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NETWORK NEWS
Global Advocacy @ WUF6 | Women of Huairou Successfully Leverage Gender Spaces at WUF
By Andrea Garcia and Katherine Shelley
"Grassroots women have organized collectively, and they are no longer just staying in their neighborhoods... they are not going to let those wonderful political leaders that we all know and love, those mayors and the NGO leaders and the others totally decide what is their [grassroots women's] agenda. They have found each other. They are making networks: neighborhood to neighborhood, city to city, country to country; and now, they are making them globally".
-Jan Peterson
The Sixth World Urban Forum, held in Naples from September 2-7, succeeded in thoroughly integrating and focusing on women's issues more than ever before, reflecting the strength of the networks described above. Notably for our Huairou delegation, this year's WUF marked the launch of the Advisory Group on Gender Issues for UN-Habitat, among other high-profile events focused on gender. Our international delegation of twenty-six women was very warmly welcomed to Napoli by our Italian hosts, Teresa Boccia from the University of Naples Federico II and Vera Guida from the Associazione Sott'e'Ncoppa, as well as a team of Italian volunteers, who greatly facilitated logistics during both the Multi-Stakeholder Academy and the World Urban Forum.
Immediately prior to the Sixth World Urban Forum, the Huairou Commission, in collaboration with our Italian partners, organized a three-day Multi-Stakeholder Academy. The Academy provided an opportunity for a rich dialogue between community practitioners, academics, urban planners and NGOs. It also successfully consolidated the messages of participating groups of organized women in preparation for the World Urban Forum. Participants held discussions analyzing the impact of market-driven development approaches, and presented best practices to assure community engagement in planning future development trajectories. During the Partner Dialogue, Joan Clos, Executive Director of UN-Habitat, joined us for more than two hours to discuss urban planning, particularly stressing the importance of planning cities with adequate public spaces. As a final outcome, the Academy prepared a statement document of recommendations, which was later presented at WUF. The six main recommendations are presented here below, and the full statement can be found on our website.
Armed with a clear women's agenda, the Huairou Delegation kicked off WUF6 on September 2nd with the day-long Gender Equality Action Assembly (GEAA), including facilitation by Sandy Schilen of GROOTS International. The GEAA focused on the implementation of UN-Habitat's Gender Equality Action Plan (GEAP), and included speeches by UN-Habitat Executive Director Joan Clos, Deputy Director of UN Women Lakshmi Puri, and Huairou Commission Founder and Chair, Jan Peterson. Mr. Clos expressed his agency's solidarity with the initiatives to economically empower women, while Ms. Peterson stressed the importance of implementation for real, on the ground change at the local level.
Ms. Peterson called for a convergence of the historically segmented women's movements, in the interest of achieving the women's equality in governance that is necessary for advancement of women, and actual implementation of women's solutions in our globalizing and decentralizing world. Specifically, she called for a new paradigm and partnership structure for these movements. She noted that, although this work has already started on the ground, with the expansion of networks of grassroots women, there remains a need for increased recognition of these women and their constituencies by the existing governance structures on all levels. In line with the participatory spirit of the World Urban Forum, and Ms. Peterson's long-term commitment to supporting the movements of community-based women, she challenged the audience to envision innovative governance structures:
"We want our cities to work. We want neighborhoods to work. We want our mayors from Zimbabwe to be successful, and that requires a different paradigm - it comes from the bottom up, and it means we use local spaces differently."
To continue reading the full article, please visit our website:
http://huairou.org/women-huairou-successfully-leverage-gender-spaces-wuf
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FEATURED ARTICLE
Bangladesh | Slum Women Organize through Local to Local Dialogues By Katie Gillett and Sabrina Salahuddin-Shown While the High Court in Bangladesh declared that "without rehabilitation, there will be no eviction," land continues to be seized and people continue to be displaced without proper rehabilitation, especially in urban areas. The slum of Bhola in the capital city of Dhaka, Bangladesh, is made up of people who were kicked off of their land, coming predominately from rural areas to Dhaka 20-25 years ago when the government occupied their agricultural land to build a water channel. After losing their property- largely to river erosion- they moved to Bhola, where they are confined to one congested area in tin shed housing, stacked in stories. The slum dwellers lack basic service delivery and face water and toilet crises. "People are living in a very inhumane situation," said Quazi Baby, Director of the Participatory Development Action Program (PDAP) in Bangladesh and a member of the Huairou Commission.  | |
Quazi Baby, Director of PDAP (second from right), at the L2L Dialogue on Strengthening Grassroots Women
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Lacking basic services and living under the constant threat of eviction, the people of Bhola wanted to change their situation but needed support to formulate a plan of action. Enter the Local-to-Local Dialogue, a strategic process developed by the Huairou Commission through decades of grassroots women's organizing efforts. Through the L2L process, women document their realities, build consensus, form alliances, and build a power base to access resources and create solutions to community issues. They engage in decision-making in partnership with local authorities. Earlier this year, the Huairou Commission published the Local-to-Local Dialogue manual with the support of Cordaid and the Dutch Foreign Ministry, making this effective methodology more accessible to grassroots groups around the globe. Using guidelines from this manual, and with the field expertise of Ms. Fides Bagasao (GROOTS Philippines) and technical support of Ms. Sabrina Salahuddin-Shown (Huairou Commission Secretariat), PDAP has been undertaking a series of activities to prepare the grassroots women of Bhola to hold a dialogue with local stakeholders. Slum-dwelling women have been organizing since June regarding their eviction threats and basic needs. In July and August, field workers Jolly Rahman, Maksuda and Jahanara Begum organized and mobilized the community, forming groups and leading trust-building exercises. For instance, through the River of Life and Tree of Life exercises outlined in the manual, women illustrate and share stories about significant events and challenges in their lives. The field workers also trained the Bhola community in women's leadership over various workshops, and facilitated the collective identification of group leaders to initiate the Local-to-Local Dialogue on behalf of the entire community. To continue reading the full article. please visit our website: http://www.huairou.org/slum-women-bangladesh-start-organizing-through-local-local-dialogues
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COUNTRY SPOTLIGHT: UGANDA
Buwenge, Jinja | SWID Faces Food Security Head-on with Launch of Demo Garden
By: Andrea Garcia
Grassroots women are tackling food insecurity head-on and building resilience with a demo-garden in the Buwenge Community of the Jinja district of Uganda. After over a year of work, Huairou Commission member, Slum Women's Development Initiative (SWID), released its report on the gains and conclusions since the launch of their demo-garden. The garden is an initiative of the Huairou Commission and GROOTS International as part of its Community Resilience Campaign funded by NORAD.
The demo garden primarily sought to address the issue of food security, but also impacts the local HIV-infected community with healthy nutrition alternatives, addresses climate change adaptation with the planting of trees, and confronts poverty by providing women with produce to sell and generate funds for saving. The demo-garden also offers a place to build more unity in the community, as local women visit the garden to learn how to replicate these in their own homes. SWID founder and Director, Joyce Nangobi, explained,
"SWID trains the grassroots women on how to advocate for human rights, about home based care giving, about developing resilient communities, and about land and housing. Therefore we at SWID found out that there was a need to put up interventions which can unite the women so that they put into practice what they learn from the trainings".
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Community participants at the launch of the demo garden.
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The demo-garden has also brought together other members of the community. Four local officials attended the launch event, along with 40 other grassroots women and the SWID staff. Additionally, the inclusion of local men proved to be key in the long term success of the gardens. Their cooperation in demarcating the land used for growing the cash crop, sugar cane, while leaving enough land left to grow gardens such as this with diverse and nutritional food options, is critical for sustaining this solution.
Nevertheless, SWID acknowledges the challenges that persist, namely access to sufficient water for irrigation, and the lack of resources available for the expansion of this initiative to other communities. Although others have already requested developing a demo-garden in their communities, funding is limited, particularly as the seeds are costly. A the launch event, Nangobi took the opportunity to call upon the National Agricultural Advisory Services to join the women's effort to fight food insecurity by providing the resources necessary for expansion.
We wish to congratulate SWID on launching this incredible initiative. The beauty of projects such as this is their ability to address a variety of complex issues with simple and easily replicated solutions, that create resilient communities for the long-term. This demo-garden is just one more reminder that grassroots women hold an encyclopedia of local knowledge that needs to be leveraged to help their communities thrive.
