The MDG3 Accountability Series on Women's Empowerment

Over the last three years, the Huairou Commission's Governance Campaign has invested over $1 million in grassroots women's organizing and empowerment across five continents. But what does this number translate to on the ground? In the MDG 3 Grassroots Empowerment Series, you can read the success stories of various groups who participated in the MDG3 Accountability Initiative and what change they were able to create by engaging in the initiative.

Toward a More Inclusive Urban Development -- One Woman at a Time (published on Inter Press Services)

Grassroots Women's Voices at the MDG Summit

From Ladles to Leadership: CONOMOVIDI's Story of Success in the MDG3 Initiative

Activism Beyond Identity Lines: How Brazil's Espaco Femenista is Organizing Across Social Movements to Become the Change They Wish to See

__________________________________________________________________________________________

Toward a More Inclusive Urban Development -- One Woman at a Time

By Kim-Jenna Jurriaans

Today, more than half the world lives in cities. Pushed by the loss of livelihoods in rural areas, and lured by the prospect of a better future for themselves and their families, an estimated three million people migrate to urban areas in the developing world each week. While cities have taken a number of innovative steps to address issues of growth and development, from modern architecture to green design, such capital-driven initiatives rarely benefit those in the most underserved communities in the urban context. In addition, development efforts often fail to recognize the unique challenges faced by women, who make up two thirds of the urban poor. Women not only encounter the harsh reality of informal-sector jobs, inadequate government services, and poor sanitation, they also face the added threats of sexual violence and insecurity of land and housing tenure. Women in developing countries bear the brunt of often-violent evictions of informal urban settlements and are twice as vulnerable to sexual violence as men. What's more, they are more likely to become infected with HIV/AIDS, especially amidst a global financial crisis that increases economic need and riskier sexual behavior. Unscrupulous landlords forcing female tenants into sex as rent payments is common practice in this context. When family members fall ill, the burden of primary care, in turn, falls on women in the household and community.

But women are also incredibly resilient. They build communities and businesses, they lobby local government for services and take initiative to improve their daily realities where the state is failing to do so. Together, they claim women's rights to the city - and in doing so, improve conditions for the most disadvantaged communities of developing nations. It is here that the real urban innovation takes shape. "When you invest in women, you can be sure they are not just going spend resources on themselves, but on their families and their communities," says Janice Peterson, co-founder of the Huairou Commission and GROOTS International, two global networks connecting women's organizations across five continents. "The potential development impact is enormous." 

Continued here... 

____________________________________________________________________________________________

Grassroots Women's Voices at the MDG Summit

By Kim-Jenna Jurriaans

"Urgency" and "growth" were the buzz words of the week at the Millennium Development Goal Summit, held in New York, September 20-22, that marked the tenth anniversary of the international commitment to end extreme poverty by 2015. With five years left to make good on their promise, and speaking amidst the largest global recession since the 1930s, heads of state joined international policy makers to reaffirm their commitment to the MDGs and make a final push for increasing aid. The summit, however, remained largely silent on concrete steps to overcome the existing challenges, such as a lack of women in decision making, alarming rates of people living in slums and a rise in the overall number of poor since 2007. Highlighting these and other challenges, grassroots women leaders in the Huairou Commission network used the panel discussions of the summit's side events to advocate for more direct involvement of women at the community level as actors and knowledge holders in development processes.

Continued here...

_________________________________________________________________________________________________

From Ladles to Leadership: CONOMOVIDI's Story of Success in the MDG3 Initiative

by Kim-Jenna Jurriaans

Peru's community kitchens, or comedores populares, have provided food and a social space to the urban poor since the 1960s, as streams of rural migrants left their homes in search of work, often settling in squatter communities with few basic services. In an effort to build food security in their communities, women formed cooking collectives, bought produce in bulk and created large kitchens that became not only hubs for distributing food to low-income families, but spaces for neighborhood organizing on a range of community development issues. Today, women across Peru are taking ownership of political processes with the help of CONAMOVIDI, a national network that organizes women in more than 10.000 popular kitchens country-wide. As they increasingly move beyond a primary focus on food distribution, CONAMOVIDI'S commodores populares facilitate projects that empower women to become civic leaders -- including in Cañete, a town recovering from the 2007 earthquake, where women have actively negotiated with local authorities on the implementation of Peru's Law of Equal Opportunities.

Continued here...

__________________________________________________________________________________________

Activism Beyond Identity Lines: How Brazil's Espaco Femenista is Organizing Across Social Movements to Become the Change They Wish to See

by Kim-Jenna Jurriaans

Spirits were high at the World Urban Forum in Rio de Janeiro earlier this year, when the untiring leaders of Brazil’s Espaço Feminista were presented with perhaps their biggest victory to date – the decision of the state government of Pernambuco to seize plans to remove the 55.000-strong community of Ponte Maduro in Santo Amaro in favor of legalizing and regulating the settlement. It is the ability of grassroots women to transform social conflict into avenues for dialogue that is at the heart of the group’s success.

Continued here...