WUNRN
Huairou
Commission develops strategic partnerships and linkages among grassroots
women’s organizations, advancing their capacity to collectively influence
political spaces on behalf of their communities and enhance their sustainable,
resilient community development practices.
Constituency Building
The more that women come together in numbers in an
organized way, the more power they are capable of exercising. People who do not
have access to the traditional channels of power must be organized in order to
effect change. This principle applies to building constituencies of individuals
at the local, national, regional and global levels. When grassroots women have
organized constituencies, such as self-help groups, cooperatives, federations
and networks, locally, nationally and globally, they can respond to issues in
their communities as they emerge, and can hold government and other
institutions accountable.
Knowledge Consolidation
Women in poor communities are storehouses of experience
and knowledge. Grassroots women are experts on their own realities, with robust
knowledge and practices. Organized groups of grassroots women therefore must be
supported to build on and develop that knowledge. Effective development practice
must position grassroots women as experts, teachers and trainers, not as
beneficiaries or targets. Grassroots women from different organizations and
countries need to come together to share and analyze their knowledge, so that
they develop a global critical consciousness and a collective discourse and
political agenda for global change.
Partnerships
Principled partnerships are vital for community-driven,
women-led development to succeed, and spread local successes around the globe.
Grassroots women organizing to build democracy and sustainable development need
partners who can legitimize and institutionalize grassroots work and expertise,
raise their work up to the global level, leverage resources, and use their own
knowledge and connections to influence policy. At the same time, development
partners who are working to improve local communities (local and national
governments, development agencies, NGOs and other professionals) need
grassroots women for their local expertise and access, to reach the poor communities
they are trying to make an impact in, and ensure the interventions they are
designing and implementing will be effective.
Influencing Decision-Making
Grassroots women from organized groups must be empowered
with the capacity to participate in decision-making at all levels - from local
community boards, to provincial assemblies, national governments and at the
United Nations - if women's empowerment is going to be achieved, and if the
decisions taken in those places are going to make a positive difference for
communities over the long run.
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