Huairou Commission

The Huairou Commission and UN-Habitat have signed a renewed Memorandum of Understanding, reaffirming a strategic partnership that dates back to 2009. Signed on July 15, 2026 in New York by Ms. Violet Shivutse, HC Global Governing Council Chair, and Ms. Anacláudia Rossbach, UN-Habitat Under-Secretary-General and Executive Director, the MoU is valid for four years and aligns with the UN-Habitat Strategic Plan 2026–2029. The agreement reaffirms shared commitments to grassroots and women-led action on: adequate housing and slum upgrading, equal access to land rights, community-led basic services, women's leadership and access to decision-making, climate action and urban crisis response, and the localization of SDG 11 and the New Urban Agenda. This renewed MoU reflects HC's continued role as a UN-Habitat Agenda Partner - bridging grassroots women's organizations across 35+ countries with global urban development policy and practice. #UrbanDevelopment #GenderEquality #GrassrootsLeadership #SDG11

"Women are no longer mere beneficiaries of programmes. Women are leaders in climate change adaptation efforts." At the opening of the Community Resilience Partnership Program (CRPP) Forum 2026, Ika Rachmani - a grassroots woman leader from YAKKUM Emergency Unit, Indonesia and Huairou Commission member - challenged assumptions that still shape too much of development and climate policy today. Speaking on behalf of women's networks with more than a decade of experience responding to climate risks and disasters, Ika named a gap that persists across the sector: women manage food systems, water resources, household economies, and community wellbeing in the face of daily climate risk - yet their knowledge is rarely recognized as part of formal solutions. Her call to action: move away from top-down programme design, toward processes built from the grassroots up, where women are engaged as equal, strategic partners from design through implementation and learning. "When women are engaged as strategic partners, we are not only protecting communities today, but also building a more just, inclusive, and resilient future for the next generations." The CRPP, co-developed by the Huairou Commission, the Asian Development Bank (ADB), and partners, works to scale community-led climate action across Asia-Pacific with a focus on poverty, gender, and resilience. Read more: https://lnkd.in/d_KNq35w

What does it actually mean to fund locally led development? Huairou Commission Executive Director Sandy Schilen and Global Chair Violet Shivutse make the case for why grassroots women must be at the center of both decision-making and resource flows. 76 organizations have already benefited through Huairou's Community Resilience Fund. The next step: growing local innovations into replicable models across regions. In a moment of deepening financing crises, this is what patient, predictable, flexible funding looks like in practice. #LocallyLedAdaptation #CommunityResilienceFund #HuairouCommission Watch here: https://lnkd.in/gecd__gA

What does a just economy actually look like in practice? Sparks of a New Economy offers eight answers. Co-published by Oxfam Novib and the Huairou Commission as part of the FAIR for All program, this report spotlights grassroots community initiatives across the Global South that are putting people and planet before profit. Five Huairou Commission members are featured, their work embodying care, collaboration, and ecological resilience. A compelling read for anyone working at the intersection of economic justice, climate resilience, and community-led change. 🔗 Read the report (link in bio) 👇 https://lnkd.in/dscfiGRD #GrassrootsWomen #HuairouCommission #FairForAll #CareEconomy #ClimateResilience Swayam Shikshan Prayog SSP

Caregiving is work, and it often prevents women from accessing income-earning opportunities outside the home. Slum Women's Initiative for Development (SWID) in Uganda is addressing this by equipping grassroots women caregivers with skills training, mentorship, and guidance on home-based livelihoods like including kitchen gardening, baking, and animal rearing. SWID is helping women build economic independence on their own terms. Because sustainable livelihoods and care shouldn't be a trade-off. Watch Here: https://lnkd.in/dXgGs_G7

"Everything should start with us - communities should not be treated as projects." 📣 At CBA20 in Manila, Philippines, grassroots women leaders from Kenya 🇰🇪, Nepal 🇳🇵, and the Philippines 🇵🇭 shaped the conversation at the 20th International Conference on Community-Based Adaptation Huairou Commission members from POLYCOM GIRLS 💛💙💖, Nepal Mahila Ekata Samaj, Bantay Banay, CO-Multiversity, ULAP/APOAMF, and Solidarity of Opressed Filipino People spoke on water governance, urban climate finance, and accountability - drawing on lived experience from informal settlements and frontline communities. They called for simplified pathways to climate funding, community-led governance, and a seat at the table - not as beneficiaries, but as decision-makers. #CBA20 #GrassrootsWomen #CommunityBasedAdaptation #ClimateJustice #LocallyLedAdaptation #WomenLead #ClimateFinance #HuairouCommission

On World Environment Day, it is important to acknowledge that the most consistent, knowledgeable, and committed environmental stewards are often grassroots women. Across the Huairou Commission's global network, women are restoring land, managing water, growing food, and leading community-level climate resilience - work that rarely makes headlines but holds ecosystems and communities together. Their leadership predates every global framework on climate action. What's needed now is for that leadership to be resourced, recognised, and centred. Happy #WorldEnvironmentDay. 🌱

What does locally led climate action actually mean? For Huairou member Naseem Shaikh, CEO of Swayam Shikshan Prayog SSP, it starts with 500,000 women farmers in Marathwada, Maharashtra - one of India's most drought-affected regions. Her message is direct: grassroots women must be recognized as primary stakeholders in climate planning and implementation, and climate finance must reach them directly. This is the kind of leadership Huairou Commission is bringing into formal climate spaces. Video Credit: World Bank's Global Partnership for Social Accountability (GPSA) #GrassrootsLeadership #ClimateFinance #WomenFarmers #LocallyLedAdaptation #GreenAccountability

At the recently concluded Women Deliver Conference 2026, Huairou Commission member Cherry Barnuevo of Solidarity of Oppressed Filipino People (SOFP), Philippines made the case that care is not a side issue - it is infrastructure, economy, and power. Attending as a Women's Fund Asia grantee, Cherry was interviewed by the Global Alliance for Care at the Caregivers Pavilion, where she highlighted what meaningful participation actually requires: access to resources, safe spaces, and platforms where women from marginalized sectors can speak for themselves. Grassroots women are already delivering proven, scalable solutions. The question is whether global systems will invest in them. #WomenDeliver2026 #CareEconomy #GrassrootsLeadership

When women lead, communities thrive. 🌍 The Maasai community in Kenya has long been rooted in a tradition of pastoral, semi-nomadic life - and their strength is their heritage. But climate change is making that way of life increasingly unpredictable. Our member Rural Women Network (RWN) Kenya is meeting that challenge head-on, by empowering Maasai women to add small-scale farming to their lives, without leaving their identity behind. Through hands-on learning centers, women are discovering what farming can look like on their own terms: better nutrition at home, a buffer against climate shocks, and a new income stream for their families. #FairForAll #RuralWomenNetwork #Kenya #GrassrootsWomen #ClimateAction #WomenLead #Huairou #FairForAll