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In assessing the current landscape of governance actors and institutions of influence, particularly those that focus on women and governance, a majority prioritize increasing women's political and electoral participation (i.e. increasing number of women elected to office, number of women voters, and/or ensuring election systems are gender sensitive). In contrast, the Huairou Commission Governance Campaign has consistently placed an emphasis on women's participation in every-day decisions that affect their lives (water, infrastructure, housing, education and health) that not only includes what is done, but by whom and how and with what resources. By placing and emphasis on governance processes versus electoral and political processes, the Huairou Commission holds a unique position and perspective in the debates and discussions on women and governance, effectively demonstrating that women build democratic practices and strengthen governance by taking leadership in the daily decisions that affect their lives and the lives of their families and communities.

• Support grassroots women to attain leadership positions and influence over local decision-making and resource allocation bodies
• Advocate for, pilot and build partnerships at the local, national and regional level to establish permanent mechanisms for citizen-government engagement
• Create learning platforms to exchange lessons and experiences in participating at the local level, negotiating with local leaders and authorities and establishing protocols and precedents that ensure on-going participation for grassroots women
• Document mechanisms, strategies and tools used and developed by grassroots women's groups and NGOs to advance grassroots women's priorities in public dialogue at the local, national and international levels.

Recognizing that the Huairou Commission members engage in governance processes on priority issues and areas of concern in their communities, the Governance Campaign acts as a mechanism to strengthen the visibility of women's local participation in decision-making and resource allocation, provide resources and tools for establishing partnership and negotiating with local authorities, and documenting and aggregating examples of good policies and protocols that contribute to good governance, gender empowerment and women's equality.

To do this, the Campaign focuses on engaging and supporting members across all campaigns and regional organizing through the following four initiatives:

1. Local-to-Local Dialogue Learning Network Building good governance from the bottom-up, the Local-to-Local Dialogue processes is a methodology that builds the capacity and ability of grassroots women to collectively participate in local decision making through negotiation and partnership with local leaders and authorities.
2. Millennium Development Goal 3 Achieving Gender Equality and Women's Empowerment through strengthening in grassroots women's participation in political, leadership and decision-making processes.
3. Safety and Security Making cities for women, and for all, is only possible when and where grassroots women articulate and develop their own safety agenda and priorities, bringing their definitions of, and work around, safety from the ground, to all levels of dialogues and decision and policy-making processes.
4. Legislation, Laws, Protocols and Accords Collecting, and providing as a resource, examples of enabling mechanisms that advance grassroots women's needs and priorities at the local, national, regional and international level across all themes of the Huairou Commission.

The primary focus of the Governance Campaign partnership strategy has been to build relationships with multi-lateral institutions and local government networks and organizations including, UN-Habitat (Good Urban Governance Campaign, Gender Mainstreaming Unit, Safer Cities Program), UNDP (Global LIFE Program, Gender Team) and United Cities Local Governments (UCLG).

The Campaign has expanded upon these relationships to include institutions such as UNIFEM and organizations such as the Federation of Canadian Municipalities. In addition, the Campaign has sought to build relationships directly with governmental bodies such as the MDG3 Fund of the Dutch Government, Cordaid, and the European Union (Parliament).

The Governance Campaign has led grassroots participation in a number of recent events. Summaries and reports are listed below:

IDRC Conference on Decentralization, Local Power and Women's Rights: Global trends in women's participation, representation and access to basic services Mexico City, Mexico, November 2008

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.

The Commission brought a team of delegates representing grassroots women's groups, NGOs, and local authorities from seven countries who have collaborated together to increase women's roles in decision-making over distribution of community resources and ensuring communities access to quality basic services. The primary goal of the Huairou delegation was to contribute to the conference debates, particularly adding the grassroots women's perspective on what can be considered successful outcomes for poor women in the context of the research presented on the effectiveness of decentralization in increasing women's political participation and access to public services.

Download Full Report here:
IDRC Meeting on Decentralization

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, Click Here.

Breaking Barriers, Building Bridges: Huairou Commission Public Hearing at the European Union Parliament Brussels, Belgium, March 2008