Sejong City Advances to Phase 2 Certification as a 'Women-Friendly City'

[Asia Economy (Sejong) Reporter Jeong Il-woong] Sejong City is set to pursue the second phase certification as a Women-Friendly City this year.

On the 7th, the city held a Women-Friendly City Promotion Committee meeting to review and advise on the second phase Women-Friendly City plan to be implemented by the city. About 30 people, including Sejong City council members, related organizations, experts, and citizens, attended the meeting.

The Women-Friendly City certification is granted by the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family after receiving applications from local governments and conducting a review. The purpose is to ensure gender equality in regional policies and development processes, and to promote women’s employment, care, and safety policies.

At the meeting, the vision for the second phase of the Women-Friendly City was established as “Sejong, a Women-Friendly City Leaping Forward with Citizen Sovereignty.”

Key promotion goals were also set as ▲ Realizing gender equality through citizen sovereignty ▲ Strengthening the foundation for gender equality policy implementation ▲ Expanding economic and social participation ▲ Creating a sustainable safe city ▲ Enhancing a seamless care promotion system.

Previously, to establish the second phase project plan, the city secured continuity, distinctiveness, and validity with the first phase Women-Friendly City project through the 1st Women-Friendly City Citizen Participation Group’s planning, monitoring, and evaluation; the 2nd Sejong City Gender Equality Environment Diagnosis; the 3rd survey of Sejong citizens; and the 4th Women-Friendly City Promotion Council and Sejong City Council Women-Friendly City Practice Research Group’s suggestions.

Through this, the city plans to carry out a total of 34 tasks in the second phase of the Women-Friendly City. Representative tasks include ▲ Realizing Sejong-type autonomous decentralization with gender equality ▲ Operating a citizen participation budgeting system to enhance gender equality ▲ Forming and operating a Women-Friendly Special Committee within the Eup-Myeon Development Committee.

The city plans to submit the application for the second phase Women-Friendly City certification by the 15th of this month. The certification decision for the second phase is expected to be announced in December.

Sejong Mayor Lee Chun-hee said, “Sejong was the first metropolitan city to receive Women-Friendly City certification in 2016,” and added, “In the second phase, we will promote Women-Friendly City projects reflecting Sejong’s characteristics to establish a city culture where gender equality is realized and socially vulnerable groups are cared for.”

Meanwhile, after being designated in the first phase (entry), Women-Friendly Cities have the opportunity to advance to the second phase (development) and third phase (leading) every five years through review and on-site inspection by the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.