Activities

The Local to Local Dialogue
Quito, Ecudaor|July 13-16 2009
The Huairou Commission, in collaboration with Movimiento Nacional de Mujeres de Sectores Populares Luna Creciente and Federación de Mujeres Municipalistas – América Latina y el Caribe, will convene a four-day training on the Local-to-Local dialogue methodology with the support of UN-Habitat and the Government of Norway.  The Training is designed for grassroots women leaders who want to strengthen women’s leadership, community participation and partnerships with local government.  The Training will take place from the 13th to 16th of July, 2009 in Quito, Ecuador and will be led by experienced leaders from the Huairou Commission member networks. 

Click here to read the full concept note and learn more

Click here to download the application

To apply for this training, please download the application and return it to Sarah Silliman by May 29th at sarah.silliman@huairou.org

Building Grassroots Women’s Leadership, Community Organizing and Good Governance through Learning the Local-to-Local Dialogue Process|Accra, Ghana
What is the Local-to-Local Dialogue process?  How can it be used to build women’s voice and leadership in the community and enhance local governance?  Who is it that takes this process forward?  Last week over forty women leaders, representing grassroots women’s self-help groups, and women-focused CBOs and NGOs from twelve countries across West, East and Southern Africa took up these questions and others during the Community Facilitators Training on the Local to Local Dialogue. Organized by the Huairou Commission, with facilitation by GROOTS Kenya and UCOBAC, in partnership with the UN-Habitat Gender Mainstreaming Unit and support by the Government of Norway, the training was a part of an on-going initiative of the Huairou Commission to support women’s leadership, community organizing and partnership building at the local level using the Local to Local Dialogue process. 

Recognizing the unequal balance of power and decision-making in many countries across the world, the Huairou Commission has been supporting the development of processes at the local level that build women’s leadership and community over the past ten years.  The Local to Local dialogue is one such example.  Initially piloted in 2002 as a means to build women’s ability to engage with local leadership and authorities, the Local to Local dialogue process has developed into an effective strategy to enhance women’s leadership and create sustained partnerships with decision-makers at the community level.

Everyday in communities across the world meetings are held with varied stakeholders to discuss pressing issues, but these meetings aren’t necessarily a Local to Local dialogue. Often, such meetings are called by individuals or institutions who have an interest in issues that affect a community, such as local government, NGOs and local businesses, but only bring the community into the process after needs and issues have been identified.  This method can result in a solution to a particular issue, but frequently, agreements are not followed up and/or the relationships between the community and partners are not sustained. In contrast, participants of the Local to Local dialogue training learned that a Local to Local dialogue starts with the community – communities are the ones that identify their shared values, prioritize their needs, map the resources (both within and outside the community) and identify stakeholders and allies to dialogue and partner with.  A key element of the Local to Local dialogue process is to shift the power to the community, enabling them to table and prioritize their issues, analyze the roles and responsibilities of stakeholders, and ensure these issues are resolved.

The Local to Local dialogue training was an opportunity for grassroots leaders to build skills to enhance grassroots women’s ability to lead and drive such as process.  The training focused on developing leadership support skills, key elements of the Local to Local dialogue, identifying and shifting power relationships, and building community coalitions and grassroots women’s networks.  The participants were excited and inspired to take back what they learned from the training and go back to their home communities. 

As the Local to Local dialogue is a process that is designed to strengthen the on-going work of grassroots women’s and community organizations, each of the groups represented in the training took on different types of activities for their follow-up.  Many of the groups realized that they needed to go back home and organize a community-led mapping and prioritization of the issues that affect them.  Others had already been through this mapping process and were ready to implement a dialogue in their communities.  The third action group, comprised of leaders who had already conducted dialogues, planned and prepared to organize community leaders for the follow-up plans.   Participants also committed to share their successes and lessons with the other members of their action group and with the group as a whole as they move together to build women’s leadership and partnerships within their communities.

The Huairou Commission has committed to facilitate communication between a resource group, comprised of experienced leaders throughout the networks to provide feedback, expertise and technical assistance to all the participants as they implement their action plans and dialogues in their own communities across Africa.

