Summary from E-Discussion on Women in Local Governments (August 10-24, 2009)

Increasingly countries around the world are going the decentralization route. And with a call on their local governments to respond to their communities, has heralded the movement towards democratic local governance. A wide number of countries are increasing the authority and power of local governments and working to make them more responsive and hence effective. The rationale for these reforms may vary across the world, for some countries the initiative is to devolve the power of the central government, some are seeking to increase the accountability and public involvement, others are emerging out of a conflict situation, etc.

Unless women are involved in the decision making and policy development at all the levels of governance, changes to women’s political and socio-economic status will continue to be minimal. The role of women in decision making has been addressed by various international agreements and conventions, CEDAW and the Beijing Platform for Action (1995) to name a few. The International Union of Local Authorities Worldwide Declaration on Women in Local Government 1998; Item 9 says:

“The problem and challenges facing humanity are global but occur and have to be dealt with at the local level. Women have the equal right to freedom from poverty, discrimination, environmental degradation and insecurity. To fight these problems and to meet the challenges of sustainable human development, it is crucial that women be empowered and involved in local government as decision makers, planners and managers”.

Though there is lack of information and statistics on the number of women in local governments, they are however, according to IULA higher than National statistics on an average. According to studies women’s presence in local government ranges from the high of 33 percent to a low of 2 percent around the world. For the purpose of this e-discussion, local governance can be described as governing at local level that includes the government machinery and the interactions between the various actors from communities and local authorities.

Local government may be considered an extension of women’s involvement in their communities, thereby enabling their access to these structures and acceptance of women’s role in city and community governments. There are a range of factors that affect women’s participation in local governments, for instance, statutory provisions, national policies and programmes etc. Through this E-Discussion iKNOW Politics invites participation from women leaders in local government, civil society organizations working with women in communities to share their experiences on the questions below:

• Enabling Participation: What are some of the laws, quota regulations, practices and initiatives that ensure women’s equal participation at local levels of government?
• Strategies for constituency building and political success: What are some strategies used by women to build a base of support and to become known in their local communities
• Impact of women in local government: Does having more women in local governments lead to creating more gender sensitive programs and legislation and empowering other women in communities? What are some examples of women’s impact on local legislation, local government initiatives, and budgets
• Mayors: What strategies are there to ensure that more women are elected to mayoral positions (president of the local council)? What are strategies for female mayors to be effective leaders?

Participation

During the two weeks of the E-Discussion, iKNOW Politics received 88 comments from its members and experts worldwide. Contributors came from over 32 countries: Afghanistan, Argentina, Australia, Benin, Bolivia, Burkina Faso, Chile, Cote d'Ivoire, Democratic Republic of Congo, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, India, Indonesia, Jordan, Kenya, Liberia, Mali, Mexico, Netherlands, Niger, Pakistan, Papua New Guinea, Perú, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Spain, Sri Lanka, Swaziland, Uganda, USA and Venezuela.

Discussion Summary

ENABLING PARTICIPATION What are some of the laws, practices and initiatives that ensure women’s participation at local government levels? What kind of statutory provisions have been made in different parts of the world that guarantee women the right to participate? Are there policies and programmes that encourage women to join politics at the local level?

Quotas

One of the key instruments in encouraging women in local governance is implementation of quotas at local levels of decision and policy making. There are instances where the use of quotas and other similar measures from around the world have proven successful in bringing women to leadership positions at district and council levels.

For example, Roula Attar from NDI writes that in Jordan the establishment of quotas in 2007 led to over 300 women being elected as municipal council members. Similarly, Sudarsana Kundu from UNIFEM notes:

“Governments around the world have been bringing in progressive legislations on programmes to increase women’s participation at the local level. These have often taken the form of quotas (through legislative changes and constitutional amendments – 35 countries around the world have Constitutional or Legislative Quotas at the sub-national level), quotas at the party level for electoral candidates (proportional representation in party lists such as in South Africa) and other forms of electoral reforms that advance women’s political participation at the local level.” (Enabling participation – thinking beyond quotas)

According to Beatrice Lagada from Uganda,quotas have ensured that women’s interests must be taken into account in decision-making:

“In the case of Uganda, the Constitution stipulates a 33% representation. By their presence there, the local governments are constantly reminded that in any program, like restocking of livestock, the women must benefit. Actually most programs come from the Central govt. to the local govt. with strict guidelines to ensure women benefit.” (Training – whose prerogative)

Some participants caution, however, that quotas can sometimes have a negative effect on the credibility of women elected under those systems. Samina Anwar from UNIFEM notes that in Pakistan there is a bias against those elected from reserved seats:

“A study by ESCAP on women in local government in Pakistan notes that social attitudes often makes the status of the councilors elected on reserved seats including women and minorities inferior. Since women councilors lack any constituency from where they are elected, they have to make extra efforts for establishing their credibility, which requires more resources, time as well as support of people.” (Local governance and gender)

Most participants agreed that to build a stronger case for quotas there needs to be further analysis of the existing models and their impact.

