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Huairou Commission to hold first Global Summit on Grassroots Women's Leadership and Governance

March 3-8, 2011, New York City

NEW YORK, February 2, 2011 - The Huairou Commission is hosting the
first Global Summit on Grassroots Women`s Leadership and Governance from
March 3 - 8, 2011 in New York City. The Global Summit, which directly
follows the 55th session of the UN Commission on the Status of Women
(CSW), will be an opportunity for grassroots women working to increase
their leadership and participation in decision-making processes and
structures to join with other women leaders to share strategies, debate
challenges and establish principles and proposals for collective action.
What's more, grassroots women leaders from Africa, Asia, Latin America,
and Eastern Europe will meet with partners and stakeholders from
academia, government, NGOs and the private sector to establish
partnerships to advance women's global leadership.

March 7 - 8 marks the main Partnership Summit at which grassroots
leaders will share initiatives that reduce local poverty and advance
gender equality with policy makers, development workers, researchers and
other activists working to empower women as political leaders and
decision makers. The Partnership Summit will identify areas of
collaboration between grassroots organizations, professional partners
and institutions, and develop a collaborative statement which will
outline common objectives and future commitments to empowering
grassroots women to represent their priorities and take formal
leadership in decision-making processes on local, national and global
levels. This event will be held at The Church Center for the United
Nations, 777 First Avenue at 44th Street in Manhattan, New York City.

At the Grassroots Summit from March 3 - 5, women from low-income
communities in 26 countries who have shown exceptional leadership in
Huairou's Governance Campaign and MDG 3 Initiative will exchange
successful strategies for community development, and influencing policy
and decision-making processes in local and national governments. During
three days of workshops, the Grassroots Summit aims to promote
cross-regional peer learning, and encourages participants to identify
the effects of international geopolitical and institutional arrangements
they face locally. As experts on the needs of their communities, local
women leaders will establish key organizing benchmarks to counter
harmful practices and promote democratic, gender-equitable development.
The will then share their action plans at the Partnership Summit from
March 7-8. The Grassroots Summit will be held at Jennings Hall, 260
Powers Street in Brooklyn, New York City.

Both events are invite-only, but open to the press.

About the Huairou Commission Governance Campaign

Over the past three years, the Huairou Commission Governance Campaign
leveraged and invested over $1.5 million from the Dutch government,
UN-Habitat and UNDP to initiate and scale up grassroots women's
leadership in local development practices, understanding and engagement
in decision-making processes, and partnerships with local authorities
and stakeholders. Over 50 grassroots women's organizations and networks
have taken the lead in the Huairou Commission's Millennium Development
Goal 3 and Local to Local Dialogue initiatives, with impressive results
they will share at the Summit.

The Dutch government's decision to invest directly in grassroots
women's organizations upon realizing that Millennium Goal 3 was lagging
behind marks a shift in the attitude of donors toward recognizing the
importance of empowering the recipients of aid to take ownership over
development processes in their communities.These investments in capacity
building and knowledge exchange on the ground have to be maintained in
years to come both financially through private and state donors, and
institutionally through entities like the new U.N Women. It is only by
recognizing and investing in women as key element in global sustainable
development that the challenges facing communities the world over will
be adequately addressed and overcome.

For more information on the summit and how to participate, please contact Sarah Silliman at Sarah.Silliman@huairou.org or call 718.388.8915.