Women and the burden of unsustainable development: practice and policy contradictions

Women’s development has been and shows every likelihood of continuing to be compromised by unsustainable policies, plans, and programmes regarding human settlements. Gender inequalities harm well-being and hinder development. Women and girls, especially the poor, bear the brunt of these inequalities. To attain the objectives of sustainable development of satisfying needs and meeting development goals, to which the international community has repeatedly committed itself, sustainability itself has to be engendered through gender mainstreaming.