United Cities and Local Governments (UCLG) and the Huairou Commission hosted the Thematic Stakeholder Session on Women at the Fourth Africities Conference in Nairobi, Kenya. In the dialogue, participants discussed and debated not only how to increase but to sustain women's participation in democratic processes, how to strengthen democracy at the local level and build partnerships between grassroots and elected women.

The dialogue, facilitated by Esther Mwaura-Muiru, Coordinator of GROOTS Kenya and Executive Board Member of the Huairou Commission, and Elizabeth Gateau, Secretary General of UCLG, brought together elected and grassroots women from Senegal, Mali, Ghana, Seychelles, Kenya, Uganda and Rwanda.

Elected women presented on the successful interventions they have made at the local level to support and sustain women's participation in government, women-centered programs and initiatives they have implemented and the challenges they face to sustain their partnership.

Women must pull each other up from the bottom together by supporting a Network of Women's Local Authorities in Africa - Ngone Coumba Ndoye Cisse, Mayor of Rifisque-East, Senegal

Women are good managers and women are good listeners, if you have a problem at least women will give you a listen. - Prisca Auma, Mayor of Kisumu, Kenya

Grassroots women and organizations that support community-led initiatives presented their strategies and solutions to problem-solving at the local level, engaging local authorities to increase their participation in advisory and funding committees to bring projects and resources to their communities and to work to build bridges between women working at various levels of governance.

In 1995 we realized that democracy can't happen without women's participation and involvement. In 2005 we realized that despite having the largest percentage of Parliamentarians, we still needed to support elected women to jointly plan and set agendas with women from the grassroots. For this we use the Local to Local Dialogue process. - Annette Mukiga, Rwanda Women's Network

Of the nearly 200 participants, elected women from Counselors and Mayors to Parliamentarians were in attendance to contribute to the discussions.

For elected women to sustain their positions, we must get in touch with the women on the ground. They will support us if we fight for their rights. We forget where we come from when we get power. The issue is not money, the issue is your relationship to the grassroots community. - Florence Wairimu, Counselor of Kabii, Kenya

Based on the many experiences shared, the following recommendations were formed:

• Support networks of elected women to sustain their leadership roles through the promotion of women's caucuses, peer exchanges, and the establishment of funds for women running for office
• Increase women's awareness of the roles, responsibilities and rights of both local government and communities through workshops, trainings and collaboration initiatives such as Local to Local Dialogues
• Support women and local authority associations to work together and document successes and lessons learned from collaboration initiatives
• Establish policies, programs and budgetary set-asides for the empowerment of women in democratic processes such as training and capacity building on leadership, public speaking and contesting for public office

The dialogue was convened as a part of the three-year partnership initiative between UCLG and the Huairou Commission, launched at the World Urban Forum III in Vancouver, Canada.