Grassroots Women speak out about UN Women

 The International Council of Women (ICW) is a member of Grassroots Women

The following is from a report on the session they held March 2 at the CSW

Different from feminist organizations and NGOs, these grassroots women comprised community leaders from grassroots organizations who are working to solve day to day problems related to human settlements, land rights, livelihoods, resilience to disasters and climate change, food se­curity, safer cities and informal care work, women's health and HIV/AIDS, among other issues, in their own communities. Among them are leaders of the movement of popular kitchens in Peru, leaders of federations of self-help savings and credit cooperatives in India and women fight­ing for land rights at the community level across Africa. Their work on economic security and human settlements are issues not yet being fully addressed in UN Women's agenda or vision.  

The launch of UN Women brings an unprecedented opportunity for the UN, national govern­ments and global organizations to consult with and include organized groups of grassroots women. Adding to the ripeness of this moment, Michelle Bachelet has repeatedly spoken of her commit­ment to the inclusion of grassroots women and issues related to their economic empowerment. 

For too long, grassroots women have been excluded from agenda-setting, planning and consul­tations in the UN's gender architecture, from the national offices to the UN headquarters. The Grassroots Women's Speakout delivered an explicit message: the time for inclusion is now.

In her concluding remarks, Charlotte Bunch, representative of the GEAR Campaign and a long time leader in the global women's movement, also affirmed  and appreciated the voices she heard, agreeing to support the idea proposed by women in the Speakout and proposing to working together to create a grassroots women's fund.  The idea of holding preparatory consultations with rural women leaders prior to next year's CSW on Rural Women was proposed by Haydee Rodriguez and strongly taken up by Michelle Bachelet.