Less than 5% of cities are led by women and their lack of political participation is hampering progress in meeting international goals on making cities more sustainable and inclusive, a group of female mayors said on Friday.

Anne Hidalgo, the first female mayor of Paris said more must be done to ensure more women are elected to help build more socially inclusive and equal cities.

“Women represent half of humanity and you can’t transform and build humanity if you ignore half of it,” Hidalgo said at the World Summit of Local and Regional Leaders in Bogota.

“If we don’t include women it’s difficult to transform the cities we live in,” she said.

Women running cities are more likely to focus on improving basic services, such as clean water and healthcare, transport, childcare, schools and providing support to businesswomen, experts say.