Click here to view the full report

For more information on this training or the upcoming training in Latin America, please contact sarah.silliman@huairou.org.

Huairou Commission Participation in the IDRC sponsored conference on Women’s Political Participation and Access to Basic Services in the Context of Decentralization
From November 18th to the 22nd, the Huairou Commission was invited by the UNDP Gender Team to participate on their behalf in the international conference in Mexico City held by the IDRC and the Mexican Government entitled, “Decentralization, Local Power, and Women’s Rights: Global trends in participation, representation and access to public services.”  The Commission accepted the invitation to participate, adding speakers to already-planned panels, facilitating a plenary session on grassroots and local authority partnerships that are making decentralization work for women, and participating in the advisory group to develop the Conference outcome document. 

Download the complete report here...

Mapping Women-led responses to safety and security in cities
As the first step in the development of a Global Campaign on Women's Safety, the Huairou Commission has been commissioned by the UN-Habitat Safer Cities Program to conduct a global assessment of the on-going work and successful practices organizations and institutions, both governmental and non-governmental, that have developed responding to lack of safety and security for women in their communities.

The initial assessment was led by member networks of the Huairou Commission, Women in Cities International and the Latin American Women and Habitat Network, and results were shared at the International Conference on the State of Safety in World Cities 2007 in Monterrey, Mexico from October 1st - 5th, 2007 (for more information click here to visit: Monterrey Conference Website

The Huairou Commission is now conducting a second round of this survey to provide and opportunity for new groups and organizations to contribute. The final report will be published and distributed at the World Urban Forum IV in Nanjing, China (November 3rd-7th). In addition, your survey will contribute to the development of a database and directory which will the Huairou Commission to facilitate the process of network building and knowledge exchange in this important area for women.

Download the Initial Results here:
In English
En Espanol

Download our survey here:
In English
En Francais
En Espanol

All submissions are due by August 1st, 2008. Reply to Sarah.Silliman@huairou.org by email or fax: 718-388-0285

Documenting Local Governance Practices
Huairou Member Networks including GROOTS International, the Information Center for the Independent Women's Forum (ICIWF) and others are coming together to share and exchange their knowledge and experience in governance practices through a documentation exercise. Among the organizations that have documented their governance work are: the Slovak and Czech Mother Centers, the Construction Resource and Development Center of Jamaica, the Information Center of the Independent Women's Forum and UCOBAC. Click on the links below to read and learn successful strategies and initiatives from participating organizations:
Slovak Mother Centers: "A Better World For Mothers"
Czech Mothers Centers: "Removing Barriers: A history of lobbying approaches"
The Uganda Community-Based Association for Child Welfare's Governance Work
ICIWF: Governance Activities in Petrozavodsk, Russia
ICIWF: Women's grassroots initiatives for city good governance, Putchino, Moscow

National Agenda-Setting in the Philippines
Starting early this year, the Huairou Commission has supported five networks in the Philippines (DAMPA, Lihok Philippina, COPE, Co Multiversity and PHILSSA) to lead a consultation process with grassroots women to develop a National Gender Agenda. Starting with local level forums, each network documented the practices and priorities of women in their region. The networks then held a three-day Women's Forum to share and consolidate findings from the local level consultations. This Forum included 47 participants from 29 women's organizations across the Philippines, representing the regions and cities of Luzon: National Capital Region, Laguna/Rizal/Taguig, Bicol, Mindoro, Zambales, Romblon; Visayas: Cebu City, Mandaue City, Bacolod City; and Mindanao: Davo City, Marawi City, & Cotabato City.

Participants established an agenda that included: Strict implementation of the VAW-C, city relocation versus far-away relocation in Land and Tenure issues, priority on basic services, the environment, participation of women in governance, and strict implementation of the 5% GAD budget. They have now developed a working committee to ensure that the next steps are taken in their advocacy/action agenda.

Participatory Planning and Budgets in Argentina, El Salvador and Uruguay
The Huairou Commission has supported training and workshops in three countries, led by CISCSA of the Women and Habitat - LAC network, that focus on participatory planning, budgets and strengthening women's access and rights to the city. CISCSA is using the lessons learned from their work in Rosario, Argentina to replicate successes throughout their network. For more information, click here to visit their website.

