Campaigns

Partnerships

The Governance Campaign bridges grassroots women to women and men in leadership and decision-making positions.

This closes the gap between leaders and constituents, ensures more accountability and transparency in decision-making, and builds stronger and healthier democratic communities.
Principles of Engagement

Given the power differential between the poor and marginalized people and governments, negotiations between the two entails major investments in the following:

1. Constituency building through organizing and civic education

Individuals negotiating with authorities can rarely make sustained gains for the benefit of the community. We believe in the importance of grassroots women organizing constituencies of organized groups, federations, and networks to gain political influence.

2. Community owned information and knowledge

Community-based organizations bring accurate and up to date information and knowledge on their settlements and communities to the table. Such information can serve as the basis for ongoing social audits and community oversight. Grassroots women mobilize their communities to gather information, do collective analysis and use this as the basis for setting political agendas.

3. Win-Win Partnership between Governments and Grassroots Women’s Organizations

Experiences across the Huairou show that the most effective poverty reduction or development programs are those in which governments partner with those who are directly impacted by the programs. These collaborations resource and formalize women’s public roles in development planning, implementation and monitoring. However the major challenge is to institutionalize partnerships and sustain women participation in decision making. Win-win partnerships must be created between organized citizens and local and national authorities.