Women's Leadership
The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) has called for accelerated political, legal and institutional reforms across member states to increase women’s representation in governance, saying the region must move beyond declarations to concrete action if it is to achieve gender parity in political leadership.
The call was made on Thursday at the opening of the West Africa Women’s Political Leadership Forum, themed “Accelerating Gender Parity in Political Leadership in West Africa: From Commitment to Action,” where regional leaders, ministers, parliamentarians, development partners and civil society organisations agreed that existing commitments must now translate into measurable reforms that remove barriers preventing women from participating fully in politics.
The two-day forum is expected to adopt the Abuja Regional Action Plan, providing a roadmap for member states to implement reforms aimed at increasing women’s political participation and achieving ECOWAS’ gender parity objectives by 2035.
Vice-President of the ECOWAS Commission, Damtien Tchintchibidja, said the initiative was conceived as part of the legacy of ECOWAS’ 50th anniversary celebration to ensure that the next phase of regional integration reflects the aspirations and talents of all citizens.
She said the adoption of the Presidential Declaration on Gender Parity in Political Representation and the Pact for the Future of Regional Integration demonstrated the determination of West African leaders to pursue a more inclusive, people-centred regional agenda.
From 1 July 2026, for the first time in its 137-year history, the Secretariat of the Inter-Parliamentary Union will be managed by a woman.
Anda Filip of Romania was elected the tenth Secretary General of the IPU at the 152nd IPU Assembly in Istanbul, becoming the first woman to hold the post since the Organization was founded in 1889. She will succeed Martin Chungong of Cameroon, whose third and final term ends on 30 June 2026.
It is a historic first, as well as a moment that carries a deeper meaning for an organization built around parliaments, democracy and representation.
For decades, the IPU has worked with parliaments to advance women’s equal participation in political life, as well as tracking progress and documenting setbacks. Today, it continues to produce the authoritative data on women in parliament, advocate for reforms and call for political institutions to better represent the people they serve.
Anda Filip’s election marks an important milestone in the IPU’s own institutional journey and reflects a wider shift in the leadership of international organizations.
The Badienou Gokh – which means, “community godmothers” or “neighbourhood mentors” – occupy a unique place in Senegalese communities. Known for their proximity and empathy, these trusted godmothers support women and girls who have experienced or are experiencing violence and abuse. They help survivors with the difficult work of speaking out, which can often be risky.
Today, as Secretary General of the Badienou Gokh (pronounced bah-dyen-oo gohk) of Tambacounda, Tacko Sall’s home is often one of the first places where women and girls turn to for support, guidance, and protection. She has become a reassuring presence, a trusted listener, and a first point of support.
In a region where more than a quarter of women experience physical, sexual, psychological, or economic violence, her role often begins where formal justice systems and support services have not reached. She can step inside homes, hear the whispered conversations, and witness the hesitation that comes before seeking help.
For Tacko Sall, this commitment has become a daily responsibility. She raises awareness, provides guidance, refers survivors to health, justice, and social protection services, and mobilizes local actors whenever cases of violence are reported. Through the support of Global Affairs Canada and the KAARANGUE Project – which means “protect” in Wolof and is implemented by UN Women – this community-based work has been strengthened through training and tools that enable more structured support for survivors.
But protecting women also requires resources.
“Sometimes, cases are referred to us, and we do not even have enough money to cover transportation costs to reach them”, Tacko Sall explains.
As 2026 began, amid proliferating armed conflicts and the escalating climate crisis around the world, more than 239 million people were identified as being in urgent need of humanitarian assistance and protection. Conflicts are not only becoming more protracted – they are also growing deadlier, as international humanitarian and human rights law is blatantly disregarded and attacks on civilian infrastructure become more frequent.
Today’s global crises are also interlinked: three in four people who are forcibly displaced live in countries facing high-to-extreme exposure to climate-related hazards and weather-related disasters, according to a UNHCR report on extreme weather and repeated displacement.
Crises are not gender-neutral. Women and girls are disproportionately affected due to pre-existing gender inequalities and discriminatory social norms, which limit their access to humanitarian aid, services, resources, and decision-making power.
It is not surprising that the 30-year review of progress on the landmark Beijing Declaration and Platform of Action found that progress for women and girls is slowest in conflict and crisis-affected countries. The review raised the alarm about how ongoing trends may further thwart progress.
Morocco — Political participation is not tied to will and competence alone; it also requires the ability to bear the cost of electoral campaigns, travel, communication, and continuous engagement in party work. Although women currently hold 96 of 395 seats in the House of Representatives — the highest level of women's representation in the history of Morocco's legislative institution — a number of women active in the field believe that higher representation does not necessarily mean equal opportunity, given the persistence of economic challenges that can hinder women's access to positions of decision-making.
