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Partnership project
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The Partnership Project
About ten years ago, the members of the Huairou
Commission committed themselves to creating "A New Way of Partnering."
Like all big statements, this one has been interpreted in many ways. At
its heart, though, are basic principles and essential practices:
Basic principles
| a. |
that grassroots women’s groups establish
their own partnerships rather than having them made in their
names; |
| b. |
that grassroots women’s groups engage in partnerships
for the purpose of influencing the policy, planning, financing and
implementation of sustainable development; |
| c. |
that, over time, grassroots women's groups will build
portfolios of partnerships |
Essential practices
| a. |
that grassroots partnerships agreements and
implementation follow best practices; |
| b. |
especially that grassroots women's groups and
partners make a concerted effort to accommodate one another’s
cultural differences; |
| c. |
especially that the partners do the work necessary to
surface the value of grassroots resources. |
The Potential
While these
underlying principles and practices have not changed, and while a number
of Huairou groups have had some impressive successes, the work is just
begun. Grassroots women have yet to become standard sectoral participants
in the design and implementation of sustainable development. Their local
knowledge, high motivation, and organizing skills have yet to be brought
fully to bear on intransigent problems and they have not yet been engaged
as full-fledged partners in the achievement of the MDGs.
This is a waste of energy, talent and motivation.
The Project
Huairou is taking
the opportunities presented by the World Urban Forum to explore, assess
and improve its partnership practices, including partnership recruitment,
and those of its existing and potential partners. Drawing on the knowledge
of peers, partners, and potential partners, Huairou will ask how to
strengthen partnership skills, develop more productive practices for all
sectors and determine how instigate more effective partnership recruitment
campaigns.
This work-in-progress will be blogged during WUF3 and
ultimately transformed into a publication tentatively titled: "How to
Partner with Grassroots Women's Groups."
Your participation
Whatever your
relationship to development policies and practices, Huairou welcomes your
ideas, experiences, and observations during WUF3 or by writing partnership@huairou.org.
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