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REGIONAL SPOTLIGHT: CENTRAL AMERICA AND THE CARIBBEAN
Nicaragua | Jinotega Resilience Workshop Successfully Assesses Grassroots Practices
By: Andrea Garcia
Union de Cooperativas Las Brumas, member group of Huairou Commission, welcomed 11 women to their community of Jinotega, Nicaragua on August 18 through 21. Coming from Peru, Guatemala, Ecuador, Honduras and the U.S., these women traveled to the hometown of grassroots leader Haydee Rodriguez for an Assessment Workshop on Resilience. The goal of the exchange was for the various Latin American women involved in resilience work to exchange information and visit the work of the women farmers of the cooperative. This work includes various initiatives for resilience in the face of food insecurity, climate change, and disaster risk reduction through the Community Resilience Campaign supported by GROOTS International and the Huairou Commission.
Field visits to the Las Brumas farms revealed a variety of effective practices including organic farming, raised plant beds, diversification of produce, and land conservation methods.
 | | Haydee Rodriguez (L) hosting participants of the Jinotega Workshop |
Participants observed the gains and challenges faced by the community, collectively determined methods for assessment and tracking as well as identifying future needs for support. The visiting women also shared their initiatives, which include seed banks, reforestation projects, rainwater harvesting, food sovereignty work and political advocacy.
Finally, the visit also included dialogues with local officials and organizations. Las Brumas signed an agreement for cooperation with Nicaragua's Prevention, Mitigation, and Attention to Disaster Bureau (SINAPREDE). Additionally, the Ambassador of Holland as well as Nicaragua's UN Women representative met with the women to discuss future support and collaboration.
Overall, the Jinotega Exchange proved fruitful in strengthening ties among the grassroots Latin America women, achieving positive information exchange, and improving research practices by grassroots women experts, in order to increase their visibility and advance partnerships.
 | | (Photo credit: Josefina Miculax) |
We wish to thank Haydee Rodriguez and Las Brumas for hosting the exchange, as well as all 11 women who participated:
Maite Rodr�guez - Fundaci�n Guatemala
Josefina Miculax - Fundaci�n Guatemala
Relinda Sosa - GROOTS Per�
Carmen Sanchez - GROOTS Per�
Lucy Mejia - GROOTS Peru
Diocelinda Iza - Luna Creciente (Ecuador)
Elva Ulcuango - Luna Creciente (Ecuador)
Sandy Schilen - GROOTS International
Analucy Bengochea - Comit� de Honduras
Tatiana Solis - Comit� de Honduras
Maria Arce - Consultant
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REGIONAL SPOTLIGHT: CENTRAL AMERICA AND THE CARIBBEAN
Haiti | Simple Solutions Amidst Barriers to Aid
By Andrea Garcia
Port-au-Prince- During the month of August, from the 12-21, Carmen Griffiths of GROOTS Jamaica, accompanied by Xuan Nguyen from the Huairou Secretariat in New York, visited Haiti to gather recovery updates from local women's groups. Ms. Griffiths had previously visited Haiti on various occasions, and this visit was an extension of the relationships she had already built with existing women's groups.
The visit proved to be fruitful; groups reported returning to a level of day to day normalcy since the earthquake, and thus there has been a shift towards development work, away from emergency relief work. Accompanied by local interpreter, Gessica Thomas, the GROOTS and Huairou representatives were able to see women-led initiatives by groups Flavilek, and Konnamavid, speak with women living in the squatter settlement Canaan 13, and meet groups outside of Port-au-Prince residing on the Jacmel mountain and Les Cayes.
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Carmen Griffiths (center in purple) and Xuan Nguyen (front) visiting with local women's groups in Port-au-Prince
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Ms. Griffiths and Ms. Nguyen also met with Ms. Judy Roy, a Haitian activist and politician who founded the Action for Women in Social Economic Development, who assisted in connecting them with the groups and neighborhoods where organizing needed to be strengthened. They also met with Ms. Marie Mimose Felix, the Minister of Rural Affairs, and representatives from Architects for Emergency, to discuss the possibility of future partnerships with GROOTS International and Huairou.