Advancements in the Local-to-Local Dialogue
As one of organizations that originally piloted the Local-to-Local dialogue in 2002, the Czech Mother Centers have continued to expand and develop the methodology throughout the country. In 2006 the Huairou Commission supported the fourth round of dialogues and the development of materials which include a Cookbook for Local to Local Dialogues, and a Manual for National-Level Roundtables (both will be available at the end of 2007).

Another participant in the 2002 Local to Local pilots, GROOTS Kenya, recently pioneered the development of a Local-to-Local dialogue training technique and manual. Supported by UN-Habitat through the Norwegian Embassy, GROOTS Kenya trained over 25 women from Nigeria, Senegal, Zimbabwe, Kenya, Norway, Germany, Netherlands, America, Ethiopia, Tanzania, Uganda, Rwanda, Cameroon, Czech Republic, Ghana and Guatemala in the step-by-step process they developed from their experiences. The training was led by grassroots leaders from GROOTS Kenya, Violet Shivutse and Ann Wanjirou. Full report and training manual available soon.

The Czech Mother Centers have developed a roundtable guide for grassroots groups to use when engaging local authorities.

Download the Czech MC manual here

Impacting Electoral Processes
The Huairou Commission has supported both Ntankah Village Women Common Initiative Group of Cameroon and the International Women Communication Center of Nigeria have engaged in mobilization and awareness-raising of grassroots women to participate and engage in their local elections. The IWCC and Ntankah have conducted community dialogues and stakeholder forums to capacitate women to engage and inform local authorities on the priorities and issues of the local communities.

Gender Budget in Turkey
As a match to EU funding attained by the Foundation for the Support of Women's Work in Turkey (KEDV), the Huairou Commission supported KEDV to pilot Gender Budgeting in 2006. Starting with general civic education, KEDV led an organizing effort that involved weekly meetings, negotiations with municipal leaders, and the harvesting of grassroots women's priorities for budgetary analysis and comparison. KEDV is in the first stage of the process, producing documentation on their experiences.

Regional and Global Advocacy
In September of 2006, the Huairou Commission supported a delegation of twenty African women from five countries to attend the 4th Africities Summit in Nairobi, Kenya. This meeting enabled participants to engage with local authorities from their countries directly in dialogue and workshop sessions. The Huairou Commission partnered with UCLG to run the thematic session on women, with AMICAALL on local authority interventions on HIV/AIDS, and with UN-Habitat and UNIFEM on the MDGs and achieving gender equality through local government. To read the full report and policy statement to the Africities Summit, click here.

In April of 2007, the Huairou Commission Coordinating Council, along with a delegation of African women leaders, attended the 21st UN-Habitat Governing Council Meeting. As the leading women's organization within UN-Habitat, the Huairou Commission organizes the Daily Women's Caucus each day of the Governing Council meetings to assess advancements and review priority issues each day. This year the Huairou Commission delegation participated in a Local-to-Local Dialogue training (see above) organized by GROOTS Kenya prior to the GC Meeting. In addition, the Huairou Commission facilitated two workshops (on Women and Land and on the Commission on the Legal Empowerment of the Poor) and was represented by Maria Teresa Rodriguez-Blandon, of the Women and Peace Network, at the high level partners dialogue session. For more information visit our events page by clicking here.

Theme Development: Safety and Security for Women in Cities
Multiple networks of the Huairou Commission have expressed the need to have program work of the Huairou Commission focused on the issues of Safety and Security for Women in Cities. Therefore, the Huairou Commission is supporting the development of a planning process which will include the establishment of a Safety and Security Working Group within the Commission. As many networks have a substantial body of work already developed in this area, the first activity of the group will be to conduct an overall assessment of work and activities to date within the Member Networks.

Impacting Policy-Making Institutions
The Huairou Commission Chair, Jan Peterson, was invited to participate in the Expert Group Meeting on Gender and Governance hosted by the UNDP Gender Unit to impact the overall UNDP Gender Equality Strategy 2008-2011, held from May 15th-16th at the UNDP headquarters in New York.