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.
A Practical Guide to Constitution Building provides an essential foundation for understanding constitutions and constitution building. Full of world examples of ground-breaking agreements and innovative provisions adopted during processes of constitutional change, the Guide offers a wide range of examples of how constitutions develop and how their development can establish and entrench democratic values. Beyond comparative examples, the Guide contains in-depth analysis of key components of constitutions and the forces of change that shape them.
Chapter 2 includes a section on "Principles related to gender" and Chapter 3 includes a section on "The rights of women".
The members of the European Parliament will vote on 17 January on who should be their president for the next 30 months. Although the Parliament is fond of speaking about democracy, its internal procedures are not transparent, and women are still largely absent from its leading positions.
Currently women hold 35% of the seats in the EP. The European Parliament had had 13 president, and only two of those have been women.
Diana Wallis has argued as part of her campaign that the European Parliament needs to secure gender balance in its internal leadership positions as well as among the MEPs.
To read the complete article please visit www.womenlobby.org.
As we wind down from 2011 I take a few moments to reflect and look back at not just the significant events of this year but what it portends for the years to come. From the role of women in mobilizing action to what led to widespread uprising against established regimes in North Africa to the awarding of nobel peace prize to Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, Leymah Gbowee of Liberia; and Tawakkol Karman of Yemen women have been in news through the year.
We have also seen a renewed focus on discourses that emphasize the role of technologies in securing a range of public goods including facilitating civic engagement and social participation, and providing more efficient access to government services while enabling a more participatory form of democratic involvement. In a report in May this year, the UN special rapporteur declared Internet had “become an indispensable tool for realizing a range of human rights.” The role of women though lauded for the ease of use of social-technologies for furthering their involvement has been surrounded by doubts and questions around continuing the engagement as their countries move into the next phase.
The role of women in 2011 also presents a good starting point for an understanding of the conditions that makes a moment transformational. Transformative moments, come in personal life as much as in political life. They rely on reconfigurations of the assumptions of what is common knowledge and how this common knowledge is translated into known-knowns by the interactions on the web. That is to say, this year we saw as loudly and clearly as possible, women not only sounded the call that brought people to the streets in the middle east but were adept at using technology in sounding this call.Thereby reconfiguring the assumption of what was considered common knowledge about women in the middle east and women and technology. The shattering of this common knowledge was then followed by the “new” known-knowns on the web of “Arab women as revolutionary”.
However in my opinion the power of this newly acquired understanding of known-knowns to shape contentious gender politics is only one of the numerous important factors that is needed to effect significant change in domestic politics. Both the interaction frequency (on the web) and closeness of relationship (of the actors on the web) are characteristics which influence the strength of ties created on the web and thereby determine the power and influence of these known-knowns to impact change. As has been witnessed in the subsequent move to electoral processes in Egypt and Tunisia where realization that overthrowing dictators was easier than overturning the pervasive supremacy of men was apparent in the absence of women in the Constitutional Amendment Committee. This also speaks to the short shelf life of known-knowns of the web and avoiding mistaking information for influence in domestic decision making.
Democratization takes place within a social, economic and historical context and does not necessarily entail a democratization of power relations in society at large, particularly between men and women. This of course has direct implications on the role that women can play. The inherent difficulties of building effective institutions for enabling equal democratic participation by all requires a move from mass mobilization to organizational capacities during transition. This is one of the many hurdles that women continue to face in seeking a seat at the democratic table.
However, putting the metaphorical ‘women’s right genie’ back in the bottle is no longer an option. The power of women in public spaces has never been more visually captured or vividly experienced by the world before as during the Arab spring. This year was an epochal period of activism which was built up because of this generation’s advances in education and professions while embracing the ability of Internet to communicate, organize and publicize everywhere, instantaneously. The future for women in public spaces can be best summed up in the words of Larbi Ben M’Hidi in the Battle of Algiers, “It’s hard enough to start a revolution, even harder to sustain it, and hardest of all to win it. But it’s only afterwards, once we’ve won, that the real difficulties begin.”
Piyoo Kochar
(The opinions expressed here are my own and do not necessarily reflect the views of current, past or future employers)
Background:
The International Knowledge Network of Women in Politics (iKNOW Politics) is a joint Project between UNDP, UN Women, IDEA, IPU and NDI. iKNOW Politics, is designed to increase the number and effectiveness of women in political life by utilizing a technology enabled forum to provide access to resources, expertise, dialogue, and knowledge creation on women’s political participation.
Despite some encouraging data and statistics on women’s participation in politics, women still lack access to political leadership opportunities and resources at local, national and regional levels. In order to provide a mechanism to share best practices on women’s political participation and leadership, UNDP, UN Women, NDI, IPU, and IDEA established a global knowledge network for women in politics (iKNOW Politics). iKNOW Politics brings together women involved in politics around the world in order to gain access to valuable resources and advisory services, share interests and experiences, participate in training and development, network and collaborate on issues of interest. Network members have access to a cadre of experts and practitioners that can advise candidates and elected officials on how to develop and implement successful campaign and lobbying strategies with the goal of getting more women involved in politics.
The use of Information and Communications Technology (ICT) for Development can play a catalytic role in the achievement of key development goals. By providing innovative solutions to existing traditional challenges and gaps, ICTs can be strategically deployed to tackle some of the most burning issues on a large scale and at relatively low cost per beneficiary. However, an exclusive focus on the so-called “digital divide” will not help advance this agenda. iKNOW Politics bridges this gap through the online network connecting members in 4 languages and providing a host of resources and features to facilitate global knowledge creation on supporting political participation.
| Location : | Homebased |
| Application Deadline : | 10-Jan-12 |
| Additional Category | Democratic Governance |
| Type of Contract : | Individual Contract |
| Post Level : | International Consultant |
| Languages Required : | Arabic English French Spanish |
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Starting Date : (date when the selected candidate is expected to start) |
16-Jan-2012 |
| Duration of Initial Contract : | 6 months |
Duties and Responsibilities:
Under the supervision of iKNOW Politics Project Manager, the consultant will identify the resources from library and online platform to develop the network for supporting women in politics.
