Regional Strategy for attaining Higher Representation of Women in Decision Making Positions in IGAD Member States by 2015

Regional IGAD Conference on HRWDMNovember 27-30 2010

BT Costantinos, PhD

Contents

Part I: Synopsis of research findings Part II: The Strategy Introduction…1 Locus of the strategy … 2 Advocacy Strategies …3 Women’s Empowerment Strategies…11 Legislative Strategy…23

Part III: Mechanism and Plan of Action

Challenges to and international mechanisms for women’s empowerment

Challenges: Politics is still a male domain that many women have found unwelcoming or even hostile

Opportunities: IGAD nations have acceded to international and regional policy frameworks on gender equality and women’s empowerment, effectively binding them to adhering to obligations, duties, and responsibilities they entail. These include Beijing Platform for Action (BPFA), Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against

Women (CEDAW), UN Security Council Resolution 1325, International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights on

the Rights of Women in Africa

Addis Ababa Declaration: Recommendations for Women’s Representation

Governments should expeditiously strengthen the national machinery for enhancing HRWDM and support comprehensive voter and civic education;

Political parties: Adopt clear and transparent rules to ensure internal democracy, with specific attention to gender equality;

Electoral commissions should purposively (as opposed to reactively) give due consideration to issues of gender equality and empowerment of women within the whole electoral process;

Parliament: Ensure that the institutions and practices of parliament are gender-sensitive;

International actors should support gender-sensitive voter education programmes and ensure women’s full participation in their design and dissemination;

Civil society actors should develop gender-sensitive civic education messages that highlight the capacities of women as candidates and political leaders;

Locus of the strategy Governments, CSOs, and political parties

promote capacity of women to enable them to be represented effectively in party politics, and

women parliamentary caucuses encourage and support women to participate in all activities of parties at all levels;

Necessary trajectories to involve women parliamentary caucuses and CSOs to urge political parties and governments to ensure gender parity within their structures;

Practical Mechanisms for the Strategy

IGAD should initiate a regional process, involving governments and other stakeholders, to create a regional GEWE strategy.

A national strategy should be nationally-owned and led, but conform to the core values of the regional strategy and should be aligned in a mutually-constructive manner.

Enhancing the capacity of the IGAD Secretariat Gender Unit.

IGAD synergises HRWDM strategy with its economic, peace and security, environmental and infrastructural programmes

Advocacy strategies

An advocacy strategy is a critical activity in enhancing HRWDM as it ensures resource mobilisation and the execution of programmes. While strategies vary according to local circumstances, the principles include:

Promotion of public awareness;Respect, protection, and fulfilment of women’s

rights; Compassion and active opposition to all forms of

exclusion;Intensified efforts to enhance local capacity and

resources of existing national and local entities, and the mobilisation of new and non-traditional methods;

The vision often returns to a single point: gender inequality is everybody’s concern. Hence, efforts are premised on a shared aim to mobilise all stakeholders in a scaled up, coordinated, effective and efficient strategy.

Results The results are premised on the removal

behavioural, financial information, and systemic barriers to HRWDM.

The results are: Increased numbers of women in decision making

positions; Impact mitigation on customs that prohibit HRWDM; sustainable, multi-sectoral and decentralised effort to

enhance women’s capacity to achieving decision-making positions;

Behaviour Change Generating and using Technical Information Ensuring Adequate Resources and Intuitional Capacity Developed standards, guidelines and institutionalised

best practices Empowered women form networks and contribute to

planning political campaigns at all levels

Principles, vision, goal and objectives

The advocacy vision provides a unifying idea for the planning and articulation of goals, objectives, strategies, and tactics. A clear vision, based on principles, enhances the ability of

advocates to work together and guides important decisions by advocates.

The vision statement articulates the most fundamental rationale for the activities and the types of change advocates would like to bring about.

The advocacy goal elaborates on the vision by adding important information on what and why. Internally, it helps to keep advocates focused on their purposes; Externally, it is for community groups, media, audiences and

partners; Good advocacy objectives

provide specific, measurable steps towards reaching the desired goals.

Good objectives are SMART: Specific and Simple, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant (to the vision and goal) and Time-referenced;

Purpose: public dialogue, expression of commitment, fundraising or promoting legislative

amendments

RationaleAdvocacy OrientationLeadership and group dynamics Publicity methodsVarious means of IEC conveying the messageDealing with weaknesses and threats Local resource (human and financial)

mobilisation Advocacy TARGETS depend on the political and

social environment of the countryPolitical and opinion leaders The media, CSOs, religious leaders, business and

trade unions, Academia, HRWDM researchers & Young women Public Figures and Celebrities

Key Advocacy Messages and Tactics

IGAD Countries, with limited resources, have built the necessary political momentum for GEWE

Advocacy must convince policy makers. Facts are essential to effective advocacy: Make them relevant, strong, positive; Keep them simple, short, and accurate; Make them politically and culturally sensitive, Write them down !!!