Blanca Olivia Peña Molina from Mexico states:

“An analysis of electoral legislation in local (municipal) governments cannot be made without first considering the progress that affirmative action laws have brought about for gender equality in electoral laws of state governments and then discounting the way in which the candidacies of women are regulated in local elections. The new electoral geography requires an analysis of historical context as well as party, electoral and quota systems in state governments since these largely explain the degree of progress or limitations that municipal governments face. The complexity is obvious”. (Municipal Quota in Jordan)

Zainab Korgbo from Sierra Leone lists the support activities that are essential for making women leaders effective. “We will see a great improvement if we support activities for 1 education , 2 training on leadership roles and governance issues, 3 exchange visits, 4 and providing resources for economic empowerment.” (Women’s role in governance a long way to go)

Aminata Faye Kasse articulates the need for capacity building and support from parties to enhance women’s effectiveness in Burkina Faso:

“In Burkina in 2006, on 6400 women advisors only 20 of them have been elected mayors and less than 300 on thousands of advisors have leader position in their commune. New measures are required to encourage parties to follow women activities and support them for more effectiveness of their political duties. Women capacity building is very important in order to let elected women to have more impact on the development at the local level.” (Responsabilité des partis)

One political aspirant from Ivory Coast wrote that for women like her to feel confident to run for local office in the future they require more support:

“Women are not enough confident they are not prepared for the job. Many of them refuse to run for election. In order to increase women number in election at the local level the following measure are required: • Strengthen women ability to do politics • Promote best practices in local governance • Promote women candidacy thanks to coaching and experience sharing, and the reinforcement of women’s leadership.”

Political Parties

An alternative to legislated quotas are voluntary party quotas. Several contributors to the e-discussion mentioned the importance of engaging political parties in enhancing women’s representation at the local level.

Alejandra Massolo from Mexico writes: "Political parties, whose logic and practices do not facilitate or foster support to female candidates and women’s efforts in local government. The municipality is a hard and resistant nucleus of masculine control over political power where mechanisms of discrimination and disqualification of women operate more forcefully and imminently." (La participación de las mexicanas en los gobiernos local)

Susana Campari also concludes from research that lack of support within political party structures are an important factor in low representation of women in local governments. “Based on the interviews conducted to date, the causes of this under-representation could be largely related to the lack of democratization among political parties rather than gender-motivated restrictions. Among the causes that can be referenced are the prevailing systems to access elected office in political parties, stemming from arbitrary and anti-democratic systems to create candidate lists, which deserve particular scrutiny.” (Aún falta mucho)

The gender agenda of President Bachelet of Chile includes a “quota law” which Claudia Pinto says provides incentives for political parties to support women candidates: “The Quota Law bill includes giving incentive, both within parties’ internal democracy and in elections, for the equality of opportunities of party members and their equal participation in exercising public offices and responsibilities.” (¿Cuáles son algunas de las leyes, regulaciones sobre cuotas...?)

Social Context

Most contributors to the discussion agreed that women’s effective participation in local politics is dependent on the existing social dynamics and complex cultural processes that affect how quotas are enforced and implemented by political parties and structures.

Participants felt the need to better analyse what kind of quotas work better in certain conditions and the political will needed to change those. For example Hemanthi Goonasekera illustrates the problems of the current quota system within the context of Sri Lankan society and voices the need to change the current electoral system.

