Huairou Commission

06/17/2026

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://huairou.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/Sparks-of-a-New-Economy-English.pdf



Swayam Shikshan Prayog - SSP Winam Grassroots Rural Women Network-RWN

06/15/2026

Celebrating African Grassroots Leadership: From Frontline Care to Economic Powerhouse!
At the Huairou Commission, we know that sustainable development, gender equality, and community resilience across Africa are driven by the hands of grassroots women. Whether managing regional crises or pioneering local economic growth, our African members are showing the world what it truly means to leave nobody behind.
In our communities, climate resilience and economic justice go hand in hand, which is why we are thrilled to celebrate a massive milestone where grassroots women from local groups are been trained in the value chain and value addition of cassava tubers. Moving far beyond raw cultivation, these unstoppable women have mastered practical skills to process high-quality cassava flour into value-added products like cakes, starch, doughnuts, crisps and pancakes directly uplifting household incomes and giving grassroots women a powerful, undeniable voice to participate actively in national economic development

06/12/2026

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://youtu.be/bsX_zUaFYuc?si=EtRBF3snfGKEMsUR

06/10/2026

"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, Community Organizers Multiversity - CO Multiversity, ULAP/APOAMF, and Solidarity of Oppressed Filipino People, Inc. Dampa-Sofp 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.

06/07/2026

06/05/2026

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 . 🌱

06/02/2026

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)

05/31/2026

ONE VISION CARE AS AFRICA’S STRATEGIC INFRASTRUCTURE
At CSW70, a unified message emerged care work is the foundational engine of land rights, climate resilience, and economic justice. Combining the voices of our leaders, the vision for a Just Care System is now unstoppable.
Violet Shivutse our chair lady reminds us that care is inseparable from land sovereignty. When women gain secure land rights, they become the lead architects of climate adaptation. Building on this, Naomi from Oxfam International emphasizes that true empowerment requires control over livelihoods; integrating care into policy is a systematic necessity for national productivity.
The momentum is global, as Ana from Global Alliance for Care highlights. We are centring the care economy in discussions with development banks and governments worldwide. Our vision for 2028 is to move from lamentation to action by recognizing and rewarding care as productive labour. A caregiver with a voice and land transforms an entire continent.

05/29/2026

At the Women Deliver Conference 2026, Huairou Commission member Cherry Barnuevo of Solidarity of Oppressed Filipino People, Inc. Dampa-Sofp 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 Barnuevo was interviewed by the Global Alliance for Care / Alianza Global por los Cuidados 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.

05/26/2026

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.