Union of the Baltic Cities A voluntary network mobilizing around 100 member cities for democratic, economic, social, cultural and environmentally sustainable development of the Baltic Sea Region Thirteen diffrent commissions Hello My name is Linda Gustafsson, i come from a city called Umeå in the north of sweden where i work as the gender equality officer for the city of umeå. I want to say thank you very much for inviting me to speak about the UBC. Umeå is a part of the union of the baltic cities, a network of around 100 cities around the baltic sea. The network is made up by a number of commissions working with diffrent areas, such as environmental issues, energy, health and social affairs and my work is within the gender equality commission.

UBC Commission on Gender Equality The goal of the commission is to create action for gender equality around the Baltic Sea and within the Union of Baltic Cities. The commission was created in 2007 The city of Umeå has the secretariat for the commission The UBC Gender equality commission was established in 2007 and Umeå has since then has the secretariat for the commission. The goal of the commission is to create action for gender equality around the baltic sea and within thew union of baltic cities network.

UBC Gender Commission The commission is not a constant, but changes with the cities that are involved. All the work within the commission is work that the cities and the people do within their regular work and therefore the commission also changes. But the map shows the latest meeting and the cities that were a part of that meeting when we were in Helsinki and among other things discussed the method of gender budgeting Source: UBC Website

Work of the Gender equality commission Awairness-raising within the field of gender equality Promoting that a gender perspective is integrated into activities of the UBC Channeling information and contacts of the member cities Promoting projects within the area The work of the gender equality commission is as you can see: ..

Report 2009 Women and men in the Union of the Baltic Cities UBC General Conference, Kristiansand, Norway, 2009 Social planning, urban planning and planning work Male violence against women Prostitution and human trafficking New report for the General Conference in Mariehamn, Åland , october 2013 In 2009 we made a report on women and men in the Union of the baltic cities with statistics but also best practice within the baltic sea region A special focus was on social planning, urban planning but also men violence to women and prostitution and human trafficking We are now working on an updated report to be presented this fall when the UBC has its general conference in october That report will bw with some updated statistics and also some new examples of good practice

Tools for change Initiate cooperation with the cities where we have the meetings Sharing best practice Exchange of experience Practical knowledge So what are the tools for change that we use within the commission. Our meetings are typically two times a year and a way of exchanging experience, sharing pratical knowledge and share best practice. We also initiate cooperation with the cities that we are in, and for example the civil servants at the municipality where we have the meeting, or if there are local gender equality commitees or something similar. As i mentioned, the last meeting was in Helsinki, and we then had a seminar togethter with the city of helsinki och gender budgeting. Campaign posters to promote awarness on gender equality

Future work Focus: Social planning, urban planing and planning work Combating prostitution and trafficking Labour market issues Gender budgeting Baltic sea strategy Activities: Joint meeting with the Commission on Urban Planning, May 2013, Umeå Workshop, 5th Nordic council of ministers conference for sustainable development, september 2013, Umeå Update ” Women and men in the Union of the Baltic Cities” to the XII UBC General Conference, October 2013 Increase knowldge Expert on gender equality and plannign. Planning the inclusive city

Gender equality officer, city of Umeå Thank you! linda.gustafsson@umea.se Gender equality officer, city of Umeå Increase knowldge Expert on gender equality and plannign. Planning the inclusive city