Grassroots Women’s Leadership and Political Participation for Accountability and Transparency

Co-sponsored by
DFGG Peer Learning Network and

Lunch will be provided

All visitors to the Bank must contact rnadelman@worldbank.orgno later than
10 am, Monday, March 3rd to receive an entry pass.

Chair:
Caroline Kende-Robb, Sector Manager, Social Development Department

Panel Speakers :
Patricia Maria Queiroz Chaves, Director, Casa da Mulher do Nordeste, Brazil
Rut Kolinska, Founder and Director, the National Network of
Czech Mother Centers
Esther Mwaura-Muiru, Founder and Director, GROOTS Kenya

Discussant:
Carmen Griffiths, Executive Director, the Construction Resource & Development Centre (CRDC), Jamaica

Description:
Grassroots women’s local, national and global organizations present new ways to
increase citizen participation and ensure government accountability and transparency through building leadership and capacity of poor women.  These member-based organizations of poor women utilize innovative strategies to engage with local and national government to achieve their development priorities while establishing themselves as leaders and stakeholders in their communities. Still, many of the collaborative relationships remain vulnerable to changes in political climate. In this session, grassroots leaders from Brazil, The Czech Republic and Kenya will share their strategies and discuss how these can be supported, scaled up and translated into permanent mechanisms for citizen engagement.

Carmen Griffiths (Jamaica), the executive director of the Construction Resource & Development Centre (CRDC), has been active for over twenty years organizing and constructing shelter safe and decent shelter for women, ensuring women have access to basic infrastructure and services. The safety and well-being of women living and working in urban centers has led Carmen Griffiths to head one of the councils of the community crime initiative being coordinated by the local law enforcement agency and community groups.

Caroline Kende-Robb, a U.K. national, is the Sector Manager of Social Development, at the World Bank. Prior to her current assignment, she was the first Social Development Specialist recruited by the International Monetary Fund, with the responsibility of promoting a greater poverty and social development focus in Fund-supported programs. During her career, Ms. Kende-Robb spent over five years living and working in The Gambia, West Africa, as a business and community development advisor with Voluntary Service Overseas, an NGO Field Director then with the UNDP, where she assisted the government to develop a national strategy for poverty alleviation.

Rut Kolinska (Czech Republic) is the director and founder of the National Network of Czech Mother Centers which since 1991 has grown to 230 centers across the country.  The Network works to put families at the center of civic life by building partnerships with local and state officials to influence policy and social programming.  Ms. Kolinska was awarded the Women of Europe award in 2002 and the Schwab Foundation Social Entrepreneur award in 2005 for her work and contributions to Czech society. 
 
Esther Mwaura-Muiru (Kenya) is the founder and director of GROOTS Kenya, a multi-tribal, multi-village grassroots women’s national self-help network created to respond to inadequate visibility of grassroots women in development and decision-making forums.   GROOTS Kenya has become recognized as an innovative network that advances community responses to HIV/AIDS, the inclusion of women in decision-making processes, the preservation of land rights and income generating activities.

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socialdevelopment@worldbank.org| www.worldbank.org/socialdevelopment