Closing gaps between men and women, boys and girls is central to the sustainable development goals, and achieving gender equality is a core tenet within the World Bank Group's mission of achieving prosperity for all. However, across development sectors, progress in closing gaps has been uneven and in some sectors, such as financial inclusion, even stagnant. Grasping and grappling with the complexities of gender norms, outdated institutional policies, and discriminatory laws and regulations-as documented, for instance, in Women, Business, and the Law-can be a daunting challenge. Urban planning and design practitioners are not immune to these issues-in fact, their disciplines have historically helped reinforce unequal gender roles and responsibilities, with adverse consequences on mobility, access to key assets and public spaces, and safety for women, girls, and sexual and gender minorities in cities around the world. Nonetheless, the role that today's urban planners and designers, alongside cities and community members, can play in promoting gender equality is significant. After all, urban planning and design decisions shape the very environment we live in. This handbook aims to illuminate the relationships between gender inequality, the built environment, and urban planning and design; and to lay out a menu of simple, practicable processes and best practices for urban planning and design projects that build more inclusive cities-for men and women, for those with disabilities, and for those who are marginalized and excluded. The work is the result of a collaborative process between experts from the Urban, Infrastructure, Social Development, and Gender units within the World Bank Group, and external experts with extensive experience in participatory urban planning and design. Covering a comprehensive array of plan and project typologies and providing case studies from diverse contexts around the world, we hope this handbook will be an invaluable source of practical guidance and inspiration for World Bank Task Team Leaders as well as consultants and clients across all World Bank regions.