The women's groups they visited have applied a variety of simple solutions to meet the needs of the women and communities in and outside of Port au Prince. For example, Flavilek offers sewing and cooking classes to women, empowering them with skills to use for profit as an alternative to prostitution. Similarly, Konnamavid provided capacity building in large-scale food production to sell at the market, giving women another means of livelihood, and its community kitchen offers food and spaces for organizing. Women were also working as organizers, sharing meeting spaces, and bringing women together to discuss local needs.
The visit also identified communities that were experiencing setbacks due to oversight by development agencies in involving locals in planning processes. For example, Ms. Griffith's conversations with women residing in the squatter settlement, Canaan 13, which lies on the outskirts of Port-au-Prince, described fund allocation without a much needed long-term vision for housing solutions by the government. Individuals were given $20,000 Haitian Gourds (equivalent to about $475 USD) to resettle, yet were not given any land on which to resettle. Thus, squatter settlements have emerged, presenting lingering problems of sanitation, health, and access to water.
Overall, the global response to relief in Haiti continues to bring in resources without adequate involvement of communities, and thus misses opportunities for sustainable positive impact. Although local women have shown agency to provide solutions that meet the basic needs of their communities, Ms. Griffiths, explains, "when you speak to the women, they see the development, but they do not see that it is their own, or that they are a part of it - it is huge NGO's who are doing these things". Thus, she observed a justifiable skepticism of external involvement with their communities. "Help is in Haiti," she continues, "but the women are not able to access the help directly."
Huairou Commission expresses its solidarity with the women in Haiti, and looks forward to collaborating with these groups, and helping them to elevate their voices during this critical development process. We also wish to thank GROOTS International for their commitment to and support of this process.
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| MEDIA CORNER
October 13, IDDR 2012 | Help Raise Awareness Using Social Media!
The Huairou Commission is excited to offer an opportunity for women's organizations and those working to advance women's leadership and empowerment to take part in a global day of recognition for women and girls. On October 13, 2012 we will be celebrating International Day of Disaster Reduction.
The theme this year is "Women and Girls: The (In) Visible Force". In partnership with UNISDR, member groups of Huairou Commission will participate in the global "StepUp" Campaign, which will raise awareness of grassroots women-led actions to promote disaster resilience & climate change adaptation.
You can help raise awareness of this day by participating through social media!
Share stories:
Share your story on resilience on the IDDR Heroes of resilience page:
Crowd map:
Flickr page:
Visit the IDDR 2012 Flickr page and add your own!
Facebook:
Join the International Day for Disaster reduction event on Facebook and share it with your friends:
Twitter:
Use hashtag #IDDR and #grootswomen to tweet about any events and news related to resilience.
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UPCOMING EVENTS & DEADLINES
September 30 | 12th AWID Forum Innovation Seed Grants: Call for Proposals
Following the Transforming Economic Power to Advance Women's Rights and Justice International Forum, AWID is now launching a Call for Proposals to all Forum participants interested in applying for a USD $5,000 Innovation Seed Grant.
Did the Forum spark a new idea to contribute to the transformation of economic power in your work? Are you planning to share new concepts and connections from the Forum with others to help engage in economic debates and devise strategies to transform and reclaim economic power based on gender justice and women's rights? Did you think of a concrete initiative that could strengthen feminists and women's movements to more effectively address the important challenges discussed at the forum?
If so, AWID invites you to send us your proposal to turn ideas inspired by the Forum theme into action.
To be considered for Seed Grant funding, proposals must:
- Emerge from experiences at the AWID 2012 Forum
- Be clearly connected to Transforming Economic Power to Advance Women's Rights and Justice
- Include a vision of how you see your proposal grow into something greater
- Demonstrate creativity and innovation within a workable methodology and viable budget
Eligibility
- Only 2012 AWID Forum participants can apply.
- Organizations/individuals that have previously been awarded a Forum seed grant will not be eligible.
- In the case of proposals presented by organizations, preference will be given to organizations with annual budgets under USD $500,000.
If you are eligible and interested in applying for Seed Grant funding please submit an application form by email to seedgrants2013@awid.org by September 30th 2012. A selection committee, made up of members of the Forum International Planning Committee, partners and AWID staff will review applications and make the final selection.
