May 15, 2008 | Brussels


“If you want to realize a better society, the best you can do is involve women” Ria Oomen-Ruijten, Dutch Member of the European Union Parliament

The Huairou Commission delegation made their voices clear in May, holding for the first time in the history of the network a Public Hearing at the European Union Parliament. Endorsed by two leading Members of Parliament, Ria Oomen-Ruijten of the Netherlands and Edit Bauer of the Slovak Republic, the Huairou Commission used this opportunity to present results generated at the community level and dialogue with the EU on how to ensure institutions support community-led development. As part of a long-term relationship-building effort with the EU, the Huairou Commission brought a dynamic delegation of leaders to present community development initiatives from Turkey, India, Russia, the Czech Republic, Kenya and Guatemala that are empowering women to lead change and exchange lessons community to community, from their next door neighbors to partners across oceans.

The Public Hearing, Innovative Knowledge Transfer Strategies for Poverty Reduction, was designed to spark dialogue with European Parliamentarians and Commissioners on:

• How bottom-up approaches can address community needs and improve responsiveness and accountability of government and institutional development programs;
• How government and bi-lateral institutions can partner and support grassroots women-led initiatives on the ground; and
• Whose priorities and expertise counts when policies and programs are developed at global and regional levels to address poverty and stimulate development.

Esther Mwaura-Muiru, Founder and Director of GROOTS Kenya

• GROOTS Kenya was formed to redress fragmentation of communities due HIV/AIDS epidemic thru supporting organization of grassroots women to turn crisis into opportunity to build on women’s strengths, effectively and strategically participate in local decision-making, and have a collective analysis of their contributions to community development.
• Grassroots communities have capacity to analyze the resources in their communities and want to shift the paradigm of their participation – from being considered as recipients of development aid to valued actors in the community development process.
• Results: Grassroots women recognized as valuable in setting and realizing community development priorities; Grassroots women have increased government accountability by leading community-led monitoring of government resources and programs; and greater organization of women has enhanced ability of communities to respond to growing needs (HIV/AIDS, land and secure tenure, livelihoods, etc.).

• In the context of Turkey, the government is highly centralized, and while there is a formal commitment to gender equality, practical mechanisms for women’s participation doesn’t exist. There is no political culture for citizen participation and community involvement and this is an important barrier for women’s participation in civic life.
• Some key strategies and tools of KEDV: Supporting women and children centers to create common/public space that is run by and for women; Building women’s cooperatives that are able to help women generate & sustain livelihoods, generate collective information on communities, and allow women to use their resources and information to engage local authorities; Piloting gender budget analysis as an entry point to support women’s organizing and engagement in analyzing local budgets in the context of their lives and priorities.
• EU accession process has increased funding flow into the country, but the ability for grassroots women’s groups and networks to access these funds is a challenge. Often donors are interested in figures and quick results, but this is not often how grassroots initiatives – which assess gains through process – function.

• Billions of dollars have been spent by the World Bank and other institutions to try to solve the problems of sanitation, but they have looked only at infrastructure, not at the role that communities do and could play.
• There has been a significant increase in the participation of women in the decentralization process in India over the past 10 years – 1 million elected to local government and 3 million women in the self-help group process.
• With women involved in the decentralization process, SSP was able to show that women have been able to make a direct link between health and food issues to the area of sanitation.
• In the context of a country of 1 billion people, we need to consider people as resources. The entire self-help movement can be champions of this cause who can influence government and communities.

• 10 years ago citizens were facing issues of drugs and crime, the common spaces were dark and dangerous and women who were coming home late were walking in unsafe spaces.
• As a result of organizing, 13 groups were formed and 12 of the leaders were women. After the formation of these community groups, there was a huge difference in not just the space, but the culture of participation and ownership of community space. Communities began to engage with local authorities to improve the community.
• Results: In each community where there was a neighborhood/community group, there was a reduction in crime that was noticeable to the community as well as to the police
• The groups then made a partnership with the mayors. Women took part in weekly meetings to promote women’s voice at the local decision-making.
• Still challenges remain: Continued decentralization process without resources and the creation of a housing code without support mechanisms.

• The Mother Centers are public spaces run and managed by women, that provide support and services for women and enable them to exchange ideas and practices, provide mutual help, and allow for women to engage in collective action and advocacy.
• The Czech Minister for Social Affairs studied the work of the Mother Centers and determined that they contribute to society by encouraging parenting skills and collaborative parenting, building women’s confidence and enabling them to return to labour markets through providing access to alternative child care.
• Mother Center Networks, nationally and internationally, organize through campaigns focusing on issues such as creating a society friendly to families, living with a pram, involving fathers in parenting, cherishing the family and creating a healthy life and healthy environment.
• Lessons: Mother Centers are able to show that grassroots women are experts based on their every-day lived experience and their participation needs to be strengthened and scaled-up – forming networks and making bridges are the best ways to do this.

• Fundación Guatemala is a networking organization that links to more than 50 organizations to amplify the work and priorities of indigenous, rural and grassroots women of Guatemala to access secure land and property tenure and sustainable livelihoods.
• The organization led grassroots groups through a process of analyzing mechanisms created to access land and property in the post-conflict context and determined that the Land Fund in Guatemala wasn’t working for women.
• They built strategic alliances with local authorities as well as the Ministry of Women’s Affairs to advocate for the creation of a strategic line of action for women’s access to land and housing.
• Results: Women learned to navigate bureaucratic structures created in the post-conflict context; a collective learning process created between local authorities and grassroots/indigenous women on women’s rights to property and access to land.

Building Long-Term Partners
In addition to the Public Hearing itself, the Huairou Commission also made significant advancements with its partnerships within the European Commission. The Huairou delegation learned that funding mechanisms have shifted and opportunities are more open to non-European NGOs, as well as organizations working at the country level, and gained access to a number of calls for proposals that are appropriate to Huairou networks, particularly within DG AIDCO, the Directorate General responsible for implementing external aid programs. Within the Humanitarian Aid department (ECHO), and their disaster preparedness division (DIPECHO), the Huairou Commission presented work on resilience during a key time in which these agencies are reconstructing and coordinating their inter-agency relations, implementation and training mechanisms.

With a focus on building long-term relationships with the EU Parliament and Commissions, the Huairou Commission made contacts with colleagues in the thematic areas of disaster management and resilience building who can act as advisors on policy and partners of grassroots initiatives. In addition, space was opened within DG Employment, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities for Huairou members to act as advisors and collaborators. Eager to bring practical solutions and strategies developed in communities, the Huairou Commission received a warm welcome from Commissioners working in the Secretariat to build relationships with colleagues working at the country-level offices of the European Commission.

The Huairou Commission will continue to do its homework to find out the best strategies for building coalitions and linking with partners to access political space and resources within the EU. We look forward to building a long-term partnership with this important institution.

For more information, contact Sarah Silliman: sarah.silliman@huairou.org