Advocacy & Lobbying
Earlier this month, in celebration of International Women’s Day, the National Democratic Institute premiered an interview we conducted with one of our partners, Honorable Neema Lugangira, a champion of legal reform and women’s empowerment in Tanzania. Hon. Lugangira has served as a Member of Parliament (MP) in Tanzania since 2020 and is Chair of the Women in Politics (WiP) parliamentary group that NDI conducts joint advocacy with on women’s issues. She is the founder of Omuka Hub, a non-governmental organization, and one of NDI’s legal reform advocacy partners who works to accelerate digital inclusion in Tanzania. Through Omuka Hub, Hon. Lugangira has championed access to digital resources in underserved areas and strengthened the online visibility of women in politics. As a parliamentarian with an extensive background in policy advocacy and legislative reform, she has prioritized promoting gender equality in politics in Tanzania and across Africa. In 2024, Hon. Lugangira, together with the WiP group, played a pivotal role in advocating for the adoption of inclusive amendments to three electoral laws. Her work with WiP has resulted in new protections within Tanzanian elections law that penalize Violence Against Women in Elections (VAW-E), making Tanzania the first country in the African continent to do so. We sat down with Hon. Lugangira to discuss this change, her insights into the legal reform process, and what this means for women in Tanzania.
“To get to where Tanzania is at the moment [you need to] first understand your landscape. You need to have a thorough review of your existing laws… and where Tanzania is at the moment.” - Honorable Neema Lugangira
Despite constituting half of the population as of the 2022 Census, women in Tanzania are significantly underrepresented in public office and political party leadership at both the local and national levels. In 2020, only 26 women were elected to parliament out of 264 seats, and women comprised only nine percent of candidates for president, parliament, and councilorships.
Read here the full article published by the National Democratic Institute on 2 April 2024.
Image source: National Democratic Institute
In the ongoing war in Sudan, there is an insufficiently narrated tragedy—the plight of women who are paying a hefty price for this war and are simultaneously being kept from the table in the discussion of how this war can end. International Women's Month coincides with a difficult period in Sudan, where women are facing various forms of violence and violations, including rape, sexual assault, kidnapping and the loss of providers. This is all occurring in a context marked by extreme poverty and lack of medical facilities, especially those related to sexual and reproductive health.
The war that erupted on April 15, 2023 between the Sudanese army and Rapid Support Forces has led to a humanitarian crisis that UN reports have ranked among the largest globally—stating that nearly 8 million people have been displaced due to the war, 88 percent of whom are women and children. There are more than 4 million women and girls at risk of sexual assaults, and alarming reports have appeared of women being sold in markets in Sudan.
The painful irony is that Sudanese women were at the forefront of the Sudanese revolution that overthrew Omar al-Bashir's government on April 11, 2019. Despite their contributions and sacrifices, they found themselves marginalized and excluded from decision-making positions in the subsequent transitional government. The promises of allocating 40 percent of the Sudanese parliament’s seats for women remained unfulfilled. When the actual figures emerged, they reflected a failure to meet Sudanese women's aspirations and acknowledge their vital role in society and the political process.
Read here the full article published by the Washington Institute on 25 March 2024.
Image source: Washington Institute
Every March 8, millions of women mobilize in Latin America to be part of the agenda of International Women's Day. The problems experienced by women and gender diverse people in the region are not few: since 2018, 14 of the 25 countries with the most femicides are in Latin America, 27.4 percent of women in the region experience multidimensional poverty, and nearly 8,400 women die each year in the region due to complications in pregnancy, childbirth and the postpartum period. According the United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean, in Latin America one in two women does not have a job and one in four does not have their own income. In Central America, less than 40 percent of women have a bank account.
On this day, women respond to and highlight the problems that affect them in their own contexts, causing each town and each Latin American city to have its own complaints and requests.
Here are some Latin American cities that filled their streets on International Women's Day.
