The Cities and Social Solutions webinar series is co-organized by the City Diplomacy Lab and Columbia Global Centers | Paris.
This webinar is co-sponsored by the City Hub and Network for Gender Equity (CHANGE).
This webinar brings together representatives from Buenos Aires, Freetown, and Louisville to discuss the topics of gender equity; gender-based discrimination; women; gender diverse and feminist leaders; equitable gender representation in local politics; care and well-being; and the feminist municipal movement.
Speakers
Micaela Saban is a lawyer (UBA), specialist in Human Rights and non-discrimination, and Master in Public Policy from Universidad Austral. She has been a consultant on inclusion, gender, and diversity for different organizations. She is a teacher of the Diploma in Gender at the Universidad Nacional del Comahue, and in the implementation of the Micaela Law and ESI. Co-author of the National Plan for the Reduction of Femicides (2019). Between 2015 and 2019 she served as Project Coordinator of the National Institute against Discrimination, Xenophobia and Racism, where she was in charge of the implementation of comprehensive public policies with the aim of fostering more inclusive and egalitarian standards of citizenship. In 2020 she took over as Project Director of the Economic and Social Council of the GCBA and currently serves as General Director of the Undersecretariat for Women.
Manja Kargbo leads the Mayor’s Delivery Unit, a team established specifically to drive innovation at Freetown City Council through the Transform Freetown Plan. As Team Lead, she provides strategic oversight to the team in the development, implementation, and delivery of over 30 projects. She led the team that developed #FreetownTheTreeTown which seeks to tackle the devastating rates of deforestation in the city by utilizing the community to plant, grow and digitally track trees. The project went on to win the Bloomberg Mayors Challenge in 2022 and was an Earthshot Prize finalist in 2023. She is currently an Earthshot Prize Fellow. Manja works closely with the Mayor of Freetown and other city leaders to drive strategy and set the climate agenda through implementing the first Freetown Climate Action Strategy for the bustling city of 1.2million residents, with a focus on building equitable and sustainable pathways to climate adaptation with mitigation co-benefits for communities across the city.
Gretchen Hunt, Esq. serves as the Director of the Office for Women in Louisville, KY where she leads efforts to raise the status of women and gender diverse individuals through education, advocacy and legislation. Gretchen has over twenty years of experience in legislation, policy, grant writing, fundraising, public speaking, project management and leadership development and continues to consult at the national level on human trafficking. She has taught courses on gender and the law and domestic violence law as an adjunct faculty at the University of Louisville Gender Studies Department and the Brandeis School of Law. She received degrees from Boston College and Boston College Law School.
Leslie Crosdale (she/her) is the Co-Executive Director of the City Hub and Network for Gender Equity (CHANGE). She leads the network with Holly Milburn-Smith. Leslie brings experience in humanitarian affairs and city diplomacy. During her time in the Communications and Advocacy division of the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP), she helped develop international advocacy campaigns and strategies, raising awareness about the most pressing emergencies in global fora. Leslie has also worked in the Greater London Authority (GLA), where she developed a strong understanding of how municipal governments function, the value of city-to-city exchanges, and the pivotal role mayors play in responding to major global challenges. Leslie holds a BA in Diplomacy and World Affairs from Occidental College in Los Angeles, and an MsC in Urban Development Planning from the Bartlett’s Development Planning Unit (DPU) at University College London. She is now based in London, UK.
For further information on the City Diplomacy Lab, please visit www.citydiplomacylab.net/