Categorising policy makers and opinion leaders based On their history of involvement in HRWDM issues; On identifying the best ‘lever’ for obtaining the support;

Delivering strong talk to build support; Exercising interpersonal influence

Women’s empowerment strategies

Leadership and education for critical consciousness Knowledgeable and strong women’s leadership; Education for Democratic Citizenship; Cultural and social changes -- social accountability:

Citizen Report Cards and Community Score Cards;

HRWDM Capacity development: should not be solely equated with training, education,

and technology transfer; Attention should be shifted to the environment in which

people apply their skills an environment conducive to mobilising social groups and motivating individuals as basis requirements for promoting

capacity utilisation and retention;

Capacity building Capacity building as both a means and an end

for HRWDM; HRWDM capacity assessment:

what and how ??? Institutional Formation Institutional Function Institutional Condition - effectiveness

Resource mobilisation The Need For Clarity Of Objectives, Popular Participation Broad Strategies For Financial

Self Reliance

1. belief in the cause, 2. putting the fund

raising and information in one package,

3. be professional - know the subject, evaluate, accept and back new ideas,

4. use volunteers, 5. be flexible - fit

fund raising to the donor [whatever the value of donation],

6. seize opportunities with enthusiasm,

7. do not be frightened - always tell the truth" [about your success and failure];

KM, CoP and Mainstreaming

Knowledge Management Systems Communities of Practice Mainstreaming HRWDM

Clearly defined and focused entry point National Policies or Strategic Frameworks should be

used as the frame of reference for HRWDM (Constitution)

Necessitates that advocacy, sensitization, and capacity building

The internal domain or workplace, where staff are addressed; and the external domain where potential partners are addressed;

Developing strategic partnerships;

Strategic approaches to mainstreaming HRWDM

Mainstreaming HRWDM operational Plans

Sustained Implementation of HRWDM Activities

Managing strategic HRWDM Information

HRWDM local level decentralised management

HRWDM Institutional Arrangements

Rights-based enquiry and situation analysis in the HRWDM

HRWDM Strategic analysis – and Strategic Plans

National Strategic Framework – Gender, Human Security, Human Development,

VAW, HIV/AIDS, Governance…

HRWDM Evaluation

Strong systematic campaigns must be launched with a communication strategy developed: public relations to enlighten society, social marketing in selling ideas and ‘cultures’ and enabling negotiations, and advocacy.

Legislative Strategy

GEWE friendly acts of parliaments Seek gender balance in their membership at all levels and

create incentives for women to be election administrators; Develop a policy on gender aimed at enhancing women’s

representation in the election process, train staff to be sensitive to gender issues;

Ensure the secrecy and independence of the vote; Collect sex-disaggregated statistics on the election process in

order to evaluate women’s representation and identify aspects of the process that can be improved;

Electoral transformation and registration: electoral quality, quantity, and meaning

Election administration, observation, and monitoring

1. Developing effective voter education systems,

2. Instituting simple procedures for registration,

3. Ensuring easy access to polling stations, convenient polling hours,

4. Provide security at polling stations and prevent intimidation,

5. Designing ballots and voting procedures that are clear and simple, making certain each person’s vote is cast secretly,

6. Providing balloting facilities for the illiterate,

7. To the extent possible, election management bodies should collect sex-disaggregated data on all aspects of the electoral process, including voter registration and turnout, in order to identify any discrepancies.

Political Parties’ Strategy and quotas as a means achieving the desired 50/50 share

Quotas: Reserved seats (constitutional and/or legislative) Legal candidate quotas (constitutional and/or legislative) and Political party quotas (voluntary).

While quotas are considered a controversial measure, various arguments have been set forth for quotas as a means to increase the political presence of women

1. Quotas for women do not discriminate, but compensate for actual barriers that prevent women from their fair share of the political seats.

2. Quotas imply that there are several women together in a committee or assembly, thus minimizing the stress often experienced by the token women.

3. Women have the right as citizens to equal representation.

4. Women's experiences are needed in political life.

5. Election is about representation, not educational qualifications.

6. Women are just as qualified as men are, but women's qualifications are downgraded and minimized in a male-dominated political system.

7. It is in fact the political parties that control the nominations, not primarily the voters who decide who gets elected; therefore quotas are not violations of voters' rights.

8. Introducing quotas may cause conflicts, but may be only temporarily.

9. Quotas can contribute to a process of democratisation by making the nomination process more transparent and formalised

Workshop guide Introducing the strategy Plenary sessions

Presentations Discussions Common stand on consensus reached

Breakout sessions Discuss the background document for clarity Discuss the strategy document for your input Discuss and complete Part III of the strategy

Thank You BT Costantinos, PhD

School of Graduate Studies, Department of Management and Public Policy,

College of Management, Information and Economic Sciences, Addis Ababa University

costy@costantinos.netwww.costantinos.net

https://sites.google.com/site/doncosty/home