“One of the key qualifications to become a woman political represntative in the current context is that she need to have family ties (links) to major political parties. i.e. she got to have your husband, father or brother who is well connected to one of the two major political parties, if not she will have very remote chances of getting even nominations to contest for an election. Next, is that candidate needs to be economically sound; if not she cannot carryout her election campaign effectively covering the entire district/province. Current electoral system in Sri lanka needs to obtain highest number of preferential votes to be elected to represent even a Local Authority. Thirdly she will has to face violences (both physical and mental) during the election campaigns. There is competition among the candidates in the same political party to gain more preferential votes and the political violences accelerate during election campaigns. Therefore it is evident that current electoral system needs to be changed to encourage more women representation in local governance in Sri Lanka.” (Women in LG in Sri Lanka)

Arianna Mazzeo from Spain highlights the need to take into account changing demographics in a particular country. For instance in Spain, “The Council of Women of the city promotes and implements the participation of young migrants women in the local governance process. The starting point is planning a cross-cutting strategy with common goals in all departments of the government structure and concrete actions that can be a reality, door to door, giving access to decision-making, visibility and democratic dialogue of the young women towards participation and equal opportunities. The difficulties are a lot and are determined for cultural frames and structural factors determinated by welfare state constitution itself.” (Participation of young women in Spain)

Decentralization

Along with ensuring stricter enforcement of quotas l and consideration of political party structures and social context, Fatou Diop from Senegal makes the case for decentralization as a key tenet in improving local governance mechanisms by making them accessible to women. “The decentralization process is one of the main measures undertaken for improving local governance. In order to have solid local institutions, more women involvement is required. In villages and small towns, women are doing all the work and they are also the first victims. In order to increase the number of women in local governance quota is require in the case of Senegal.” (L'importance de la decentralisation)

Mariam Diallo makes the point that decentralization can also result in enhancing the capacity of local communities through knowledge transfer: “In Mali we have 8 regions, 40 circles, and 287 administrative districts. There is three level of decentralized authority: regions are divided into circles, circles into commune and communes into quarters. The main goal of the decentralization process is to share the central power with the local entities. Not only will the power be conveying but also the skills and knowledge for an effective decentralization.” (Renforcement des capacites et des institutions)

STRATEGIES FOR CONSTITUENCY BUILDING AND POLITICAL SUCCESS

What are some of the examples of strategies used by women to build constituencies in their local communities? Does a strong constituency ensure political party support for women? Are reserved seats an effective strategy for women’s political success?

Importance of building networks

Most participants in the E-discussion emphasized the importance of networking in promoting women in politics. Participants agreed that for women to be successful in local politics they need to build strong networks that will support them during elections and after they are elected.

Rocio Arauz from Ecuador points out that many existing political support networks are controlled by men: “Women that approach the issue of political strategies often do it when they supported by parties and political forces that launch them as candidates. But this is knowledge that they don’t have access to and does not entail building on them for who they are, but rather using these women as tools in an electoral strategy that makes them successful." (Estrategias)

He further points out that by building their own networks women can open the public debate to issues that have previously been ignored, thus paving the way for their political success. “An interesting point is that an important percentage of women focus their political campaigns on care-taking and maternal roles towards citizens, which allows them to redefine what is considered domestic and maternal, politicizing care-taking and putting private issues in the public sphere.” (Estrategias)

Marta Gaba from Argentina furtherstates that building and maintaining networks is inherent to women’s way of functioning in society and they need to channel this in their political life as well: “We women naturally tend to associate ourselves in networks and share our interests with others. And this is the characteristic that we should strategically take advantage of when we want to present our own proposals in the community.” (Conocer para ser conocidas: el trabajo en red)

Working within communities and understanding the needs and contexts of those communities is another key aspect according to Silvia Way from Perú. She states that to build a strong constituency base women leaders must formulate programmes and plans that are beneficial to local communities.

Maria Eugenia Rojas Valverde and Ruth Peñafiel demonstrate the effectiveness of cross-party and cross-community cooperation by women:

Councilwomen and women mayors stand united from different local bodies, in alliance with social organizations and women’s indigenous organizations, with the purpose of carrying out a march demanding “Respect for Equality and Alternation” from the public body that oversees the fulfillment of political rights and administers the electoral processes. We hold this march in order to make women’s voice heard, as a frank expression of their feelings and concerns regarding demands and proclamations that have been repeated during various government administrations, without having been heeded and without having had the reverberation necessary among authorities for its fulfillment.” (Desde Bolivia...)