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UPCOMING EVENTS & DEADLINES
October 1 | Global Competition: Mini Grants for Social Entrepreneurs
Transparency International, Ashoka, and the International Anti-Corruption Conference Series are launching a global competition for new project ideas to boost transparency, strengthen accountability and fight corruption. The three competition winners will be awarded a mini-grant of 5,000 Euros to support the kick-start of their new anti-corruption project. They are looking for people who are motivated to solve social problems and develop new methods, tools and projects to fight corruption. It is time to devise new tools and creative means to crack corruption.
- A mini-grant of 5000 Euros to implement your new transparency project
- Anti-corruption expertise on tap: Access to a wide range of experts in the field of accountability and transparency within the IACC Game Changers platform
- The chance to participate at the 15th International Anti-Corruption Conference (7-10 November 2012 in Brasilia).
On 7 November there will be ceremony with the Jury, who will award the grants. To kick start your thinking process, here is a short overview of what will be asked in the application process:
- In 500 words or less, tell your story of change and let us know what motivates you to fight corruption
- In 500 words or less, describe your project in an elevator pitch
- There is an impact map asking you to fill out the context of the problem you are trying to solve, project objectives, stakeholders and deliverables
- A budget indicating what the grant will support
The winning projects will be selected by an expert international jury based on the following criteria:
1) the social change element and potential to improve the lives of people
2) the novelty and practicability of the approach
3) the sustainability and scalability of the project
Precise details on the steps related to the application process are on the Apply Now page of the TI website.
Countdown to the 15th IACC in November has begun. Project pitches will be accepted from now until 1 October 2012 and no later. Winners will be announced between 25-31 October, just enough time to make it to Brasilia for the Competition Award Ceremony.
To express interest or if you have any questions at all, please write to Paula O'Malley at the TI Secretariat.
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UPCOMING EVENTS & DEADLINES
Now until November 30: Open Dialogues for the World Conference on Disaster Reduction | Login to Participate Online!
As part of the consultations on a post-2015 framework for disaster risk reduction, the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNISDR) is pleased to announce the opening of the first round of online dialogues from Monday 27 August until Friday 30 November 2012. These dialogues will be the first round of a series of online consultations that UNISDR will arrange before the World Conference on Disaster Reduction in 2015 in Japan.
UNISDR is interested in your views on the future of the post-2015 framework for disaster risk reduction and encourage you to participate in the process. The results of the online dialogues will help provide the substance for a post-2015 framework for disaster risk reduction.
The dialogues will be professionally facilitated. The background paper Towards a Post-2015 Framework on Disaster Risk Reduction (available through the website below) outlines the trends and progress in disaster risk reduction while identifying ongoing and future challenges as well as other substantive issues that need to be addressed. The paper also explains the process of national, regional and stakeholder consultations.
If you want to be part of the online dialogues, log in and contribute beginning 27 August at http://www.preventionweb.net/posthfa.
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FEATURED EXTERNAL RESOURCES & PUBLICATIONS
UN Human Rights Council Advisory Committee | Preliminary Study on Rural Women and the Right to Food
The UN Human Rights Council Advisory Committee, composed of 18 experts, has been established to function as a think-tank for the Council and work at its direction. The role of the Advisory Committee is to provide thematic expertise in the manner and form requested by the Council, focusing mainly on studies and research-based advice.
The Human Rights Council requested the Advisory Committee in its resolution 16/27 of 25 March 2011 to undertake a comprehensive study on the right to food of rural women, including patterns of discrimination, strategies and policies for their legal protection and best practices, with a special focus on female-headed households and temporary or seasonal workers. The mandate comes as a follow-up to the Study on discrimination in the context of the right to food (A/HRC/16/40), where rural women have been identified as a group suffering from discrimination.
Study on Rural Women and the Right to Food (A/HRC/AC/9/5)
English | French | Russian | Spanish | Chinese | Arabic
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| Contact Us
info@huairou.org
249 Manhattan Avenue
Brooklyn, New York 11211 USA
1-718-388-8915
www.huairou.org
The Huairou Commission is a global membership and partnership coalition that empowers grassroots women's organizations to enhance their community development practice and to exercise collective political power at the global level.
Interact with other women through our new online portal! www.womenandhumansettlements.org
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