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Other Elected Officials

Women’s presence in other positions and legislatures remains low. While timely data and statistics on women in executive positions at a global level are not readily available, information from 2005 showed women holding only 14 percent of government posts. Women’s participation at the local level is another important field of entry into politics. Experience shows that women are quite active at the local level and are making an impact, although global comparative figures are not widely available.

From the Library

Support for Local Government: Policies, Empowerment and Gender Mainstreaming - DGTTF Southern-Sudan

The Comprehensive Peace Agreement signed in 2005 created the new autonomous Government of Southern Sudan [GoSS]. The GoSS was required to establish in-stitutions and processes of governance including at the local level, with no pre-vious experience in government and in an environment characterized by the tribal nature of its traditional social or-ganization, identity and culture.

This document details the DGTTF projects launched in South-Sudan, including Project II: Strategy for mainstreaming gender em-powerment in local government.  

Parliamentary Oversight of Gender Equality

This handbook is designed to assist parliamentarians in carrying out their oversight role on gender by developing a better understanding of the concept, providing a summary of the budget cycle process, discussing gender budgeting, and examining the gender dimensions of parliamentary committees, as well as suggestions for changing attitudes as a strategy for achieving gender equality.

The Constituent Assembly of Nepal: An Agenda for Women

Nepal is making a new constitution, which will be a culmination of the People's Movement, and thus must be based on the aspirations of the people of Nepal. However gender-friendly Constitution may seem, it will not automatically lead to an increase in gender equality, but the process of constitution making creates an opportunity for women to make some significant progress towards the realisation of their rights. Women should not miss this chance.

There is significant number of women members of the Constituent Assembly. Some of these members are women with great knowledge and experience and understanding of the possibilities that the Constituent Assembly opens up for women. Some of the others may have a less clear idea of what a constitution is and how they can, through this process; contribute to the improvement of the position of women. The purpose of this paper is to explore the issues that women members of the Constituent Assembly, and those who in the broader society will be supporting them and hoping to work through them, will need to address in order to achieve a good constitution for the women of Nepal. It is not a paper of answers - it is more an agenda.

Gender-Sensitizing Commonwealth Parliaments

In February and March 2001 the CPA, with the assistance of the CPA Malaysia Branch and the approval of the CPA Executive Committee, arranged a Study Group in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, on Gender-Sensitizing Commonwealth Parliaments. The aims of the Study Group were set out as:

1. To share analyses, experiences and good practices of Standing Orders in Commonwealth Parliaments;
2. To identify concrete strategies and mechanisms to make Commonwealth Parliaments as gender-sensitive as possible;
3. To prioritize key areas for action, based on the recommendations of the Study Group.
 
This report Clerk of the House of Representatives of Trinidad and Tobago and Rapporteur to the Group, identifies the issues discussed by the Study Group and presents to the reader the Group’s recommendations which will assist Parliaments and their Members to understand better the difficulties faced by women Parliamentarians. In a wider perspective, it is the Association’s hope that the extensive commentary and recommendations for future action will inform many of the current debates in national and sub-national Parliaments, both within and outside the Commonwealth, and have a substantial positive impact on the way in which Parliaments conduct their business.

Marching Ahead: A Profile Book of Women Constituent Assembly Members (Nepal)

The women of Nepal are strong, articulate and capable leaders. The constituent Assembly members selected and profiled in this book  demonstrate to all women and men that leadership arises in all segments of society, all backgrounds, regions, ethnicities, castes and political parties. Leadership and potential knows no one area or one particular type of woman.

The women interviewed in the pages that follow were selected to serve as an inspiration to all women and as examples of the different paths each of them took to become a member of the Constituent Assembly. These women exemplify all women in Nepal and their individual struggles to contribute to their families and their nation. Many of the stories are of historic struggle, often against unbelievable odds. They should serve as an example to all that each person can become involved in government and politics in order to help all women and the people of Nepal, because that is what each of these women is now doing - helping the people of Nepal.

Women, Politics and Quotas in Southeast Europe

This report shows that while quotas are certainly important for giving women better chances to enter politics, women still face meaningful obstacles in making their contribution substantive and meaningful. Beyond just increasing the number of women in office, there is the issue of supporting them to represent the interests of a gender equality agenda and a gender equality constituency. The focus of future advocacy and lobbying needs to be supporting the meaningful representation of a range of women’s interests in the decision-making structures of the countries of SEE.

Online Courses on Decentralization and Governance

The UNPAN Online Training Centre delivers courses on various topics in public administration. The main objective of the UNPAN Training Centre is to increase the opportunities for government officials from all over the world to access training materials on e-government. UNPAN online training courses are available to anyone with Internet access and are provided free of charge. UNPAN on-line training courses are available in English, French, Ukrainian, Russian and Arabic. For further information concerning these courses, including information about course availability, registration, enrolment and pre-requisites please click on the URL below.

eLearning Course on Effective Electoral Assistance

The European Commission (EC), United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and International Institute of Democracy and Electoral Assistance (International IDEA) are pleased to announce the arrival of the pioneer eLearning Course on Effective Electoral Assistance. The Course has been developed within the Train4Dev initiative and in collaboration with International Organization for Migration (IOM), Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA), Organization for American States (OAS) and the Spanish Ministry of Foreign Affiars. The overarching objective of the eLearning Course on Effective Electoral Assistance is to make the electoral assistance community to deliver more effective assistance in line with the main principles informing the Paris Declaration (2005) and the Accra Agenda for Action (2008) regards ownership, alignment, harmonization, results and accountability. Development of the capacities of electoral assistance providers (multilateral and bilateral agencies and international organizations) as well those receiving assistance (national electoral management bodies and other electoral stakeholders) is vital in improving assistance effectiveness. The eLearning Course is developed on the basis of the face-to-face Joint EC-UNDP-IDEA Joint Training on Effective Electoral Assistance. The first training of this type was organized in September 2006 in Brussels and since then the training has developed tremendously in terms of the audience, the experts contributing and the curriculum. To find further details please visit E-Learning Portal.

Empowering Parliaments through the Use of ICTs

The study, published by the United Nations Development Programme, has developed an analytical framework that focuses on the three core functions of Parliaments - legislation, representation and oversight - and establishes links between them. It provides concrete examples of the importance of ICTs for the empowerment and increased credibility of parliamentary institutions.

Assessing Legislation - A manual for legislators

It aims at providing the legislators with the necessary tools that would help them in assessing legislations and proposing them to promote social and democratic change in their countries. The guide highlights and discusses several important topics such as the role of the legislator in facilitating socio-political and economic change, the legislative theory, and the methodology for problem solving, in addition to assessing the technical sufficiency for the proposed law.