Read here the full article published by Global Voices on 21 March 2024.
Image source: Global Voices
Excellencies,
Strengthening democratic institutions and processes is key for accelerating the achievement of gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls. Indeed, democracy is the political system best equipped to achieve these goals. Equally, gender equality is essential for democracy, as well as for sustainable development more broadly.
According to International IDEA's Global State of Democracy Indices, levels of gender equality are higher in democracies than in non-democratic regimes. The reasons for this are many. Relative to other forms of government, democracies provide more equal access to political power; produce more inclusive, participatory, and representative decision-making; and develop more effective, accountable, and transparent institutions, with lower levels of corruption. All of these elements are critical for the empowerment of women and girls. Data from International IDEA Global State of Democracy reports have shown that only 3% of democracies perform very poorly on gender equality measures. For authoritarian regimes, the proportion is 50%. And since we know that the achievement of not just SDG5 but the SDGs overall depends upon further progress on gender equality, this means that democracy drastically improves the likelihood of success in achieving the 2030 Agenda.
Click here to read and hear the full state published by International IDEA on 19 March 2024.
On International Women’s Day, March 8, women in major cities across Pakistan, including Islamabad, Lahore, Karachi and Multan, took to the streets for the seventh consecutive year to advocate for gender equality, justice, and safety against patriarchal norms.
Aurat March is a feminist collective that unites to speak out against discrimination and inequality. The march was attended by hundreds of women, girls, transgender people, and male allies across Pakistan.
The theme of the Aurat March was the liberation and support of Palestine, with each chapter also presenting manifestos on topics related to gender equality.
Unrest in the Islamabad March
The women marchers of Islamabad’s Aurat March carried placards with messages of solidarity with oppressed communities, such as the apartheid happening in Gaza and the forced disappearances and extrajudicial killings in Balochistan, Pakistan.
Placards also highlighted women's desire to walk home safely without the fear of being harassed. This is a very common concern for women in Pakistan, as they often face sexual harassment and violence in public spaces.
Throughout the march, the women chanted slogans about Gaza, showing their support for Gaza, where over 25,000 women and children have tragically lost their lives in Israel's conflict with Gaza since October 7, 2023. The atmosphere was charged with emotion and determination as the women raised their voices for justice and equality.
However, the march faced challenges from the police and authorities.
Read here the full article published by Global Voices on 19 March 2024.
Image source: Global Voices
Many advocates, gender activists, development agencies and civil society organisations have been making a strong case for the inclusion of women in high level politics and empowering them economically. A clear case is ongoing advocacy for political parties in Ghana to nominate women as the running mates of the former President John Dramani Mahama and Vice President Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia.
Last week John Mahama retained Prof Naana Opoku Agyeman as part of the affirmative action to give voice to women in politics. The electorate is now waiting for Dr. Bawumia to announce his running mate. So far, the discussions in the media space suggest that the Vice President may opt for a male candidate. But in politics anything can change. In the 2020 elections, John Mahama settled for Prof. Naana Opoku-Agyeman, the first female to become Vice Chancellor of a university in Ghana. Whether the female professor’s inclusion provided any gains for John Mahama’s bid to become president again remains debatable. However, there is enough evidence to demonstrate that when women are empowered political and economically, they become a voice for the vulnerable. Therefore, investing in agriculture and supporting women to thrive in agriculture value chain. This is an agenda for the African Union members to implement.
Click here to read the full article published by the Business & Financial Times on 18 March 2024.
Image source: Business & Financial Times
A core component of the three-year regional OECD-MENA Transition Fund project on “Promoting women’s participation in parliaments and policy-making,” is conducting a country-based, peer-reviewed assessment of the existing opportunities and current challenges faced by women candidates. The purpose of this report is to present the findings of this assessment, with a view to identifying targeted policy recommendations that can be implemented to accelerate progress towards gender equality and women’s political empowerment in Jordan. Recommendations are based on findings of the assessment and international good practices.