Another aspect of building networks that some participants raised was the need for women to connect and be accessible to their local communities. Taboa raises the important issue of relating to the issues of the constituency to gain support, trust and build strong community links. “They are popular in different ways for instance some women joint their hand to create wealth through producing of Shea butter. Others are known through their dynamism in cleaning the area. Some are renowned by their work to help beggars, orphans. When they are well known they are more able to do politics and to mobilize lot of people. Women living in urban area but originally lived in rural community go back to their community and run for local election. At they return they work on several popular actions in order to be trust worthy.” (Le rôle des œuvres caritatives)

Straore from Mali concurs with Taboa and highlights the importance of being known by local communities and reaching out to share their vision in order to build constituencies. “They need to have a base and be known among the population. They should go closer to population and do proximity campaign to know them and to share the political program. In long term thanks to this contact with population more women will aim to the program and be active in the party.”( participation des femmes aux administrations locales)

Combination of old and new communication tools

Building networks requires using different methods of communication with different audiences and to achieve different goals.This may range from basic communication within the campaign team, to reaching out to constituencies in formats that they are most comfortable with.

Theresa Delangis from UNIFEM recounts experiences from the recent Afghanistan elections where women used all possible means to communicate with their constituency and bring their voices to policy levels. “We heard again and again that women were working together in order to win the most seats possible. And women told us they were campaigning mostly to other women as voters. For women, even those in the most secure areas, their posters were placed in homes rather than in the streets; rather than rallies of thousands potential supporters, their events were teas for women kin and neighbours discussing what was needed for development (education for girls and literacy for women were very important issues, along with financial support and economic opportunities for the millions of war widows that populate the country). It is, ultimately, at the local level that development is implemented, and these women candidates as future provincial council members were paving the way to be sure women’s concerns are brought to the table.” (Experiences from Afghanistan)

Integrating social media tools within the overall communication strategy offers another possibility to build a larger constituency to gain political success. Piyoo Kochar from India points out that new technologies offer an inexpensive possibility for local women leaders to adopt in their communication strategies to not only build a voter base but do so without having to spend a lot of their funds on such tools.

“When considering the use of social media in the context of local government, there are huge benefits due to the symbiotic possibilities between social media and local governments. I elucidate some below. - The aim of a local politician is to reach huge numbers in the local communities. Social media enables not just creation of such local communities but enables these communities to interact and communicate with each other. - The aim for a local politician is to get her message out. Social media helps by enabling communicating the same message through various channels, thereby building consistency of message across different channels. - The aim for a local politician is to listen to the needs of local communities. Because social media is dynamic and a two way communication channel it ensures that the message from the community is reaching the politician.” (Using social media to build constituency)

Another example of a unique communication tool comes from Soetkins Meertens from Mali. She shared the experiences of her work in setting up an advocacy group composed of women from different political parties and civil society organizations that provided training and skills to women candidates on developing a communication strategy for effective campaigns. “The advocacy group will also contribute to the development of a network of information and communication, to enable women to have easy access to information on politics, the electoral process, and prospects and opportunities ahead. It is well known that the lack of communication is one of the major obstacles that women face to their participation in public life.” (Case study from Mali)

IMPACT OF WOMEN IN LOCAL GOVERNMENT

Does having more women in local governments lead to creating more gender sensitive programs and legislation and empowering other women in communities? What are some examples of women’s impact on local legislation, local government initiatives, and budgets?

Impact on legislation and services

All participants agreed that getting women elected to local governments is important and it does play a significant role in engendering legislation. Betty Sharon states “Women in local governments are in the best position to create gender sensitive programs and legislation and empowering other women in communities, as they work directly with the grassroots, and the communities.” (women in local government – position of influence)

Margaret Lokolok from UNDP discusses the importance of women’s presence in local councils in the context of better delivery of local services: “Since delivery is about bringing services such as water, health and sanitation, education and marketing of the garden produce, it makes sense to have women at that level of decision making.” (via email) Lisa Baker notes the impact of women in defining the questions and the data on which policy decisions are made: “... the type of data and demographs that we as a nation and in separate states collect has been influence by women. We now ask questions and collect information to inform our planning and policy decisions - questions about all aspects of womens' lives e.g. the number of women in employment and the nature of this employment, women's health concerns, women's access to education and training.” (response from Lisa Baker)

