LIDERA: Strengthening Women’s Leadership and Political Participation in Honduras

In Honduras, UN Women concluded the first cohort of LIDERA: School for Women in Politics and Democracy, an initiative aimed at strengthening the leadership, communication, and political advocacy capacities of 50 women elected for the first time as mayors, deputy mayors, governors, and councilwomen at the local level. As part of this strategy, the National Commissioner for Human Rights (CONADEH) strengthened the capacities of delegates, achieving nationwide coverage and expanding territorial reach for receiving, investigating, supporting, and following up on complaints related to violence against women in politics. 

^{LIDERA strengthened the leadership, advocacy, and political participation capacities of elected women in Honduras, creating support networks and tools to address political violence and promote a more inclusive democracy. Photo: UN Women/Jennifer Matamoros.} 

Through training and knowledge-sharing spaces, participants strengthened their skills to exercise more effective leadership in their territories and promote agendas that respond to the needs of women and girls in their municipalities, as noted by Lourdes Molina, councilwoman of Chinacla, La Paz: “We need to empower ourselves more in order to understand, defend ourselves, and face challenges when others seek to silence our voices.” The initiative also contributed to making violence against women in politics more visible and addressing it by providing tools to identify, document, and report these cases.

Beyond its training component, LIDERA became a support and peer-learning network, where women leaders from different territories shared experiences, challenges, and strategies for carrying out their roles in traditionally male-dominated environments. This experience demonstrates the model's potential to strengthen women’s political participation, expand access to protection mechanisms, and help build a more inclusive and representative democracy at the local level, creating a multiplier effect as participants replicate knowledge, support other women, and promote new leadership. As Saraí Rivera, Deputy Mayor of Tegucigalpa, expressed: “The empowerment I received through LIDERA makes me feel responsible for empowering other women to participate in politics.” 

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