Huairou Commission – as a coalition of grassroots women’s groups and allied advocates, academics, and professionals – was born of a collective effort to secure public recognition for the leadership of organized groups of grassroots women in the context of poverty eradication and sustainable development, and to position local women-led organizations as driving forces in public agenda-setting and political accountability. HC employs a series of tools for community-led resilience building that puts grassroots women at the centre. These tools, outlined below, empower grassroots women in ways that have significant implications for good governance and inclusive, equitable development.
How we work
Community Resilience Funds
The Community Resilience Funds (CRF) serve as an innovative and flexible finance mechanism to channel resources directly to grassroots women’s groups living in risk-prone poor communities. The CRF is designed to support grassroots women’s groups to deliver effective pro-poor disaster risk reduction and resilience building practices and to collaborate with local and national governments to scale-up grassroots and women-led development initiatives.
Community Practitioners Platforms for Resilience
The Community Practitioners Platforms for Resilience (CPPR) is a multi-stakeholder platform that facilitates grassroots community groups faced with natural hazards, climate change, and deepening poverty and inequality to advance common strategies and develop policies and collaborative initiatives that promote pro-poor, resilient development.
Global Policy Engagement
Over 25 years, Huairou Commission continues to advocate for space for grassroots women leaders in policy-making fora, positioning them as experts of community development, and partners in implementing global development agreements. Organizing with the United Nations and related institutions through engagement in international policy fora, globally and regionally, are a core feature of Huairou Commission’s work to build women’s empowerment and a core strategy for movement building more broadly.
Learning Tools
Grassroots’ women groups have consolidated bottom up organizing and development tools to support women’s leadership in community development and resilience building, and to empower them as actors and partners in local development. Through peer learning exchanges, community risk and opportunity mapping, local to local dialogues, Grassroots Academies, and monitoring groups, grassroots women organize to share technical practices and political strategies. These tools help to create a body of knowledge grounded in local data and to leverage partnerships in development.