While participants agreed that there is a correlation between an increase in elected women leaders and gender sensitive policy making, some acknowledged that there is a need for more data to document this. Hanny Cueva from UNIFEM points out: “Although research in this area is slowly increasing, global evidence about women’s actual presence in local governments and their potential impact is still meager, at the best. More evidence is needed is the impact that women elected officials at the local level may have on changing women’s lives. While women participation in politics, both national and local, is a matter of gender equality, a better understanding of how female presence in politics helps shape and advance gender equality is always a matter of inquiry. On one hand, the “role-model” effect is undeniable and very important. But research experience is still new and inconclusive on this matter.” (need for further research and documentation)

Cristina Tamasauskas from Venezuela acknowledges the difficulty that women face given that they are stereotyped by the issues they support: “Many women have consolidated our rights by taking on contested areas, but on wanting to occupy these spaces of power and decision-making, we are ignored or marginalized. We must, therefore, not go back but rather continue to advance in gender solidarity.” (Impacto de las mujeres en el gobierno local)

Alejandra Massolo provided extracts from her publication on women’s participation in local governments which emphasizes the impact of women on the very concept of “power”: "Diverse studies and testimonies reveal that for women mayors, councilors and syndics (this elected office of councilors or municipal cabildos exists in Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador and Costa Rica), public power means working for people, occupying posts in the municipality in order to serve the community and representing a serious and important commitment, but it does not mean exercising power. Power has a positive connotation insofar as it serves to benefit communities and towns and favors the population’s wellbeing and local development. But women tend to reject power and, therefore, command and authority because it has a negative connotation for them, associated with authoritarianism, arbitrariness, corruption, irresponsibility and deceit. The notion of power is substituted or exchanged for the notion of servitude, as a result of their experiences in social participation and discussion of gender, far from ambition for political power. The altruistic education of women has equipped them with skills to better represent the interests of third parties than their own, as expressed in this notion of service over the exercise of power and authority”. (Paradojas de la proximidad municipal)

Need for awareness

Several participants alluded that elected women are not necessarily gender sensitive just because they are women. Nurjanah writes that to enable elected women leaders to engender legislation requires both men and women to be empathetic to the issue. “Women in professional life, either in politics or other areas are not necessarily more gender sensitive. The awareness on gender mainstreaming of program and activities needs to be developed, introduced, trained, and strengthen, especially to women, as well as men”. (Experiences from Indonesia)

Mohammad Abdur-Rehman Asif concurs: “Yes women participation really plays a vital role and necessary as well for better legislation; and could only be done with the more and more participation of women into the politics and local governments but with proper training and capacity building programs.” (impact of women in local government)

Diana Avila discusses the additional challenge that not all elected women are fully informed about gender equity mechanisms: : “There are equity and gender responsive budgets. Building these is already difficult and requires contribution and technical support. Explaining them and educating women on them in the field is even more difficult.” (Algunas ideas...,)

Riaaritonang from Indonesia agrees: “Women with key positions need encouragement and skills and awareness to work on issues related to women situation, especially on issues such as: poverty, under education, under skill, domestic violence, health, and other cultural/religious related issues which tend to obstruct women from exerting their self esteem. First, women need to get strategic/key policy making roles and from there they need to be motivated and supported to strive for women cause”. (impact of women in local governments)

MAYORS

What strategies are there to ensure that more women are elected to mayoral positions (president of the local council)? What are strategies for female mayors to be effective leaders?

Confidence-building

Despite the success in some areas of women being elected to local councils, few of them go on to seek leadership positions,. Some of this may be due to lack of confidence, especially since local government is often the entry point for women who enter politics. Ursula Sore Bahati points out that women often “shy away from contesting for council senior positions such as Mayors/ Council Chairpersons, Finance and Town planning chairpersons and opting for less prestigious committees (education and social services) resulting to resource allocation by councils without taking into consideration the needs and priorities of women, men, girls and boys.” (women in local government in Kenya)

In some cases women do not seek senior positions on local councils out of a lack of preparedness or training on key issues such as budgeting. For instance in Kenya, Ursula notes “Women councilors’ have been reported of having inadequate capacity on issues of budgeting. Budgeting has always been viewed as a male domain. Understanding and interpreting budgets and statements have been real problems to women in local authorities.” As noted by most participants, changing attitudes and accepting women as leaders requires a systemic response. Susana Campari recommends changes to the electoral system to enable women to feel confident to enter politics.

Support from Men

Ruth Peñafiel writes that in addition to self-empowerment, it is necessary for women to build support from male counterparts: “It is very important to first empower women and strengthen their self-esteem. It is also necessary to establish an alliance with men in order to build a process of integration around the image of women as both an alternative and as deserving. Space must not only be gained but also built.” (Desde Ecuador....)

