NDI - Womens Political Participation

Mexican Men and Women Work Together to Elect More Women to Office

fgalleto — Thu, 06 May 2010 21:03:29 +0000

"Why women, why now?" was the question posed to over 300 participants, both male and female, participating in a week-long series of training sessions across Mexico aimed at giving women candidates the skills and tools they need to get elected to office.

The answers — that democracy works best when women have an equal voice in the process and that upcoming local elections are a great opportunity to elect more women — were emphasized throughout the events as the women learned about message development, targeting women and young voters, and recruiting and keeping campaign volunteers.

Though gender quotas have led to an increase in the number of women running for and elected to office in Mexico in recent years, women hold only 5 percent of municipal and state elected positions. They frequently receive ballot placement that lessens their chances of winning, and they receive less public financing and fewer opportunities for training.

In collaboration with the Fox Center and Mexico's three major political parties — the National Action Party (PAN), the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) and the Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD) — NDI is working to help women gain campaign skills that are already familiar to their male counterparts.

The training kicked off at the Fox Center in San Francisco del Rincón on April 15 with a speech by former President Vicente Fox. Fox offered words of encouragement to the participants, saying that women in Mexico today have risen to the challenge of being more active in politics, the economy and social organizations.

"I believe Mexico has been changing rapidly on this issue. The 2000 election changed many things that had been limited or prohibited before, particularly for women," said Fox, whose victory in that election broke the country's tradition of one-party rule. "I believe that nowadays women have taken the challenge. Women are active in politics, in the economy, civil organizations, but they need programs like this to keep opening doors."

Trainers emphasized strategic aspects of running a campaign, such as message development, targeting messages to specific demographics, scheduling and time management. They also addressed some of the "soft" skills, often familiar to male candidates, such as projecting confidence through voice and presence, negotiating and debating with opponents, and tips for surviving a campaign.

"After these workshops you're aware that you are not alone. You belong to a broad network of women around the world struggling to hold decision-making positions in politics," Cathy Allen, CEO of the Seattle-based Connections Group, told the participants.

The trainers who came from outside Mexico included Allen and Roula Attar of NDI's Jordan office. They joined Julian Quibell, Keila Gonzalez and Rocio Alvarez from NDI's office in Mexico.

This year, 15 states in Mexico will hold elections for governors, local legislators and mayors. Many attendees were women who are either already running for office or strongly considering it.

Pictured above: Vicente Fox meets participants

Published May 7, 2010

Kosovo Fellow to Connect Women Leaders at Local, National Levels

fgalleto — Thu, 03 May 2012 22:27:43 +0000

As a young Kosovar Albanian subjected to Slobodan Milosevic’s dictatorship, Aferdita Syla, like tens of thousands of other young people, faced discrimination in education and virtually every other aspect of her young life. Her fundamental rights of citizenship were wholly denied. She had little in the way of realizing her dreams to live a normal life in a normal country.

Syla poses with Albright. “You can’t imagine how it is to meet the person who was there at the right time to make the right decisions to save your nation,” she said.

Milosevic’s rule provoked open conflict in 1999, and an estimated 800,000 Kosovar Albanians were forcibly and violently expelled by Belgrade, fleeing to neighboring countries, where they lived as refugees. At 24, Syla became one of them, escaping to Macedonia.

“I never thought that I’d be able to go back home again,” she said. But she did go back home – in the summer of 1999 after international intervention led to Kosovo’s break from Serbia.

Syla began working with the International Rescue Committee seeking to help people rebuild their lives. Later, she ran a local nongovernmental organization, Gjilan Youth Center, that helped Kosovo’s young people focus on their futures in the aftermath of the turmoil. In 2005 she joined the Kosovo government serving as a political advisor and a liaison with local and international organizations. And in 2008, Syla joined NDI, focusing on women’s issues in a country where women were disproportionally impacted by the decade-long conflict.

“This is the past,” Syla explained. “And I am recounting it so that we can learn from it. The past belongs to history; we must not let it interfere with our present and political future.”

