PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad  – The Caribbean will be represented at the World Urban Forum to be held in Malaysia early next month.

A four-member delegation from Trinidad and Tobago and Jamaica will attend the inaugural Global Grassroots Women’s Congress GROOTS /Huairou Commission and the World Urban Forum 9 (WUF9) to be held in Kuala Lumpur from February 2-13.

“Instrumental in enabling the voices of grassroots women leaders in global action along with their community-minded processes and solutions on urban issues, the global women’s movement is entering a new phase in furthering the global women’s agenda.

“Following acknowledgement of their status as an official stakeholder group recognised by UN-Habitat’s World Urban Campaign, grassroots women’s core beliefs will now be repurposed with the launch of the inaugural Global Grassroots Women’s Congress (GGWC),” the Trinidad-based GROOTS Trinidad & Tobago said in a statement.

It said that the intent of the Congress is to link local-to-global community organising efforts among grassroots women leaders.

The Global Grassroots Women’s Congress will bring together more than 100 grassroots women leaders from five regions including the Caribbean representing more than a million others across their communities in 51 countries.

The locally based group said that the Caribbean will be represented by a four-member team including officials from Trinidad and Tobago and GROOTS Jamaica.

In addition to participating in the WUF9 Conference, Caribbean delegates Lana Finikin of Sistren Theatre Collective in Jamaica and Delores Robinson of GROOTS Trinidad & Tobago will be facilitators for the Leadership Support Process (LSP) segment of the Grassroots Training Academy from February 2-5.

“The congress is strategically timed to address and contribute to solutions to urban issues at the Ninth Session of the World Urban Forum, which is organised around the theme “Cities 2030, Cities for All: Implementing the New Urban Agenda.”