Grassroots women's leadership and ‘deepening democracy’: the Huairou Commission's Local to Local Dialogue replication

Abstract

Grassroots women's leadership is important if democracy is to be ‘deepened’ – that is, if representative democracies are to formally include citizen participation in more ways than simply voting in elections. One approach to deepening democracy is to encourage and support spaces – both literal and metaphorical – that enable grassroots women to organise as leaders and engage with local government to achieve change in their communities. This, it is hoped, will enable women to develop ongoing relationships with local government and achieve concrete improvements for their communities. The Huairou Commission and GROOTS International have developed an approach which helps grassroots women's organisations to do this. This article examines how grassroots women's organisations in Uganda, Kenya, and Russia have successfully adapted the Local to Local Dialogue method to their local contexts, empowering and recognising poor women as community leaders.

Notes

1. The Huairou Commission's work is largely driven by its Member Networks: Federacion de Mujeres Municipalistas – America Latina y el Caribe, GROOTS International, HIC-WAS, Red Mujer y Habitat – LAC, Information Center of the Independent Women's Forum, International Council of Women, Women in Cities International, and Women and Peace Network.

2. Esther Mwaura-Muiru is Director of GROOTS Kenya.

3. http://huairou.org/knowledge/News/2007/05-07-GC21.html (last checked August 2008).

4. ICIWF also works in Saint Petersburg, Velikiy Novgorod, Voronezh, Saratov, Tarus (Kaluzh region), Cheljabinsk, Snezhinsk (Cheljabinsk region), and Moscow.

5. The Huairou Commission and UN Habitat co-published Local to Local Dialogue: A Grassroots Women's Perspective on Good Governance, and they, together with GROOTS Kenya have produced a practical manual for grassroots leaders Engaging Local Community's and leaders in local governance: A Local-to-Local Dialogue Manual(forthcoming).

6. See the websites of DFID, GTZ, and the World Bank, for example (www.dfid.gov.uk/pubs/files/governance.pdf, www.gtz.de/en/themen/857.htm, www.worldbank.org/wbi/governance, all sites last checked August 2008).

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Notes on contributors

Dahlia Goldenberg

Dahlia Goldenberg co-ordinates activities in the areas of peer exchange, global advocacy, and membership development at GROOTS International and the Huairou Commission. She is currently completing an MA in Gender and Development at the Institute of Development Studies, University of Sussex, UK