Today, from NDI’s office in Pristina, Kosovo’s capital, she manages the Informal Group of Women Parliamentarians, a caucus of women lawmakers seeking to improve the participation of women in all of the country’s institutions. Although there is a 30 percent quota for women in parliament, and Kosovo’s president is a woman, there are no women political party leaders or women mayors.

Syla and Amb. Constance Morella

Because Kosovo is just beginning to build its political institutions, having declared independence in 2008, Syla said now is the time to ingrain gender equality in the Kosovar political tradition. “We want to have real equality,” she said. “Everything is fresh. This is actually to our advantage. That’s why we need to act now: because we are just starting.”

As part of her work with the women’s caucus, Syla developed a proposal to link women parliamentarians with women leaders in local government. She believed that connecting women at these different levels of government would help them build support for better public policy at the grassroots level. Ultimately, Syla hoped the project would improve the image of women politicians and inspire young women to enter politics and see themselves as future leaders of their country.

With that idea she applied for NDI’s Andi Parhamovich Fellowship – and she won. The annual award brings one woman from an NDI in-country office or partner organization to Washington, D.C., for three months to conduct research for a project geared toward building democracy and increasing women’s political participation in her own country. The fellowship is named for Andi Parhamovich, an NDI staff member who was killed in Iraq in 2007.

When the fellowship was first established, NDI Chairman Madeleine K. Albright said, “It is named in her honor, but it was Andi who brought honor to the name and work of NDI, through her dedication and courage.”

For Syla, Albright was instrumental in ensuring Kosovo’s sovereignty and security. When Syla traveled to Washington, D.C., for the fellowship, she was able to meet her hero.

“You can’t imagine how it is to meet the person who was there at the right time to make the right decisions to save your nation,” she said.

In Washington, Syla is researching women’s political participation initiatives in the U.S. and other countries. She is also meeting with women’s groups that focus on increasing women’s political participation at all levels, such as the bipartisan Women Legislators of Maryland, to learn how they function as a group and what mechanisms they use for outreach. The six-month pilot program that results from Syla’s efforts will target five of Kosovo’s 37 municipalities and connect women across party and ethnic lines to focus on local issues.

Building a democracy is a long-term process, Syla said, but, slowly, and by increasing the level of women’s political participation, democracy in Kosovo is becoming a more tangible reality.

Read more:

Published May 4, 2012

National Democratic Institute Schools Female Politicians | April 30, 2012

fgalleto — Tue, 01 May 2012 18:03:20 +0000

Awoko | Link to story »

Female aspirants for the November 17th General Elections drawn from all four Districts of Bo, Moyamba, Pujehun and Bonthe have benefited from a two day training under the sponsorship of the National Democratic Institute.

The training, which was held from Monday April 23rd to Tuesday 24TH at the Sahara Hotel in Bo, was aimed at meaningful participation of women in National, Local and Community leadership role, has become an important focus of global development policy.

Link to story »

On a Long Road for Women in Politics | March 30, 2012

fgalleto — Tue, 01 May 2012 17:36:11 +0000

National Journal | Link to story »

When Winnie Byanyima was growing up in Uganda, she listened to the conversations her mother held with groups of women who would meet in her home to discuss politics in a country where women had very little say.

Today, after serving three terms in the Ugandan Parliament, leading the first parliamentary women’s caucus, and being selected for her current position as director of the United Nations Development Program Gender Team, Byanyima finds that too little has changed for women in politics around the world.

Link to story »

DNC Boss Frets Over Shrinking Female Vote | March 26, 2012

fgalleto — Tue, 01 May 2012 17:23:35 +0000

Washington Examiner | Link to story »

Led by their populist leader, Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Fla., the Democratic National Committee this month opened a new Women’s Initiative to support female candidates and women surrogate speakers for all Democrat office-seekers who rely on women voters to win. “Women’s voices are crucial for our democracy,” says Wasserman Schultz.

She has been working overtime to get women back to the voting booths and their numbers expanded in Congress. In speeches, like one before the National Democratic Institute last week, she uses scary numbers to shock women to join her cause. For example, she notes that since Congress was created in the 1700s, just 277 women have served compared to 12,000 men. “At this rate we will not reach parity in Congress for 500 years,” she says.

Link to story »

Women's History Month: 5 Ways You Can Make a Difference this March | March 22, 2012

fgalleto — Tue, 01 May 2012 17:13:23 +0000

Huffington Post | Link to story »

March is Women's History Month, so there will be lots of events and celebrations celebrating women. There are so many inspiring stories of great work, often against overwhelming odds, to break down barriers to women's full participation in society, whether those barriers were created by social and cultural norms, laws or just plain criminal behavior. The people behind these heroic acts are showcased at events like the U.S. State Department's Women of Courage event, the Newsweek/Daily Beast Women of the World Summit, and lunches held by the National Democratic Institute and the International Republican Institute.

Link to story »

Kyrgyzstan: Women Leadership Advocates Win NDI Albright Grant | March 19, 2012

fgalleto — Tue, 01 May 2012 16:18:51 +0000

Women News Network | Link to story »

o support greater engagement for women’s leadership inside the expanding political terrain in Kyrgyzstan, the NDI – National Democratic Institute will be hosting a luncheon to celebrate the Albright grant award for supporting democracy in action to bring women into the process.

With celebrity studded hosts that include PBS News Hour moderator Judy Woodruff, former United States Secretary of State Madeline K. Albright, current Ambassador-at-Large for Global Women’s Issues at the State Department Melanne Verveer and U.S. Congresswoman Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL), the award ceremony will highlight the work of women in Kyrgyzstan, a region that is seldom covered by the western media.

Link to story »

Why Women Are a Foreign Policy Issue

ntekeei — Mon, 23 Apr 2012 16:03:34 +0000

Source:

Foreign Policy

Article Link:

Published Date:

04/23/2012

"Please don't see us as victims, but look to us as the leaders we are," an Afghan woman activist said to Melanne Verveer, the U.S. State Department's ambassador at large for global women's issues. Verveer writes in this Foreign Policy op-ed that it is an absolute for economic prosperity and global peace and security that the world promotes the status of women.

"It's no coincidence that those countries that deny women basic human rights are some of the poorest and least stable. According to the World Economic Forum, countries where men and women are closer to enjoying equal rights are far more economically competitive than those where the gender gap has left women and girls with limited or no access to medical care, education, elected office, and the marketplace."

Loi No. 010-2009/An Portant Fixation De Quotas Aux Elections Legislatives Et Aux Elections Municipales Au Burkina Faso

fgalleto — Mon, 16 Apr 2012 21:26:52 +0000

Author:

National Democratic Institute

Publisher:

National Democratic Institute

Published Date:

04/16/2009

Resource Type:

Brochure

Language:

French, Moore, Jula, Fulfulde, Gulimancema

French

Attachment	Size
Read the brochure	12.07 MB

Political Parties in Sierra Leone Pledge Open, Safe, Inclusive Elections

fgalleto — Thu, 12 Apr 2012 16:14:05 +0000

All of Sierra Leone’s eight registered political parties have signed an “Open and Safe Elections Pledge” to promote an electoral atmosphere free of violence and intimidation and to encourage women to participate in the election process. The country is slated to have presidential, parliamentary and local elections on Nov. 17.

The pledge is in part a response to interparty violence, which had begun to cast a shadow on the Nov. 17 polls. Last September, youth from the ruling All People’s Congress (APC) threw stones at the presidential candidate of a major opposition party, the Sierra Leone People’s Party (SLPP). SLPP youth responded by torching APC party offices. The violence spread to include an assault on a local APC chairwoman, and young supporters of both parties attacked each other during a January by-election. Tensions between the parties remain high.

Sulaiman Bai Sesay, secretary general of the United Democratic Movement (UDM), signs the pledge. UDM is one of eight signatories to the pledge.

The fear that violence will escalate during the campaign season has kept some citizens, particularly women, from running for office. But parties hope to change that with the pledge, which was developed by a coalition of civil society organizations with input from the political parties and support from NDI.

Alhaji Mohamed Warisay, the national coordinator of Democracy Sierra Leone, one of the groups in the coalition that drafted the pledge, applauded the political party representatives for signing the pledge and urged them to include women, youth and persons with disabilities in candidate lists and as full partners in the political process.

