The regional average of women in parliament currently stands at 18 percent, which is slightly lower than the global average across all countries at 18.6 percent. Africa trails the Americas (21.7%), Europe (21.2%) and Asia (18.3%) in terms of women’s access to parliaments, but performs better than the Pacific (13%) and the Arab States (9.7%). Africa is notable for making important progress relatively quickly - in 1988 women held just over 6 percent of the seats on average which has tripled two decades later. The demise of authoritarian regimes has in many instances resulted in notable gains for women. They have made use of windows of political opportunity - where legislative, electoral system or political party reforms have taken place – to push for the inclusion of their demands in reform processes or seats at the negotiation tables. In the 1990s, Mozambique, Namibia and South Africa were the front runners in Africa, to be joined by Rwanda which became the world leader when it elected 49 percent women to parliament in 2003. Today, across the globe, there are 24 countries that have achieved a representation of 30 percent or more women in parliament, and seven of these countries are from Africa. Only Europe does better with 10 countries. At the same time, several African countries perform poorly in terms of women’s access to politics: 12 African countries have 10 percent or fewer women in parliament. The overall progress across the continent has not been felt evenly at the national level. It is important to note that the five of the seven parliaments that have reached 30 percent women members have legislated quotas. Only Mozambique and South Africa rely on the will of the ruling parties to implement voluntary party quotas. For the others legislation has been adopted:

• Three counties reserve 30 percent of parliamentary seats for women – Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda. Tanzania and Uganda have majority electoral systems in which the only way to guarantee women hold 30 percent of the seats is to reserve them. Rwanda combines reserved seats with a proportional representation system (in which several political parties also adopted voluntary quotas for their party lists) which is a relatively unique combination.
• Angola and Burundi have proportional representation systems which allow the adoption of legislation to ensure that women are nominated as candidates by political parties.
• Information on the different types of quotas is available at: www.quotaproject.org. See also International IDEA publications at http://www.idea.int/publications/browse/quotas.cfm

Constitutions The laws in Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda have their origins in national constitutions. For example, in Burundi Article 164 of the 2004 Constitution provides for a 30 percent quota for women in parliament, with the specific implementation detailed in the electoral law. In Rwanda, Article 9 of the Constitution stipulates that women be granted at least 30 percent of posts in decision making organs (see www.quotaproject.org). However, it is important to note that most quota legislation does not originate at the level of the constitution – in fact it is usually extremely difficult and politically sensitive to amend a constitution to include a quota provision. In many other countries, quotas have been adopted by amending the electoral and political party legislation and this is usually a more expedient way of legislating quotas. Africa offers important insights into factors that determine the success of quotas at country level, some of which are outlined in “Conclusion: Women’s Political Participation and Quotas in Africa”, in IDEA, The Implementation of Quotas: African Experiences at http://www.idea.int/publications/quotas_africa/upload/IDEA_no3.qxd.pdf. What are some of the factors affecting women’s access to parliaments in Africa?

• Electoral systems matter: the average representation of the 22 countries using majority/plurality electoral systems stands at 15.5 percent compared to 27.4 percent for the 12 using proportional representation. Countries with mixed electoral systems have the lowest at 13 percent.
• Quotas are implemented in 16 countries in Africa. Six countries have legislated candidate quotas, three have reserved seats, and voluntary party quotas are used in 7 countries (see table).
• Quotas are obviously an important tool for increasing women’s access to parliament. The average of women in parliaments with quotas stands at 26.7 percent as opposed to 11.2 percent for countries with no quotas. Electoral systems are important as they can afford different opportunities to implement temporary special measures to increase the representation of women.
• Political parties are important. They remain the gatekeepers to political office. Some parties support women by enhancing their capacity to run for election, providing campaign funding, or promoting their candidacies on lists of candidates.

The greatest successes have been registered when a variety of factors work in harmony. Political will by leaders, sustained women's movements and the continued emphasis placed on achieving gender equality by the international community are important ingredients. Political parties play an ever-increasing role in the management of parliamentary politics and putting into practice the principle of equality. ( http://www.ipu.org/pdf/publications/wmn06-e.pdf) Julie Ballington Program Officer for Partnership between Men and Women, Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU)