Buildings community discusses how to make the sector an engine for gender equality and socio-economic development
Women make up for 50% of building users, but their voices, needs, and expertise are still not fully reflected in the decisions that shape the built environment. As a result, buildings do not correspond to the needs of the people using them. This affects both their environmental performance and their potential to promote the health and well-being of occupants.
Initiatives recognizing the importance of integrating a gender perspective into the buildings life-cycle exist, but they remain relatively unknown within the decision-makers and practitioners working in the sector, whether in public or private organisations.
To discuss how to change this, the Partnership for Energy Efficiency in Buildings (PEEB) and the Global Alliance for Buildings and Construction (GlobalABC) co-led the workshop Building Better for All: Advancing Gender Equality in the Built Environment on 20 April 2026, during the Sustainable Buildings and Construction Summit. The workshop was a first step towards putting gender equality for prosperity at the top of the buildings agenda.
Introducing the workshop, PEEB’s co-Secretary Joscha Rosenbusch talked about the massive underrepresentation of women in the sector and highlighted the importance of women’s network in bridging this representation gap.
Gender Equality: Boosting a Transition Towards Better Buildings
Manelle Ait-Sahlia, Deputy Head of Energy at the Agence Française de Développement and member of PEEB’s Steering Committee; and Soraya Khalil, Director of Technical Affairs, Ministry of Housing & Urban Planning of Morocco, set the scene for the workshop discussions.
Their keynotes underlined that gender is a decisive factor in ensuring wide public acceptance for a sustainable transformation of the buildings sector. They said that recognising the role of women as agents of this transformation is essential in ensuring that women, families, and communities articipate in the benefits of this transformation.
Speaking on behalf of PEEB, Manelle Ait Sahlia described how structured approaches offer a clear, practical implementation pathway to integrate gender equality to projects, boosting project acceptance and socio-economic impacts. Thanks to its Gender and Energy Taxonomy, AFD can efficiently integrate gender into all phases of its projects and tailor actions to the particular social context and type of building intervention, such as new construction or renovation, schools, hospitals or residential buildings, Ms. Ait Sahlia explained.
Soraya Khalil gave concrete examples of how a strong gender equality political framework translates to concrete impacts. Morocco’s constitutional commitment to gender equality is translated into rules and practices that shape spatial planning and building programmes. By linking deep knowledge of the local contexts, and potential opportunities for increasing women’s well-being, Morocco has reached significant impacts such as a near-gender parity in beneficiaries of housing programmes and increased access to economic opportunities for female local artisans.
Both keynotes highlighted that gender is not an add-on or a burden but that, with the right methodologies, integrating gender is a practical and actionable process that boosts building performance and social impact.
Empowering women to change the buildings sector
In the breakout discussions, workshop participants tackled two pillars of putting gender at the top of the sector’s agenda. On the first round, they agreed on priorities for sector action. During a second round, they brainstormed how committed actors can advocate to inspire sector stakeholders to act. The importance of empowering women and disseminating knowledge across the sector was the thread connecting the two rounds.
Participants agreed that the sector needs to understand the intersections between gender and buildings performance, and for that, incorporating women’s perspectives and disseminating their expertise is crucial. Efforts to empower women in the sector should start in education and continue to support their ascension in leadership positions. Women’s leadership should guide the establishment of clear definitions and standards to ensure gender equality throughout the sector.
Convening already committed actors and the existing, but fragmented expertise is essential to move the sector in this direction. On a second discussion round, participants agreed that disseminating successful experiences and providing guidance across all levels – from practitioners to decision-makers – are strategic levers to insert the topic successfully in the sector’s agenda.
Learning and networking, key elements to move forward
PEEB and GlobalABC will incorporate the results of the workshop in their upcoming activities. To provide guidance for the sector and establish standards and procedures to act on gender equality, PEEB will include cases and lessons learnt in its upcoming publication and training. GlobalABC will follow up on ideas for collaborative action in the sector, connecting gender equality champions and disseminating knowledge from the actors in its network.
Check out our Gender Equity to Build Better for All flyer and stay tuned for the next step.
Contact us for more information!