Candidates are usually chosen by party leaders, and women are often passed over. Though they make up 52 percent of the population, women serve in less than 20 percent of elected posts. They have a hard time competing in politics because of poor access to campaign funding, traditional thinking that women should not hold public office, and harassment and intimidation by male opponents. Young people and the disabled face similar barriers. By signing the pledge, the parties agree to “empower our party’s women, youth and disabled candidates for parliament and local council with campaign, transportation and financial assistance.”

Patrick Taylor, president of the Sierra Leone Union on Disability Issues, lauded the pledge, which commits parties to pass within a year a policy promoting the political participation of people with disabilities. He urged the parties to create a disability wing to work toward the full participation of people with disabilities in parties and politics.

The pledge has provided a code of conduct that civil society groups can use as they monitor how political parties have performed regarding women, youth and the disabled during the campaign period. The coalition members will meet with party leaders periodically to assess adherence to the pledge and recommend ways to improve compliance.

To spread awareness of the pledge among the general public, coalition members have been discussing it on national radio, and they presented each party with a laminated copy of the pledge to hang in their offices.

Related:

Published April 12, 2012

Rep. Wasserman Schultz Says Women’s Voices Are Crucial to Democracy at NDI’s Madeleine K. Albright Awards Luncheon

rrunyan — Mon, 26 Mar 2012 13:51:52 +0000

Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL) delivered the keynote address at a March 22 luncheon honoring the Women’s Discussion Club of Kyrgyzstan, the 2012 recipient of the Madeleine K. Albright Grant awarded by NDI.

In her address, Wasserman Schultz challenged women to take the lead. “Too often, women don’t speak up,” Wasserman Schultz said. “But women's voices are crucial to democracy.”

The luncheon, hosted by NDI Chairman Albright, at the Ritz Carlton also featured remarks from Melanne Verveer, the State Department’s ambassador-at-large for global women’s issues.

“When women are discriminated against in the political arena, their experiences, talents and perspectives are shut out of policy decisions,” Verveer said. “Our democracies are worse off for it and the prospects for a better world are certainly short changed.”

Verveer presented the Albright grant to Dinara Aitkulova, chair of the Women’s Discussion Club of Kyrgyzstan, and introduced a short documentary detailing the work of the club.

The Discussion Club, launched with NDI support in 2006, was one of the first groups in Kyrgyzstan to bring together women from diverse backgrounds and political parties to defend the rights and interests of women nationwide. The women will use the award’s $25,000 grant to form a coalition of political party women’s wings to advocate on behalf of women’s rights within the legislature and their respective parties.

Watch the video from the luncheon

“The Women’s Discussion Group from Kyrgyzstan is precisely the kind of innovative and grassroots organization that can help to make real democracy possible,” Albright said. “When women have the power to make their own economic and social choices – the cycle of poverty can be broken, environmental awareness increases, rates of sexually-transmitted disease decline, and constructive values are more likely to be passed on to the young.”

The award luncheon was preceded by a panel discussion on women in politics featuring Albright; Winnie Byanyima, director of the gender team at the United Nations Development Programme; Donald Steinberg, deputy administrator at the U.S. Agency for International Development; and Anders B. Johnsson, secretary general of the Inter-Parliamentary Union. NDI Vice-President Shari Bryan moderated the panel.

The panelists shared their experiences that have demonstrated both the progress women have gained in politics and the room for growth. They agreed that political parties can be a vehicle for equal participation as long as the parties are internally democratic.

"We were talking to women, telling them to work harder, bang on more doors,” said Byanyima, a former member of parliament in Uganda who led its women’s caucus. “Now we're asking parties to open those doors."

At the event, NDI and the UNDP released a joint publication entitled "Empowering Women for Stronger Political Parties." The guide provides strategies for those who work in and with political parties to increase women's political participation as candidates, party members, leaders and office holders.

Related:

In Kosovo, Women Reach Beyond ‘Soft’ Issues in the Media

fgalleto — Tue, 20 Mar 2012 15:00:33 +0000

When the Kosovar government released its ambassadorial nominations last fall, there was a glaring omission — no women were on the list. A group of women members of parliament (MPs) protested at a news conference, which led the government to increase the number of women nominees to one-third.

