iKNOW Politics Celebrates International Women's Day and its Fourth Anniversary

On March 8th iKNOW Politics invites its members to celebrate International Women's Day.  This year marks the 100th anniversary of this annual event, first commemorated in March 1911.

While we have come a long way since that first celebration, much remains to be done in the field of women's rights and women's participation in politics - and iKNOW Politics is helping to do just that.  With our new website, launched in January this year, and the new 'dashboard' features available to registered members, iKNOW Politics continues to play a leading role in connecting women on a global scale, helping them to share their knowledge, experience and ideas online.  

iKNOW Politics' seeks, to increase the number of women in politics by offering a safe space with global reach and state of the art technology, aligns beautifully with this year's UN International Women's Day theme: “Equal Access to Education, Training and Science and Technology: Pathway to Decent Work for Women.”  

The importance of technology, and communication technology in particular, has been demonstrated especially vividly in the Middle East.  Women have been making active use of the entire range of communication technologies, and social media in particular, to have their voices heard in the call for freedom and democracy.  They are online more than ever, having their say and making themselves heard - and hopefully, by next year's International Women's Day, their tireless efforts will have made a difference in the global struggle for women's rights.  

To stay posted on the latest news and the most recent resources, please visit the iKNOW Politics page dedicated to the role of women during the revolution and beyond in the Arab states or join the debate in our discussion circle on Women in Politics in the Middle East and North Africa region.  

iKNOW Politics Celebrates its Fourth Anniversary 

iKNOW Politics celebrated its fourt anniversay on February 27th, 2011. Since its launch at the 51st session of the Commission on the Status of Women in New York in February 2007, iKNOW Politics has become the premier online network serving the needs of women politicians and their supporters around the world.

iKNOW Politics was born of a commitment to enhance women’s contribution to politics and to increase their participation in political life by offering access to a wealth of resources and information.  

The partnership between the International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (International IDEA), the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU), the National Democratic Institute (NDI), the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and Empowerment of Women (UN Women) has successfully positioned iKNOW Politics as a key knowledge and information center on women in politics that provides its users access to resources, expertise, dialogue, and knowledge creation on women’s political participation through Discussion Circles, online library, world news, events calendar and quarterly E-Discussions, all continuously updated in four languages – English, French, Spanish and Arabic.

iKNOW Politics launched it revised website, enabling the iKNOW Politics team to capture 'hot' issues quickly and extensively, and offering our members more and renewed space for discussion. 

Driven by a high demand and popularity among its users, iKNOW Politics not only enhanced its existing tools and services, but also initiated the new Election Talk feature, allowing members to share their views on ongoing elections. iKNOW Politics has also continued providing free of charge expertise and advisory services through Ask the Experts, the unique tool that allows iKNOW Politics members to seek advice and recommendations from internationally-recognized experts with the goal to advance women in politics and public life.  

At iKNOW Politics we interview women leaders from around the world whose stories are both inspiring and a testament to the significant work women leaders are doing around the world to promote gender equality. Each month we feature one of those woman leaders under “featured interview”.

iKNOW Politics plans to continue its work in advancing women in politics and to make the network even more accessible to women across the world. Drawing on a substantial network of experts and members across the globe, iKNOW Politics provides its services to regional and grassroots organizations, reaching out to women with limited access to technology.  Our goal for this coming year is to continue expanding our extensive library, further push and encourage discussions on the platform, and capture what women in politics want and should be informed on - in other words, serve the needs of our members to the best of our abilities.  

iKNOW Politics would like to thank its partners and donors for their generous support over the past three years, especially the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Norway and the Government of Spain.

iKNOW Politics is also grateful to its members and experts worldwide for their active participation in the network’s activities and their contribution to increasing women’s political participation worldwide.

If you would like to leave iKNOW Politics a birthday message, please do so below - we are always thrilled to hear from our members!