Women, Slums and Urbanisation: Examining the Causes and Consequences

This COHRE report examines the worldwide phenomenon of urbanisation from the point of view of women’s housing rights. The report focuses, in particular, on the experiences of women and girls living in slum communities throughout the world, premised on the idea that both the causes and consequences of urbanisation for women are, in fact, unique and deeply related to issues of gender.

Section 4 of the report presents the key findings of the study based on research conducted in the field. In Asia, COHRE worked to highlight the experiences of women living in the slums of Mumbai, India and Colombo, Sri Lanka. In the Americas, COHRE’s research focused on women living in the slums of Sa~o Paulo, Brazil and Buenos Aires, Argentina. In Africa, COHRE interviewed women in the slums of Accra, Ghana and Nairobi, Kenya.