But when the national television station reported on the press conference, it played traditional wedding music over what the women were saying, making it look more like a party and distracting from the serious message the women MPs were trying to get across.

The Women’s Caucus hosted the event ‘Women's Portrayal in the Media.’

This is just one example of how Kosovar women are often portrayed by the media. To address the problem, the Kosovo Women’s Caucus partnered with NDI to bring together journalists and politicians to discuss the depiction of women – especially women politicians — in the media.

“We all know the power the media has,” said Alma Lama, board member of the Women’s Caucus. “Media is the message and the messenger. It has a big impact on politics, the national debate, and above all the lives and mindset of the people who consume it.”

Those in attendance, including editors, reporters, media directors, EU representatives and MPs, discussed some of the challenges women face with media coverage, such as being seen as experts only on “women's issues.”

“A woman is able to speak on energy, the economy, justice, foreign policy, agriculture, transportation or health,” said Teuta Sahatqija, chair of the caucus. But in the current environment, women are “only invited [on television] when talking about soft issues.”

At the end of the meeting, the caucus and journalists agreed that the media would take steps to cover women and men more equally in all coverage — not just women in power, but also average women citizens. Participants asked the media representatives to work to maintain a gender balance both on screen and off by nurturing and promoting women journalists in equal numbers to men. Participants also called on members of civil society organizations to consider including media monitoring as part of their activities to hold the media accountable for unfair or unequal treatment of women and men in the press.

MPs didn’t blame only the media, however, and called on their political parties to suggest women for interviews on ‘hard’ issues. “If I only blame the media that I was not in the debate, I am wrong,” said Safete Hadergjonaj, chair of the budget committee in the Kosovo Assembly and member of the Democratic Party of Kosovo. “I have to blame my party that has not given me the opportunity to be part of televised debates on the budget or the economy.”

The meeting was covered widely by the media, including in Kosovo’s biggest daily newspaper and in a number of television and Internet news stories.

NDI's Kosovo Assembly Strengthening Program is funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development.

Related:

Published March 20, 2012

City Hall Still a Reach for Women in Mexico | March 7, 2012

fgalleto — Mon, 19 Mar 2012 19:05:18 +0000

New York Times | Link to story »

The small-town party bosses told her to forget it. Her husband, too, scoffed at the idea as preposterous. And deep down, María Teresa Domínguez had her own doubts.

Could she run for mayor of Cuernavaca, the capital of Morelos State and a haven for Mexico City weekenders? Was there any chance she, a woman in a city whose institutions have long been dominated by men, could win? Hadn’t her mother always told her that she belonged at home?

Link to story »

Women Still Trapped Below Glass Ceiling of Party Politics | March 1, 2012

fgalleto — Mon, 19 Mar 2012 18:39:20 +0000

IPS | Link to story »

The right of women to participate in political life is guaranteed by several international conventions, but transforming an abstract right into a reality requires hard work on the ground, says a new study released here.

Published jointly by the U.N. Development Programme (UNDP) and the National Democratic Institute (NDI) for International Affairs, the 118-page report points out that although 40 to 50 percent of members of political parties globally are women, only about 10 percent hold positions of leadership.

Link to story »

Sierra Leone: National Democratic Institute Calls for Women, Disabled Participation | Feb. 24, 2012

fgalleto — Mon, 19 Mar 2012 17:38:31 +0000

AllAfrica | Link to story »

The National Democratic Institute (NDI) yesterday urged political parties to involve women, youth and persons with disability in the forthcoming presidential, parliamentary and local council elections slated for November 17 this year.

The political parties that signed to the memorandum titled 'open and safe elections pledge' include the Peace and Liberation Party (PLP), the Citizens' Democratic Party (CDP), United Democratic Movement (UDM), the ruling All People's Congress (APC), the main opposition Sierra Leone People's Party (SLPP), National Democratic Alliance (NDA), People's Movement for Democratic Change (PMDC) and the Revolutionary United Front Party (RUFP).

Link to story »