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Policy and Platform Development

Gender and ICT

This e-Primer looks at information and communications technology (ICT) for development through a gender lens. It provides a gender perspectives to issues of ICT policies; access and control; education, training and skill development; and content development, and introduces a framework to integrate gender in ICT for development and empower women.

Montenegro: Regional Conference on "Political Participation of Women as Factor of Societal Development "

Submitted by iKNOW Politics on Sun, 2011-12-11 15:36
2011-12-11
2011-12-13
Europe/Vienna
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Country: 
Montenegro
Venue: 

Montenegro Hotel Splendid, Becicci

Description: 

UNDP Gender Programme Montenegro

UNDP Montenegro is organizing conference on " Political participation of Women as a Factor of Societal Development"

Women face multiple challenges in their involvement in political life generated by patriarchal power, structures and practices, which stereotypically confine women’s role in the private and informal public sphere. In Montenegro,  women currently hold less than 11% of elected parliamentary seats far away of the 19 percent of global average of women in Parliaments.     


This conference will bring together women who are actively involved in advocacy and action for women’s participation in politics and governance ( current, former and aspiring parliamentarians, local government officials, representatives of women’s organisations, activists, political parties and other NGOs and International organizations), regional partners.

 

For more information and to follow the conference discussions, please visit: http://www.facebook.com/pages/UNDP-Gender-Programme-Montenegro/134396116646047


Empowering Women for Stronger Political Parties

How women participate in political parties – and how those parties encourage and nurture women’s involvement and incorporate gender-equality issues – are key determinants of women’s political empowerment. They are also key to ensuring gender-equality issues are addressed in the wider society. If strategies to promote women’s involvement in the political process are to be effective, they should be linked to steps parties can take across the specific phases of the electoral cycle – the preelectoral, electoral and post-electoral phases – and to the organization and financing of the parties themselves. 
 
The most effective strategies to increase women’s participation in political parties combine reforms to political institutions with targeted support to women party activists within and outside party structures, women candidates and elected officials. These strategies require the cooperation of a variety of actors and political parties from across the political spectrum.
 
The Guide identifies targeted interventions that political parties can take to empower women. It is structured according to four phases, following an electoral cycle approach.

Ghana: NGO appeals to parties to get more women in parliament

Submitted by iKNOW Politics on Tue, 2011-10-11 09:05

Summary: 

The Shama Municipal Coordinator of the Coalition of Women in Governance, an NGO, Madam Cynthia Sonlika, has appealed to political parties to let women to contest unopposed in the 21 new constituencies to be created by the Electoral Commission.

She said this was the only way the parties could help more women to get into parliament. Madam Sonlika made the appeal when addressing the congregation at a Roman Catholic Church at Half Assini on Sunday.

Body: 

To read the complete news please visit GhanaWeb.

Published on 10 October 2011.


Canada: Women more likely to recruit other women for political office

Submitted by iKNOW Politics on Mon, 2011-08-08 11:23

Summary: 

The gender composition of those responsible for candidate recruitment plays a crucial role in either encouraging or discouraging women candidates to run for office, according to a recent study in Political Research Quarterly (PRQ) published by SAGE on behalf of the Western Political Science Association.

"Researchers Christine Cheng and Margit Tavits looked at "party gatekeepers" (local party presidents) from the five major political parties in the 2004 and 2006 Canadian national elections. Unlike the US, the nomination of party candidates for the Canadian Parliament is solely the prerogative of the local party associations, and local presidents are in a position to both formally and informally influence the nomination of candidates. The research found an important relationship between the gender of party gatekeepers and who ultimately is nominated to run for office."

The study highlighted three distinct mechanisms where the gender of the party gatekeepers was likely to affect whether the local party candidate was a man or a woman: 1) gatekeepers are more likely to directly recruit and promote people like themselves, 2) the professional and social networks of women gatekeepers are more likely to include qualified women who would be suitable parliamentary candidates which increases the opportunities for direct recruitment of female candidates and, 3) the presence of female party gatekeepers sends an encouraging signal to potential female candidates that women are welcome and can be active in politics, creating a virtuous cycle of participation.

Body: 

To read the complete news EurekAlert published on 8 August 2011.


Ireland: Do quotas solve the lack of women in politics?

