WUNRN
"One
of the most important achievements of the project is that it has contributed to
greater debate around the issue of women’s political participation at the local
level in the political, academic and media fields."
LATIN
AMERICA WOMEN POLITICIANS CALL FOR A MORE INCLUSIVE DEMOCRACY |
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The
project "Strengthening Governance with a Gender Perspective and the
Political Participation of Women at the Local Level in Latin America",
has contributed to greater debate around the issue of women’s political
participation at the local level in the political, academic and media fields.
This was one of the conclusions at the conference with representatives from
13 Latin American countries in Santo Domingo on 13 February. Representatives from local and national governments, academics and officials from regional organizations in 13 Latin American countries met on 13 February 2009 during a Conference on “Women, Local Power and Democracy: Reflections and Perspectives”, which was held at the Universidad Autónoma de Santo Domingo (UASD). The
event, organized by the United Nations International Research and Training
Institute for the Advancement of Women (UN-INSTRAW), analyzed the
achievements and the challenges in increasing women’s political participation
in local and municipal governments in the light of the results of the
project “Strengthening Governance with a Gender Perspective and the
Political Participation of Women at the Local Level in Latin America,”
implemented by the Institute and financed by the Spanish Agency for
International Cooperation to Development (AECID). One
of the most important achievements of the project is that it has contributed
to greater debate around the issue of women’s political participation at the
local level in the political, academic and media fields. “Prior
to the project’s development, the debate focused only on the national level,
a field in which greater advancement has been made in terms of women’s
participation in decision-making,” explained Yolanda Solana, Project
Coordinator. “The
local perspective presents a series of questions and claims concerning the
causes for women’s low participation in municipal governments. Even
though the local level seems to be closer to women, gender-based political
violence and the pressure that they must face in order to meet community,
family and labour obligations hinder their participation,” concluded Solana. Recent
data indicate that although women represent half of the population and in
some cases up to 40% of political representatives at national level
(Argentina, Inter-Parliamentary Union), mayoral offices in Latin America that
are headed by women do not exceed 8% (UN-INSTRAW). “Now
we possess more information on the causes of the low representation of women
in local politics and we have initiated efforts to strengthen the capacity of
municipal women and women mayors,” stated Carolina Taborga, Acting Director
of UN-INSTRAW. “We
have also given support to the training and strengthening of several networks
of women ministers/women politicians in municipalities/women mayors in the
region and have encouraged governments to include gender issues in their
agendas,” concluded Taborga.
In the field of political learning, almost 200 women participated in workshops on information technologies and municipal administration from a gender perspective. The most highlighted experience of this phase of the project is the Pathways to Learning, during which participants visited municipal governments which were outstanding for their gender perspective in Costa Rica, El Salvador, Ecuador and Bolivia. During this training, in which almost 40 participants were involved, women exchanged knowledge and analyzed the situation of women in local governments with the objective of proposing concrete actions for the empowerment of municipal women and for the promotion of public policies in the administration of municipalities with a gender perspective. As
a result of the project a significant number of strategic alliances were
established that will contribute to strengthen the political incidence of
women, such as the Network of Municipal Women of Costa Rica, the agreement
between Bolivia and Ecuador to fight political violence against women, the
agreement between UN-INSTRAW, the Women’s Ministry of the Dominican Republic
and PROGRESSIO, as well as a collaboration agreement with the Council of
Central American Ministers for Women Affairs (COMMCA), amongst others. “These
alliances are fundamental in order to facilitate the exchange of experiences,
lessons learned and good practices among women representatives at the
regional, national and local levels, as well as amongst women of different
countries,” emphasized Taborga. UN-INSTRAW
highlights the importance of continuing to strengthen State institutions so
that they may take into account the needs and priorities of women and the
formulation of public policies with a gender perspective. The Institute also
calls for the collection and analysis of sex-disaggregated data at the local
political level due to the lack of such data in most Latin American
countries. For
more information on the project, please contact Martha
Barriga |
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