History & Achievements:
Political Globalization of Grassroots Women

Until recently, grassroots women have been forced to the extreme margins of international culture and decision-making by poverty, geography, language, local custom, and the sheer amount of work they’ve had to do to take care of their families. As a result (and in spite of conscientious efforts by those in the global women’s movement to speak for grassroots women) their perspectives, experiences, knowledge, analyses, and recommendations were weakly integrated into global problem solving.

Origin
However invisible they might have been to the outside world, grassroots women had been coming together around local problems like deforestation, lack of water, lack of capital, domestic violence, and natural disaster. Typically, they shared burdens, taught and learned, found strength in numbers, solved community problems, connected with nearby groups, and passed on solutions. Some created networks.

In 1995, in Huairou, China, on the fringes of the Fourth World Conference on Women, a critical mass of these grassroots women emerged from the margins and, for the first time in the history of international conferences, spoke for themselves. And while their outspokenness rode on the shoulders of those who fought for human rights, their issues were not abstract. They talked specifics; development specifics. Homes. Community. Habitat.

They catalyzed the start of the Huairou Commission, a network of grassroots women’s organization.

Grounding
A year after Beijing, UN Global Conference on HABITAT was held in Istanbul. Invited by the secretary–general of UNCHS-Habitat, the Huairou Commission exploded into being: They established the first ever child care center at an international conference, organized dozens of workshops, mounted an exhibit on grassroots solutions to community problems, lead the women’s caucuses, and, with others, and saw to it that the Habitat Agenda enfolded specific and constant references to women.Furthermore, they advanced their concept of their network, deciding to build professional partnerships into the construct. Grassroots women would essentially set the agenda; professional women and/or institutions would work with them to accomplish grassroots goals.

The Huairou Commission:
Forging strategic partnerships
to advance the capacity of grassroots women worldwide
to strengthen and create sustainable communities.

As interpreted by Huairou's first three-year plan, the organizations goals were to be accomplished by advocacy – local, national and international, network building, capacity building, resource development, and empowerment strategies.

Developing strategies
Since then, members of the Huairou Commission have worked relentlessly to develop the strategies, interventions, education and policies that would best support grassroots women’s interests. They have:

•Continuously and proactively advocated for grassroots women at major international conferences
•Gained recognition of the value of the local knowledge of grassroots women
•Oganized workshops on issues of most importance to grassroots women at international conference
•Researched, negotiated and successfully completed contracts with international institutions to support empowerment and capacity building for groups on the ground.
•Initiated and completed grassroots practices research project
•Inaugurated and continued to support grassroots peer learning and partnering academies
•Published on grassroots practices

Huairou has enjoyed many partnerships; among them are UNIFEM, UN-HABITAT, USAID, CORDAID, AFRUS-AIDS, ICLEI, UNDP, UCLG and several faith based groups.

What Difference Does It Make?
Today, the Huairou commission is widely recognized for its bottom-up governance model, the authenticity of its grassroots membership, and its dedication to bringing their essential knowledge, perspective and practice to all levels of development policy making.

Huairou’s member organizations continue to grow and develop capacity for leadership in many arenas – governance, development after disaster, peace building, AIDS in Africa, property rights. As it turns out, their ways of managing these issue are often different than the dominant ones – primarily because grassroots women understand them from a different, and more intimate, perspective.

Thus they can add to, test and improve the quality of development ideas and practices. Today they are viewed as a growing and essential force in policy making - locally, regionally and internationally.