Submitted by iKNOW Politics on Fri, 2011-06-03 08:19

Summary: 

Minister for Environment Phil Hogan announced on May 30th the introduction of quotas in the electoral system. From the next general election a 30% gender quota of candidates will be introduced, which will then rise to 40% subsequently. If a political party does not adhere to the quota their state funding will be cut in half. The Minister said that “We’re deliberately setting out to improve the participation rate of women in politics."

Body: 

To read the complete review piece please click here.


Kazakhstan: Discussion on gender equality accomplishments and challenges

Submitted by iKNOW Politics on Mon, 2011-05-30 05:19

Summary: 

About 100 high-level government officials, parliamentary deputies and representatives of non-governmental and international organizations discussed last week Kazakhstan's efforts to eliminate discrimination against women during a meeting co-organized by the OSCE Centre in Astana.

Body: 

To read the complete article please visit OSCE


Regional Seminar for Asian Parliaments : Preventing and responding to violence against women and girls: From legislation to effective enforcement

Submitted by iKNOW Politics on Thu, 2011-05-26 15:29
2011-09-15
2011-09-18
US/Eastern
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City & Province/State: 
New Delhi
Country: 
India
Venue: 

TBC

Description: 

As part of its campaign Parliaments Take Action on Violence against Women, the IPU is organizing, with the Parliament of India, a seminar for Asian Parliaments on preventing and responding to violence against women and girls. This seminar aims to provide men and women parliamentarians of the region with the elements of a comprehensive and multisectoral response to violence against women and familiarize them with the components of legislation to effectively tackle this problem.

Special emphasis will be placed on prevention and parliamentary mechanisms to secure the effective enforcement of relevant legislation, including parliaments’ oversight and budgetary powers and their ability to monitor and facilitate the implementation of the law.

The seminar will take place in New Delhi from 15 to 17 September 2011. It will provide participants with an opportunity to:

  • Take stock of the situation regarding violence against women and girls in the region by highlighting the causes and consequences of this form of violence and the obstacles encountered in putting an end to it;
  • Gain understanding of the costs of VAW and gender implications of budgeting, both in theory and in practice;
  • Discuss the use of gender-responsive budgeting as an effective mechanism to support enforcement of anti-VAW legislation;
  • Examine different national monitoring mechanisms that can secure effective implementation of the anti-VAW legislation;
  • Discuss the opportunities and good practices in the prevention of violence against women;
  • Exchange of experiences between Parliaments of the region confronted with similar situations and challenges; and
  • Identify appropriate parliamentary action to ensure respect for the fundamental rights of women and girls and their right to a life free of violence.

Draft agenda

Information note


South Africa: Women’s Issues Missing from Election Manifestos

Submitted by iKNOW Politics on Thu, 2011-05-19 00:43

Summary: 

South Africans will take to the polls on May 18 to vote in the country’s fourth local government elections but women’s issues are glaringly absent from many of the party manifestos, observers say. Janine Hicks from the Commission on Gender Equality says that none of the five major parties have mainstreamed the issue of gender. "We have looked at a sample of party manifestos and we did a scan and analysis and in the main parties have not mainstreamed gender in their manifestos. Their main focus seems to be on service delivery," she says.



 

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For more information, please visit: IPS


From Words to Action: Best Practices for Women's Political Participation in Latin American Political Parties

Even though women represent more than half of the voting population in many countries and have been widely incorporated into the economic sphere over the last decade, reality tells us that there is still an important gap between these advances and women's access to elected or political party positions. While considerable improvements have taken place in women's participation in political decision-making bodies, the numbers continue to show substantial levels of underrepresentation. In the eighteen Latin American countries examined in this study, there is an average of two women representative for every ten male mayors, and those countries with an Upper Chamber have less than two women Senators for every ten men.

In oder to resolve this asymmetry, and in response to the demands of socially and politically organized women - as well as the international consensus supporting them- several countries have chosen to include quota mechanisms in electoral regulations. These quotas have been functioning with greater or lesser effectiveness depending on the context and regulatory framework in which they are applied.

This manual provides political party members and leaders with the means to implement concrete strategies for achieving equality for women within party organizations and to access positions of power and representation.

More than a year of research and field work in 18 Latin American countries is condensed in this publication, which describe 95 "good practices" implemented by party organizations. It also analyzes the progress and the challenges still facing women in politics, both in the region and in each of the countries studied.

The production of an English version was undertaken by UNDP and was made possible through the generous support of the United Nation’s Development Programmes Gender Team, in the Bureau for Development Policy.