AGORA - iKNOW Politics Virtual Discussion: Women's Caucuses

AGORA, the Portal for Parliamentary Development and iKNOW Politics, the International Knowledge Network of Women in Politics, are co-hosting a Virtual Discussion on Women's Caucuses that will run from May 9th through May 20th. Through this discussion participants can share, exchange and obtain experiences and lessons learned. At the closing of the debate, a summary with the key points and comments will be made available for reference on the AGORA and iKNOW Politics portals.

On iKNOW Politics this discussion will take place in a Discussion Circle, available here.  

All are warmly invited to participate and share their views on this subject.  

Launch Message

Women's caucuses have been created with the aim of increasing women's impact on political decisions. It is generally believed that the building of cross-party caucuses can help provide the peer support necessary to promote a gender equality legislative and policy agenda. 

While the number of parliaments with a women's caucus is growing fast, there are also researchers and politicians who doubt the effectiveness of women's caucuses to influence political decision-making.

This Virtual Discussion will focus on the following sets of questions:

Are women's caucuses effective? Have they made an impact on decision-making, and are there best practices that can be shared and learned from? If not, what alternatives exist?

Framing this debate in the wider development context, are there indications that women's caucuses have had a tangible impact on national development in their respective countries?  Have women's caucuses contributed to development-sensitive legislation, or positively influenced development indicators? In short, have national development strategies benefited from the presence of these groups?