY parallel event organised with the collaboration of UCLG, Cities for CEDAW History and Futures Project and UN-Habitat entitled Save Our Cities and Our Planet Through the Leadership of Women and Girls, where Chioniso Michelle Murinda, Councilor of Chegutu Rural District Council, Chairperson of the AWLN Zimbabwe Young Women Caucus, Beijing +30 Global Youth Steering Committee delivered the key messages of the UCLG Call to Action.
Raising ambition: Ensuring the local perspective in official spaces and global processes
An official slot was attributed to National Chairperson of the SALGA Women’s Commission and Executive Mayor of the Joe Gqabi District Nomvuyo Mposelwa as representative of the Global Taskforce during the CSW69 General Discussion held on Monday 17 March in the premisses of the United Nations, who has the opportunity to share with UN agencies, global development partners, key stakeholders, and national, regional and local governments from across the globe the key commitments of the Municipal Movement, recalling local public service provision as a key precondition for equality, democracy, justice and peace, critical to realizing the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, ensuring human rights for all people and guaranteeing meaningful participation of young people. Moreover, Councillor Mposelwa actively took part in Civil Society Briefing organised by the UN and the NGO CSW/NY Forum on March 19.
The CSW69 High-Level Dialogue on Environmental conservation, protection, and rehabilitation, organised by UN Women, allowed to feature the intervention of Chioniso Michelle Murinda, Councilor of Chegutu Rural District Council, Chairperson of the AWLN Zimbabwe Young Women Caucus, Beijing +30 Global Youth Steering Committee, who shared insights on the importance of including feminist approaches to climate governance and justice and recalled some of the priorities of the Municipal Movement Call to Action regarding climate action, including advancing women's land rights and governance, scaling up women’s leadership in climate decision-making, ensuring women benefit from climate finance, building gender-responsive climate resilience, addressing climate-induced violence and political barriers, and investing in a feminist care economy and just transition.
Additionally, as chair of the Action Coalition on Feminist Movements and Leadership, UCLG supported the session co-hosted by the Government of Malawi and Action Coalition leaders and commitment makers and co-organized by UCLG, CREA, EL*C, IWDA, Alliance for Feminist Movements, Young Feminist Europe (YFE), Stolen Dreams, Young Feminist Caucus, UN Women, Women Enabled International, OHCHR, and One Future Collective, with support from the Generation Equality Action Coalition on Bodily Autonomy and SRHR on Claiming Civic Space: Advancing Intergenerational and Intersectional Feminist Movements and Leadership in a Challenging Global Context, which brought together feminist leaders, UN agencies, funders, local governments, and grassroots movements to explore strategies for protecting civic space, strengthening feminist movements, and advancing gender equality in a challenging global context.
Building stronger and together to multiply impact at all levels: looking ahead for next Beijing+30 milestones
Overall, the 69th session of the UN Commission on the Status of Women has been a key milestone in the path towards ensuring the implementation of equality agendas, including the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, the SDGs and the 2030 Agenda, is effective, inclusive and sustained in time. On the way towards this, CSW69 has provided a unique space for local and regional governments to gather the key contributions that should inform several other important processes and moments that will mark their agenda this year and beyond, including the 4th Conference on Financing for Development, the UN High-Level political Forum with the review of SDG5 on gender equality, and the World Social Summit, including the UCLG Call to Action for Beijing+30 and the Global Taskforce Statement and Policy recommendations.
The Feminist Municipal Movement is not only calling for the full recognition of local and regional governments as uniquely positioned, scaled and doted to make more effective the implementation of equality and full exercise of human rights for all communities, but pushes for a bold, transformative agenda—ensuring that cities remain at the heart of feminist futures, where care, justice and equality can thrive for all people, everywhere.