Welcome to Women and Human Settlements — A Global Exchange Space (WAHS).
This online community is a space for community organizers and development practitioners, both at the grassroots and the institutional level, to exchange ideas and information relating to the unique experiences of grassroots women in human settlements worldwide. It is a space where grassroots women’s contributions to the development of their communities is recognized and showcased, as women from all areas of the globe are invited to share their innovative practices to secure sustainable livelihoods, bring health and sanitation services into their communities, mitigate disaster risk, and make local governments accountable to women and the poor.
What You Can Do On This Site
Create your personal profile and connect with other users
By registering on this site, you will have your own personal profile where you can upload a photo and share information about yourself and issues you are passionate about. You can even find and message other users directly through the website.
Discuss ideas in one of our issue forums
The forums are a great, short form way to discuss issues with others on the website. Did your country adopt a new law that affects women’s land tenure? Start a discussion about it in the Land and Housing forum. Want to learn more about women credit cooperatives in Latin America? Post a question in the Livelihoods & Economic Empowerment forum and read the responses of those who do the work on the ground.
Showcase your work on your personal blog
Click here for a How to Blog on WAHS Portal on how to create a blog for your organization
Users can create blogs, a personal mini website that other users can visit to learn more about your work. You can write entries, post documents, and attach multimedia like photos and video. Blogs are great for longer ideas and are a great venue for press releases, meeting notes, and other more ‘official’ items. Site visitors can read blog entries and post comments and questions to the author.
Think of forums as short form and more interactive and blogs as longer form and multimedia.
Search the website
The search box located throughout this website allows you to search for specific users or topics written about on the website, in the blogs, and in the forums.
Connect with other users on the site
You can connect with other users directly by viewing the profiles of other organizations and individuals. Also, if you see someone’s forum post or blog entry and you like what they have to say, click on their name and you’ll learn more about them.
Click here is a list of all the users on this website
Respond to others’ work
Like what you’re reading on a blog or have a response to someone’s forum post? Why not tell the author by leaving them a comment on their blog or sending them a personal message through the WAHS email system?
Click here to access the blog portion of the site
Click here to access the forums on the site