Gender, Transport & Decision-making:
A Kyoto Challenge Perspective

  • IFRTD/GATNET home page
  • The May/June Dialogue
  • How to join

    Gatnet Dialogues:
  • Dialogue Message Archive
  • Theme 1. Role in MDGs
  • 2. ICT Potential
  • 3. Policy Gaps
  • 4. Gendered Poverty

    Summaries & Conclusions:
  • 1 Role in MDGs
  • 2 ICT Potential
  • 3. Policy Gaps
  • 4. Time Poverty

    To translate messages:
  • User guidelines
  • Translate software


  • Reading and references
  • Discussion hints & procedures
  • IISD Forum
    • The Kyoto Challenge: Our position and goals

    One of the principal objectives of the Kyoto Challenge is to support the emergence of more active female participation and leadership to shape the transportation agenda in our cities and beyond. After years of work and observation in the sector in a wide variety of places and contexts, we have come to the conclusion that a surprisingly large proportion of the problems that we face in the sector are exactly the result of the fact that virtually all of the decision fora in these matters, in the advanced economies as well as in the developing world, have been almost heavily dominated by males and the values and perspective that they inevitably bring to these matters.

    Which brings us to the following very simple conclusion:

    If we immediately increase the role of women in the entire process of observation, dialogue and decision from today's, let's call it, 2% "solution" to something much closer to 50% participation and leadership, then we are going to alter fundamentally the problematique and, in its wake, decisions and actions. It's that simple. Now while this radically different perspective and new decision nexus will admittedly not solve all the problems of the sector overnight, it is going to get us moving on a distinctly new and different path, which itself is definitely a critical part of the solution process.

    The GATNET Dialogue

    Against this background we are inviting the more than one thousand individuals and groups who are participating in the Kyoto World Cities Challenge and the World Transport/New Mobility Agenda and its several international programs, to join the open dialogue organized as a cooperative venture by the International Forum for Rural Transport and Development (IFRTD) and GATNET (Gender and Transport) discussion group program informing on Mainstreaming Gender into the World Bank's Transport Sector.

    We hope you will chose to get involved, have a careful look at the materials and messages already posted, and then to share your ideas and comments with the group, and in this way make your voice heard both within the open dialogue and in the follow-on session of the Transportation Research Board's (TRB) Committee on Women's Issues in Transportation that is being convened in Boston in July.

  • Click here for joint IFRTD/GATNET project home page
    This introduces the discussion group of a community of practice that began with a program on mainstreaming Gender into the World Bank's Transport Sector. It is open to all those who are interested in issues relating to improving mobility and access for poor women and men in developing countries.

  • Click here for Discussion Group opening page

  • Click here for e-Dialogue program introduction: 23 may - 20 June 2005
    Welcome to the virtual discussion: mainstreaming gender into the transport sector. This discussion starts on May 23 on GATNET, and will last for one month, with a new topic each week. We have designed this discussion to encourage participants to share lessons learned, observations, and most importantly exchange new ideas and information relevant to the discussion. Weekly themes:

    • 23rd May 2005: The role of Transport in the Millennium Development Goals.
      Moderator: Jeff Turner. -- Click here for introduction

    • 30th May 2005: How ICT and technologies play a catalytic role in the support of integrating gender into transport projects for women in developing nations.
      Moderator: Eric Britton. -- Click here for introduction

    • 6th June 2005: Examining Policy gaps - how to bridge the gap between transport policy and gender policy and translating policy into practice. Moderator: Nite Tanzarn.

    • 13th June 2005: Gendered Time Poverty: The role of transportation in women's economic empowerment.
      Moderator: Mamoeketsi Ntho.

  • Click here for Dialogue message archive
    This listing is organized when you first call it up by date -- but as you will note the messages can be reordered by author or topic. Again, our goal here is to see if in this way we can open up the exchanges and put them into a more coherent overview perspective.

  • Click here for more on TRB program on Women's Issues in Transportation
    Drawing on conference papers, presentations, and small group discussions, the project committee will evaluate the current state of research on women's transportation issues. The committee will make recommendations concerning additional research and data that may be needed to assist transportation decision makers in adopting policies and in planning and designing transportation systems and vehicles to better reflect the needs of the growing proportion of women in the traveling population.

  • Hints on best practices for group discussions (from Kyoto Forum)
    This note is intended above all for each of us here for whom English is our first language and who wishes to communicate to the group as a whole. (That said the rest of us may find some interest in this as well, and better yet may have some hints that can help us all to communicate more effectively.)

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    Reading and references

    This very rough and clearly incomplete preliminary listing of useful sources is to be developed for and, one would hope, by the group over the next weeks - so your suggestions are most welcome. In the meantime have a look. And while not all of these references specifically target transport or women specifically, almost all have much to offer on our topic. So if you do not know them, there are a valuable tool to getting a feel for the landscape out there.

  • ICT in the Hands of the Poor: UNESCO Program Home page

  • Also worthy of your attention:

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