Awakouyate and Moudji both state that often women feel apprehensive about considering standing for mayoral elections because of the lack of support from their male peers. They point to instances where men refuse to consider a woman’s name for the electoral lists and discourage them from attempting to enter politics. Awakouyate says “I for one, I would like to run in communal elections. I am discouraged by men’s dealings; they refuse to put women in head of list.” (Pour plus de femmes maires)

Shaheen Attiq-ur-Rehman however sees a reason for women to be optimistic, as men’s attitudes in Pakistan are slowly changing: “In Pakistan we lobbied for special seats for women & had it approved. Though changes were not that great, the change of male attitudes have improved, some what.” (changing male attitudes)

Manuel Villar concurs with Attiqu-ur-Rehman, and states that to change the attitude of men they need to be sensitized. “Men need to be educated to accept all forms of women’s participation, provide capacity-building for women and form them as leaders so that they have proposals and lead to great change.” (Mi propuesta)

Knowledge sharing

Korotimy Thèra shares her experiences from a programme in Mali during the 2009 mayoral elections that encouraged women running for office to share experiences and exchange knowledge: “For this election, the programme signed a statement of political parties: Where we explained to political parties that democracy requires more women candidates in top of lists, We urge political parties to equity between men and women, We affirm that more women in top of electoral lists will lead to more women mayor. After elections, the programme helped women mayor and communal advisors to work together in order to be elected in municipal council. We provide training to reinforce their capacity on public affairs.” (Femmes et gestion des collectivités décentralisées par kthera)

CONCLUSION

During this E-Discussion participants agreed that including women in local governments is an integral part of creating gender sensitive policies and services. Quotas were identified as a means of enabling women’s participation but implementation of quotas should take into account the social and political environment., Through their active involvement in community work and women’s movements, local women politicians are well aware of issues faced by women in their communities and are uniquely positioned to address them.

However to create a voter base, women need to not only be able to grasp the issues but be able to effectively network with other women leaders, their male peers and continue a dynamic conversation with the constituency. Use of innovative means of communication including both traditional and new social media offers women leaders the possibility to work within limited budgets.

   There is no doubt that women politicians can be active advocates of women’s issues among their colleagues in the local government and of mainstreaming gender perspectives in policies, however there is need for further research to document this and training for women on available gender equality mechanisms. There are encouraging examples all over the world that highlight the impact women leaders make in changing the way business is conducted in local assemblies and councils.

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Participant List

• Alejandra Massolo, México
• Aminata Faye Kasse, Burkina Faso
• Arianna Mazzeo, Spain
• Awakouyate, Mali
• Beatrice Lagada, Uganda
• Betty Sharon, Kenya
• Blanca Olivia Peña Molina, México
• Claudia Pinto, Chile
• Cristina Tamasauskas, Venezuela
• Diana Ávila, Perú
• Fatou Diop, Senegal
• Flok, Cote D'Ivoire
• Griselda Lloveras, República Dominicana
• Hanny Gladys Cueva-Beteta, Perú
• Hemanthi Goonasekera, Sri Lanka
• Korotimi, Mali
• Lisa Baker, Australia
• Manuel Villar, Perú
• Marceline, DRC
• Margaret Lokolok
• Maria Eugenia Rojas Valverde, Bolivia
• Mariam Diallo, Mali
• Marta Gaba, Argentina
• Mbali, Swaziland
• Mohammad Abdur-Rehman Asif, Pakistan
• Moudji, Benin
• Myam, Togo
• Nurjanah, Indonesia
• Patricia Rojas, Chile
• Pepa Franco, España
• Pesky, USA
• Piyoo Kochar, India
• Ramata, Burkina Faso
• Ria Aritonang, Indonesia
• Rocio Arauz, Ecuador
• Roula Attar, Jordan
• Ruth Peñafiel, Ecudaor
• Samina Anwar, Pakistan
• Sandra Salgado, El Salvador
• Shaheen Attiq-ur-Rahman, Pakistan
• Silvia Way, Perú
• Soetkin Meertens, Mali
• Straore, Mali
• Sudarsana Kundu, India
• Susana Campari, Argentina
• Taboa, Niger
• Theresa DeLangis, Afghanistan
• Ursula SoreBahati, Kenya
• Zainab Korgbo, Sierra Leone