Grassroots women entering the United Nations Gigiri Headquarters for the 21st Governing Council

At this week-long meeting the Huairou Commission delegation, comprised of the Huairou Coordinating Council (with representatives of each Huairou Commission Network) and grassroots African women-participants of the GROOTS Kenya Local to Local Dialogue Training, participated in the deliberation of governments, civil society and bi-lateral agencies to discuss the policies, programs and initiatives of the UN-Habitat for the next five years.

The Huairou Delegation was featured at several high-profile events, including the High Level Partnership Dialogue Session. Maria Teresa Rodriguez Blandon, of the Women and Peace Network, addressed priorities of women in relation to the Habitat Agenda and the UN-Habitat five-year work plan on behalf of the Huairou Commission, our constituencies, and the general women’s constituency to UN-Habitat. This session was an official session to the Governing Council Meeting where main points and proposals were submitted directly to the President of the Governing Council.

Maite Rodriguez speaking on behalf of women at the Governing Council

Prior to the Governing Council meeting, the Huairou Commission led a preparatory meeting to hear what the priority issues of the participating women and the organizations and constituencies they represent. These contributions were included in the official Huairou Commission Statement to the UN-Habitat Governing Council (see above) as well as in line-by-line inputs in resolutions and the UN-Habitat work plan. The Huairou Commission stressed the importance of partnering with organizations and groups that are already working on the ground and have the expertise in their communities. To this end, the Huairou Commission pushed (by literally knocking on the private door of the new Governing Council President, Ms. Kumari Selja, Minister of Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation in India, to request her support!) to be officially recognized in Resolution 20/7: Gender equality in human settlements development.

Download UN Habitat’s outcome resolution here.

In addition, the Huairou Commission facilitated two side events: A Roundtable on Women and Land and Bottom Up Legal Empowerment: The Commission for the Legal Empowerment of the Poor. Both sessions focused on the contributions of grassroots women to issues of land, secure tenure, safety, secure livelihoods, and the importance of supporting the poor to be involved in political, legal and economic processes that concern them.

Anna Tibaijuka and Ann Wanjiru (GROOTS Kenya) during the Women's Caucus

Each morning the Huairou Commission hosted the ‘Daily Women’s Caucus’. This enabled women to come together at the beginning of the day to discuss priority areas of concern, the progress of daily deliberations, and the day’s events. Participants heard from governmental delegations, UN-Habitat staff, and each other addressing the actions currently being taken and those issues remaining to be solved in the areas of Women and Land and the Global Land Tools Network; Safety and Security and the UN-Habitat Safer Cities Program; Partnerships with local government and the Local to Local Dialogue Training; and the UN-Habitat Medium Term Strategic and Institutional Plan, debating how it addresses, or fails to address, the priority issues of women.

Local to Local Dialogue training

Grassroots women leading a session during the Local to Local Dialogue Training

The Governing Council was preceded by a training session on the Local-to-Local Dialogue, facilitated and organized by GROOTS Kenya (with the financial support of UN-Habitat and the Government of Norway). This training was designed for grassroots women of Africa to learn strategies to mobilize their communities, establish collective priorities and engage in constructive dialogues with their local authorities and officials. This training was held prior to the UN-Habitat 21st Governing Council Sessions, which enabled grassroots women to share their successes and proposals with the larger international community, and put what they learned to action, by lobbying their governments at the national level to ensure their issues and priorities were included in the deliberations of the UN-Habitat Strategic and Institutional Plan 2008-2013.

The Huairou Commission sends a special appreciation to the hard work of GROOTS Kenya for a successful training led by the grassroots women who piloted the dialogues themselves. From experienced practitioners to local leaders new to the process, we heard from all that participated that the training was useful and inspiring. We look forward to hearing the progress of the training participants who are now taking what they learned to the ground and well as those that are interested in learning from the GROOTS Kenya methodology and taking the training to other continents!

Read more about GC21 on UN Habitat's website here

For more information on our participation in the Governing Council, contact Sarah Silliman: Sarah.Silliman@huairou.org