Huairou Commission Makes Strong Impact at the UNHABITAT 22nd Governing Council

	Huairou Commission members inputing in the Gender Equality Action Plan

April 17, 2009|Nairobi, Kenya

I have been following the Huairou Commission and its efforts to promote women in human settlements work for many years. The Huairou Commission is a major institution at UNHABITAT- indeed, the Huairou Commission was here when I entered this agency and I know it will continue to work with UNHABITAT, even as I and subsequent Executive Directors come and go.– Dr Anna Tibaijuka, Executive Director, UNHABITAT

Huairou Commission members were honoured to receive the praises of Dr. Anna Tibaijuka, Executive Director of UNHABITAT, herself a tireless advocate for the cause of grassroots women, during a daily Women’s Caucus of the recently held 22nd UNHABITAT Governing Council meeting. Dr Tibaijuka underscored the strong partnership of the Huairou Commission and UNHABITAT. We thank Dr Tibaijuka for her recognition and look forward to continuing our collective work together in the future.

This year’s Governing Council [1] theme “Promoting affordable housing finance systems in an urbanizing world in the face of the global financial crisis and climate change” resonated with grassroots women all over across the globe. Women, especially poor women, living in cities and communities throughout the world, struggle with the lack of affordable housing. Compounded with negative effects of the financial crisis, grassroots women must find alternative housing, housing that is rarely secure or safe.  Climate change has increased the rate of natural disasters- community based women are at the forefront of fighting this struggle as well.

That is why the Huairou Commission invested in bringing 24 members representing a diversity of grassroots organizations from around the world including from Brazil, Jamaica, Kenya, Nepal, Netherlands, Philippines, Uganda, and USA to work during this Governing Council with other civil society, Member States and agency staff to ensure women’s voices are heard in the GC 22 Agenda.
The 24 member delegation of the Huairou Commission worked tirelessly during the week to ensure that grassroots women’s voices were reflected in the deliberations on a variety of issues. Huairou Commission, represented by Maxensia Nakibuka of UCOBAC (Uganda Community Based Association for Child Welfare) Uganda, immediately shared the concerns of grassroots women with Member States at the opening of the GC, as the only civil society voice to open the week long deliberations.
Huairou Commission was pleased to organize a daily Women’s Caucus, well attended by a diverse group of women delegates, who each day met at 8 AM to discuss the previous day’s deliberations and plan for the way forward each day. A variety of UNHABITAT partners took time to present on programmes and policies of the agency, to allow for input and reaction.

Particularly on the table during this Governing Council was the Gender Equality Action Plan (GEAP), a three year plan put forth by the Gender Mainstreaming Unit of UNHABITAT on ways to integrate gender and specifically women’s empowerment into the work of the agency. Huairou Commission has played a long standing role in working together with UNHABITAT to ensure that women’s empowerment is central on the agenda- similarly Huairou Commission members were very involved in determining the course of the GEAP.  The GEAP mirrors the UNHABITAT Mid Term Strategic Institutional Plan (MTSIP) sets a blueprint for action and policy in a variety of areas, including governance, land and housing and urban infrastructure. Together with a number of women working on human settlements around the world, Huairou Commission members were instrumental throughout the week in inputting to the Plan and settings its course for the next three years. The GEAP was adopted by the 22nd Governing Council and will be implemented by the GMU through working with a variety of internal and external partners.

Huairou Commission has been working as a key partner to the UNHABITAT Global Land Tool Network, a partnership entity that focuses on developing and promoting large scale land tools that are prop poor and pro gender. During the GC 22, Huairou Commission members presented plans to pilot the newly developed “Gender Criteria”- indicators that may be used to determine whether or not a land tool, for example, land titling or land policies, adequately address the needs and concerns of women and men equally. Espacia Feminista of Recife Brazil (Patricia Chavez) and LUMANTI Support Group for Shelter (Sama Vajra) in Nepal, shared plans to test the gender criteria as part of grassroots women led evaluations on land reforms in their communities and countries.
Huairou Commission members further negotiated a number of key partnerships inside and outside of UNHABITAT. Huairou Commission member organization, Construction Resource and Development Center (CRDC) (Carmen Griffiths) agreed to continue working with UNHABITAT Safer Cities Programme - they have been engaging in ground breaking Women’s Safety Audits in Jamaica and throughout the Caribbean. Huairou Commission members also worked together with the newly formed Women’s Land Access Trusts, established by UNHABITAT and running autonomously in a number of countries, to ensure the trusts are benefiting grassroots women in those countries.

