CSW70 brought together governments, campaigners and advocates from across the world to address the issues shaping women’s lives today, including safety, justice, education, health and economic inclusion.

Amelia took part virtually, attending a programme of roundtables and events aligned with the International Women’s Day 2026 theme: “Rights. Justice. Action. For ALL Women and Girls.”

Her involvement reflects a longstanding commitment to gender inclusivity in the built environment. Amelia wrote her master’s dissertation on gender-inclusive cities, has volunteered with Make Space for Girls, and founded a community think tank to support research and consultancy in gender-inclusive design.  

We spoke with her following CSW70 to understand its impact and what it could mean for the industry.

What themes were most central to this year’s gathering?

As a Planner, I gravitated toward discussions on planning, design and infrastructure. These highlighted how the built environment directly shapes women’s safety, economic opportunities, access to services and overall sense of belonging. The UN has long recognised that gender equality is essential to climate resilience and sustainability – meaning we cannot achieve sustainable development without designing better places for women and girls.

How could your experience at the Commission influence our work — and what can the wider UK property and planning sector learn?

My time at CSW70 highlighted how much potential there is for the UK built environment sector  to lead on gender-responsive design, even without explicit national policy requirements.  Overall, the Commission emphasised that while the UK  has made progress, there is significant scope for the built environment sector to go further. Better design for women and girls creates better places for everyone. We have the opportunity to embed gender-inclusive initiatives from the early stages of the design process – even if it is not entirely a policy requirement. The conversations we should be having around inclusive planning should be encouraging planning with a gendered lens to create more equal cities for women and other marginalised groups.

Many countries are already embedding gender equality into planning in practical and powerful ways. Since 2005, Punt 6, a group of architects and urban planners in Barcelona, have been working towards integrating an intersectional gender-inclusive perspective in urban planning and mobility projects. Through participatory design and effective community engagement, they  work with  women to plan better spaces through women’s own lived experiences. This involved projects from improving public seating to large-scale strategic projects such as involvement in the Barcelona Metropolitan Plan and supporting the Council in mobility plans to ensure marginalised groups commuting patterns were considered.  

There are several lessons the industry can take forward:

• Champion diverse leadership: Greater gender balance at senior levels brings a wider range of lived experience to decision-making and leads to more inclusive outcomes.
• Embed gender-responsive planning into everyday practice: Collaborating with expert organisations, sharing learning, and providing mandatory training can help normalise gender-aware thinking across teams.
• Broaden recruitment and outreach: Engaging with schools, universities and community groups can support a more diverse pipeline into planning and development roles.
• Influence project outcomes from the outset: Clear early advice on inclusive design can help clients understand how safer, more equitable places benefit deliverability and long-term value.
• Treat planning as ‘justice infrastructure’: Insights from the US and Latin America showed that issues such as safety, housing affordability, digital access, transport and care must be seen as foundational to equality, not secondary considerations.
• Design through lived experience: Global discussions at CSW70, including those on homelessness and access to services, reinforced that different groups use cities in different ways. Planning that assumes neutrality rarely delivers equality so we need to be engaging with diverse groups to better understand what is needed based on lived experiences of local people.

What lasting impact has this experience had on you personally and professionally?

Listening to the stories of the speakers and contributors of CSW70 inspired me to continue to be an advocate for creating equal spaces for women. Men and women should be striving for equality in our spaces, and by working in the built environment industry, we play such an important role in making this happen.

Attending the Commission has strengthened my commitment to ensuring planning reflects the full diversity of people it serves. It reminded me that meaningful change often starts with listening and that the built environment can be a powerful tool for fairness, safety and opportunity. It’s an experience I’ll carry into every project I work on.