Specific Tasks - The consultant is expected to undertake the following tasks:
Competencies:
Required Skills and Experience:
Education:
Experience:
Language:
TO APPLY PLEASE CLICK HERE.
Women are increasingly powerful in Bulgaria.
Today, one-third of company owners and top managers in Bulgaria are women. According to the (male) minister of economy, women under 30 years old make up about half of those positions. In the last five years, two women - who are also the two Bulgarian EU Commissioners - have been the most popular politicians in the county.
It's true that women make up only 23 per cent of Bulgaria's parliament - a higher percentage than in the UK - but they chair 40 per cent of the committees in parliament. It appears that once men are elected, they realise quickly who is up to the task. It's the same with the mayors - most of the small-town mayors are men, but the head of their mayors' association is a woman. The list goes on and on.
Read more in Al Jazeera, published 14. December
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. SQUARE - Brussels Meeting Centre
The European Gender Summit invites stakeholders from all sectors and disciplines active in the European innovation system to attend. Speakers at the summit will discuss the latest research, projects and initiatives on gender and innovation, including the preliminary results of the Public Consultation on the Future of Gender and Innovation in Europe.
The consultation, which received over 300 responses, was launched by genSET in response to the EC Green Paper “From Challenges to Opportunities: Towards a Common Strategic Framework for EU Research and Innovation Funding”. The consultation aims to further understanding of how Europe can benefit from more effective mainstreaming of the gender dimension in research, innovation and in the scientific systems.
Fore more information please visit www.gender-summit.eu
While gender equality ratios have improved in 85 percent of countries over the past six years, economic participation and political empowerment for women has failed to match the steady progress,says a new report by the World Economic Forum.The report, "Global Gender Gap" 2011, illustrates the gender-disparity gap between men and women across 135 countries. The report measures the percentage of the gap between men and women across economic, political, educational and health-based criteria.
On average, health and education had the strongest rate of progress, but political empowerment closed a mere 18 percent of the gap.
To read the complete article, please visit www.ipsnews.net
Norway vies with its Nordic neighbors for the title of most gender-egalitarian country in the world. Yet gender equality still seems to stop at the bedroom door, and even here, women who recounted their experiences declined to be identified, fearful still of retribution.
Sexual violence against women in Scandinavia shares characteristics seen in more unequal societies: It is all too common and rarely reported, and those who commit it are even more rarely convicted. Ancient prejudices about male prerogative and modern assumptions about female emancipation conspire to create a thick wall of silence, shame and legal ambiguity.
One in 10 Norwegian women over the age of 15 has been raped, according to the country’s largest shelter organization, the Secretariat of the Shelter Movement. But at least 80 percent of these cases are never brought to official attention and only 10 percent of those that are end in a conviction, the Justice Ministry says.
Read the whole story in New York Times, published 25 Oct
In Europe’s Balkan region, where citizens are trying to overcome ethnic conflict, political polarization and struggling economies in hopes of joining the European Union, women are seizing a larger role in democratization efforts.
Increasingly, they are working together across ethnic and partisan lines to inject new life into stalled politics.
To read the complete article please visit www.ndi.org
Nominations are now being accepted for the UN Public Service Award, a prestigious recognition of national excellence in public service. Category five of the award is specifically for the recognition of gender responsive delivery of public services. These can include innovations in delivering any type of public service to women or equalizing gender differences in access to services. Examples include services such as livelihood, education, health or social protection.
Nominations may be submitted until 31 December 2011 through the Award website at www.unpan.org/unpsa.
Please encourage your national partners to consider applying for this category so that we can highlight their achievements. For more information or questions, please contact ana.lukatela[at]unwomen.org
Three women were poised Friday to take a lead role in Danish politics, pledging that their parties would seek a unitary approach to end a decade of centre-right policymaking.
Helle Thorning-Schmidt, the leader of the Social Democrats, is set to become Denmark's first female prime minster in the government she will be tasked to form following Thursday's general election. Margrethe Vestager of the Social Liberals saw her party jump from nine to 17 seats, a triumph for the 43-year-old party leader. Unity List leader Johanne Schmidt-Nielsen, who took over in 2007, also scored big gains for her party, whose seats in parliament tripled to 12.
As the three women were set to take on prominent political roles, another female leader was on her way out. Pia Kjaersgaard, the leader of the populist Danish People's Party upon which the outgoing centre-right government had relied for support, said her party would benefit from a 'free role' in opposition.
Read more in Sidebar, published 16 September
Since the end of Soviet era quotas, the number of women in Russian politics has declined. What will bring them back?
After Soviet quotas were abolished in the early 1990’s, women disappeared from the politics in Russia; today, a traditional view of gender roles has replaced the Communist ideal of gender equality. According to Olga Kryshtanovskaya, a sociologist who focuses on politics at the Institute of Sociology at the Russian Academy of Sciences, women trying to make it in politics fall into one of two categories: Those who have been placed there by a man who wishes to look at a pretty doll, and those who have achieved their positions by talent and hard work.
Read the whole story in Russia behind the headlines, published 15. Sept
A number of Swiss women's organisations have joined forces in an attempt to convince voters to elect more women to the country's heavily male-dominated parliament.
The "Women build the future" group is calling on all voters to opt for more female candidates in October's federal elections.
Switzerland does not have a long history of women in politics and was one of the last countries in the western world to give women the vote in 1971.
Read the whole article in the Local, published 14. Sept