Huairou Commission members engaged heavily on the policy making side of UNHABITAT. They made inputs into a variety of resolutions, in particular on access to basic services and affordable housing finance. Huairou Commission members met with Member State delegates of the Governing Council to ensure these concerns were properly integrated and the resolutions passed.   

After a long week of hard work, successful negotiations and fostering of partnerships, the Huairou Commission helped close the 22nd Governing Council as a representative of the daily Women’s Caucus of the Governing Council. Delivered by Lily Hutjes of the International Council of Women, the statement called on the Governing Council to give full attention to women’s issues, and in particular to support the Gender Mainstreaming Unit and the Gender Equality Action Plan, as well as to raise the Unit’s prominence in the agency. The Women Caucus of the 22nd Governing Council also called for a full recognition of the vital partnership role that civil society, and in particular grassroots women’s organizations, plays within UNHABITAT and requested a revisiting of the structure of the Governing Council  to allow civil society, with specific representation of women and youth, to sit at the same table as Members States and Local Governments.  This unprecedented move would ensure that civil society, as experts grounded in the daily work of human settlements, be allowed to fully enrich the work of the Governing Council and ensure it is truly dealing with the issues of importance to all, especially the poor, living in urban areas.
The 22nd Governing Council was a time for strengthening relationships, building partnerships, influencing policies and negotiating innovations. Huairou Commission took full advantage of the opportunities it provided and enriched the work of the Governing Council. Huairou Commission members would like to thank and congratulate all partners with whom we worked over the course of the week for a job well done- Huairou Commission hopes that the partnerships made and the good work accomplished will continue for years to come.

The Huairou Commission Delegation to the 22nd Governing Council:

Brazil:
                Patricia Chavez, Espacio Feminista
Jamaica:
                Carmen Griffiths, Construction Resource and Development Center (CRDC)
Kenya:
                Winrose Nyaguthi Mwangi, GROOTS Kenya
                Beatrice Iminza Mwashi, GROOTS Kenya
                Jane Wanjiku, GROOTS Kenya
                Ann Wanjiru, GROOTS Kenya
                Jane Nyokabi Gitau, GROOTS Kenya
                Florida Were Odongo, GROOTS Kenya
                Eddah Nyambura Njoroge, GROOTS Kenya
                Violet Shivutse, GROOTS Kenya
                Felix Obwar, GROOTS Kenya
                Esther Mwaura, GROOTS Kenya
                Ruth Kihiu, GROOTS Kenya
Nepal:
                Sama Vajra, LUMANTI Support Group for Shelter  
Netherlands:
                Lily Hutjes, International Council of Women
                Emmy Galama, International Council of Women
                Mathilde Van den Brink, International Council of Women
Philippines (South Korea):
                Fides Bagasao, LOCOA (South Korea)
Uganda:
                Solome Mukisa, UCOBAC
                Maxensia Nakibuka, UCOBAC
                Joyce Nangobi, SWID
USA:
                Jan Peterson, Huairou Commission Secretariat
                Nicole Ganzekaufer, Huairou Commission Secretariat
                Birte Scholz, Huairou Commission Secretariat

Click here to view a copy of the Opening Statement of the Huairou Commission.

Click here for the Closing Statement of the Women’s Caucus.

Women's Caucus with Anna Tibaijuka

[1]Every other year, UNHABITAT Governing Council, currently consisting of 58 Member States, meets to examine UNHABITAT's work and relationships with its partners. The Governing Council works to set policy guidelines and the organization’s budget for the next two-year period. It then reports to the General Assembly through the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), which coordinates the work of the subsidiary bodies of the General Assembly.