City Collab

Amplifying Grassroots Women's Voices: My Home, My City, My Voice Campaign

Mahila Housing Trust

SERVICES:

Position and Strategy

Stakeholder Engagement

Creative

Production

Knowledge Synthesis

DELIVERABLES:

PROJECT LINKS:

Mahila Housing Trust

How can we include the voices of grassroots women in decision making and ensure their full and equal participation in shaping the future of their communities and cities?

CONTEXT

To truly advance global sustainable development goals, creating platforms that bring the voices of grassroots women to the forefront is essential. This involves ensuring that women are present in decision-making spaces and that their contributions are valued and acted upon.

Mahila Housing Trust's (MHT) mission is to strengthen grassroots collectives of women in low-income settlements to advance constructive dialogue and action on improving their housing, living, and working environments.

To celebrate its 25th milestone year, MHT launched ‘Resilient Cities: Women as Change Makers’, a yearlong outreach initiative. Through the initiative, MHT wanted to engage with different stakeholders including grassroots women, government officials and decision-makers, funders, research organizations and academia, other non-profit groups, the private sector as well as the media to build awareness and support on including the voices of women in decision making.

In India, around 18 million women use their homes as workplaces for tasks like agarbatti rolling, kite-making, packing, tailoring, and cooking. Additionally, homes also serve as work or storage spaces for street vendors and waste pickers. These homes, often located in informal settlements or low-income neighborhoods, are typically small, crowded, poorly constructed, and lack essential amenities like natural light, ventilation, water, and sanitation.

WIEGO has been a key to bringing attention to issues of home based workers globally by expanding knowledge on the informal economy, building networks among informal worker organizations and, influencing local, national and international policies. In 2020, WIEGO commissioned a documentation of the work of one of its member organizations, the Mahila Housing SEWA Trust (MHT) through a home-workplace lens.

THE ASK

Design and execute an outreach and advocacy campaign that authentically captures and amplifies the voices and experiences of grassroots women, engaging target stakeholders with their stories and perspectives.

OUR APPROACH

Design a participatory workshop framework to engage grassroots women in reflective and visionary exercises, empowering them to envision the future of their communities and their role as change-makers. Capture these valuable insights and experiences, transforming them into diverse multimedia formats tailored for events, exhibitions, and digital and print publications, amplifying their voices and perspectives across various platforms.

WHAT WE DID

Crafted a Campaign Strategy Rooted on the Ground

Working closely with MHT, we conceived a strategic approach for their outreach event centered on authentic voices, to shift perceptions, foster deeper understanding, and drive meaningful engagement for their outreach and advocacy efforts. The narratives were carefully constructed to capture the essence of the grassroots women's contributions and challenges, positioning them as key agents of change in their communities. We developed targeted messaging for different stakeholders, including government officials, funders, media, and other NGOs.

Facilitated Consultative Workshops with Grassroots Women

We designed and facilitated consultative workshops with grassroots women across six cities in India—Ahmedabad, Ranchi, Amalner, Jaipur, Delhi, and Bhopal—engaging over 100 women leaders. These workshops shed light on the issues, aspirations, and achievements of grassroots women related to their homes, communities, and cities. Leveraging a range of engagement tools, including placard activities, surveys, and dot-voting we helped visualize their reflections on community futures and their pivotal role in driving positive change and also addressed government approaches to habitat development and resilience. These discussions culminated in a strategic roadmap to enhance women's participation in governance. By spotlighting their experiences, the initiative fostered a sense of agency within these women.

Showcased Inspiring Stories through Exhibition Panels

The insights from the workshops were instrumental in creating the bilingual exhibition panels in Hindi and English, which were a key feature at the concluding grassroots women’s conclave. They showcased inspiring stories of women leaders and their efforts to bring about positive change within their communities, in alignment with SDGs. The panels also drew attention to issues shared by women about housing, basic services, and transport, supported by critical statistics and insights.

Synthesized Insights into City-Specific Presentations

The data and insights from the consultations were synthesized and analyzed to create compelling city-specific presentations. They highlighted the unique challenges and opportunities for women in their cities, supported by powerful data narratives and survey responses. We trained women leaders to deliver these presentations with maximum impact to donors, government officials, media representatives, grassroots women, and other stakeholders at the concluding conclave. The presentations set the stage for meaningful dialogue among discussants in the panels that followed.

Created Memorable Event Collaterals

To maximize the impact of the event, we developed comprehensive concept notes designed for widespread dissemination. These notes were crafted to raise awareness about the event's objectives and extend formal invitations to key stakeholders, ensuring their active participation. In addition, we designed a set of postcards as meaningful mementos for the stakeholders featuring the women leaders they had met and interacted with along with the SDG goals that they served.

Produced Multimedia Content

We produced a series of introductory videos capturing our consultations with over 100 women across six cities. We also designed three concise knowledge videos for social media highlighting the experiences of women from lower-income communities in urban settings and their perspectives on living conditions and mobility.