This report presents both the enabling factors and obstacles in the election of more women to parliament and municipal councils. A second assessment analysed the parliament’s workplace operations, processes, internal procedures and policy-frameworks through a gender lens. The report reviews Jordan’s current legal framework, including adherence to international standards, and assesses the existence and effectiveness of the country’s institutions in promoting women’s political participation. Legal, institutional and social norms that serve as barriers to women’s political participation are highlighted in chapters 1, 2 and 4.
Click here to access the report.
Violence against women politicians is increasingly recognized as an issue that undermines women’s presence in politics. Latin America has been at the vanguard of this global discussion. In 2012, Bolivia became the only country in the world to criminalize “political violence and harassment against women.” Several other countries have similar legislation in the works. What explains the emergence of these bill proposals? This article argues that the creation of these bills is the result of three processes: activism at the local level used international norms to propose an innovative solution to a problem; women politicians and “femocrats” worked within the state apparatus to overcome resistance; and international actors worked to foster connections among activists and politicians across the region. In this process, international norms have been transformed, with important implications for women’s political representation.
Click here to access the article.
Violence against women and girls (VAWG) in digital contexts is not a new phenomenon, however it has rapidly escalated in the shadows of the COVID-19 pandemic as women’s lives shifted online for work, education, access to services, and social activities. While there continue to be significant gaps in data, one global report suggests that prevalence ranges from 16 per cent to 58 per cent.
Online VAWG occurs as part of a continuum that is often connected to offline violence and can encompass many forms including sexual harassment, stalking, zoom bombing, and these continue to multiply in a context of rapidly expanding digitalization. The impact of online VAWG can be as harmful as offline violence with negative effects on the health and wellbeing of women and girls as well as serious economic, social and political impacts.
This paper provides a brief overview of the existing data and evidence on online and technology facilitated VAWG, outlines some of the key developments, gaps, challenges, and emerging promising practices, and makes recommendations to be considered by governments, international organizations, civil society organizations, and the technology sector.
Click here to access the report.
- Gender equality has suffered since the pandemic began.
- It will now take an estimated 135.6 years to close the worldwide gender gap between men and women.
- However, progress is being made in areas including science and politics.
- Improving paternity policies and representation of women will help.
There is still a huge amount of work to do to achieve gender equality around the world.
The time it will take to close the gender gap grew by 36 years in just 12 months, according to the World Economic Forum’s Global Gender Gap Report 2021. This means it will now take an estimated 135.6 years for men and women to reach parity, according to the report, which assesses areas including economic participation and opportunity, educational attainment, health and political empowerment.
Click here to read the full article published by The World Economic Forum on 3 March 2022.
This report and accompanying policy brief is intended to trigger a UN ‘rethink’ about women’s participation in transitional justice at both the policy and programme levels.
Fundamentally, ‘meaningful’ women’s participation in transitional justice does not only involve women being present—instead, it involves the convergence of several elements and manifests when women from diverse backgrounds: have the ability to enter; are present; possess self-efficacy; deploy their agency; and exert influence over transitional justice processes.
It recommends several adjustments for UN policy and programming—both in general and in relation to the updating of the UN Secretary-General’s 2010 Guidance Note on transitional justice—to better promote women’s meaningful participation in transitional justice.
Click here to access the report.
This report assesses women’s access to justice and women’s political participation in parliament, local councils and civil society organisations in Colombia. It examines existing legal, political and institutional frameworks in order to better understand successes, challenges and implementation gaps in the government’s pursuit of access to justice and gender equality. The report also offers examples of different approaches in OECD member and partner countries to support Colombia in closing gender gaps. Based on this analysis, the report proposes actionable solutions to help Colombia design and deliver policies that effectively promote women’s political participation and access to justice, including for survivors of gender based violence.
Click here to download the full report published by the OECD on 11 July 2020.