Amid the debate over representation, another question arises concerning what precedes access to elected institutions: do all women have equal opportunities to enter the world of politics, or have financial resources become an unspoken factor determining who can continue and who is forced to step back?
The experience of Halima El Fekri, deputy head of the Sidi Othman district in Casablanca, reflects part of this reality. For her, the hardest thing she faced over more than two decades of political work was not convincing society that women are capable of leadership, but bearing the financial cost that political practice demands.
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As Kazakhstan prepares to elect its new Kurultai, women are becoming increasingly visible in political institutions across Central Asia. Their presence, however, still falls sharply as offices acquire greater executive, territorial and economic authority.
Kazakhstan’s political parties have selected their candidates for the country’s first election to the new unicameral Kurultai, scheduled for 23 August. Seven parties submitted lists before nominations closed on 13 July, and the Central Election Commission has begun registering them ahead of the formal campaign.
The election will help determine the shape of Kazakhstan’s new political system following the entry into force of its new constitution. It also raises a more specific question: what place will women occupy in the redesigned parliament?
Kazakhstan requires at least 30 percent of candidates on each party list to belong collectively to three categories: women, people aged 35 or under, and persons with disabilities. The same combined threshold applies when seats are distributed. The quota therefore guarantees representation for the three categories together, but no fixed proportion specifically for women.
All seven parties say their submitted lists meet the legal requirement. But the combined nature of the quota makes the number of women selected – and their position within the lists – particularly important.
Quotas designed to bring gender parity to parliaments have an overall positive impact on support for female political leadership – especially after women members of parliament take office. Furthermore, there is no evidence of a backlash among men.
That’s what I found in a study published in October 2025 looking at the impact of gender-parity quotas in Namibia, in sub-Saharan Africa.
In 2013, Namibia’s dominant political party, the South West Africa People’s Organization, or SWAPO, quietly rewrote its internal rules. From that point forward, every spot on its parliamentary candidate list would alternate between a man and a woman.
Most prior research on measures to encourage gender parity in politics focuses on national or legislative policies rather than voluntary party quotas. Namibia offers an unusually “clean” case in that SWAPO is electorally dominant and did not face grassroots pressure to adopt its quota policy. That makes it possible to isolate the effects of the quota itself, rather than any preexisting trend in public attitudes.
This data story looks at the economic empowerment of women over the past decade and a half across selected Middle East and North Africa (MENA) countries (Algeria, Bahrain, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Liban, Libya, Morocco, Oman, Palestine*, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Tunisia, and the United Arab Emirates). It sets out a few stylised facts on how education, labour markets, laws, and public opinion shape women’s opportunities**. It also looks at how economic realities interact with cultural norms and legal structures across the region. Most importantly, it asks a central question: are women agents of change in their own economic and political trajectories, and how is that visible in the data that follows?
This issue goes beyond human rights or social and economic concerns and directly affects the region’s political and security landscape. As women gain greater opportunities to work, earn and participate in public life, they strengthen the resilience of families and communities, which supports broader social stability and – as research has consistently shown – contributes to higher levels of security and peace.
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Despite notable normative advances, after 25 years, the effectiveness of the Women, Peace and Security Agenda is threatened by a fragmented global panorama and faces significant challenges and setbacks.
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In the new context, the following stand out: (a) the increased frequency and complexity of armed conflicts; (b) the rise of ‘anti-gender’ movements and the erosion of women’s rights in many regions; (c) geopolitical divisions, which make it difficult to prioritise comprehensive solutions to conflicts; (d) the Agenda’s funding crisis; (e) the crisis of multilateralism; (f) the reduced representation of women as negotiators and mediators; and (g) the loss of policy coherence and its transformative potential due to the instrumentalisation of the Agenda, often used for geopolitical purposes.
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For the Agenda to remain relevant, it is crucial that it evolves and adapts to the new global situation and updates its principles with an understanding of the local contexts in which it must be applied.
In 2000, the United Nations Security Council recognized that women’s leadership and gender equality are crucial for international peace and security, and the past 25 years have seen increased attention to this matter. However, the rise in global conflict in recent years risks erasing the modest progress made in previous decades.
Every year, the UN Secretary-General presents an annual report to the Security Council detailing the status of the women, peace and security agenda in the world. This year’s report contains more than one hundred facts and figures on issues ranging from women’s participation in peace processes, peace operations, or politics in conflict-affected countries, to the impact of conflict on women and girls, including atrocities that target them disproportionately, like reproductive violence, gender-based persecution, or conflict-related sexual violence.
This infographic, prepared by UN Women, highlights a few of these facts and figures, along with recommendations to change course.
Abstract
Advocates of women’s rights in many Muslim countries have long demanded the formation of state-level institutional structures that promote and protect women’s rights, in turn contributing to democratization and development. The design and impact of such structures, collectively referred to as national women’s machineries (NWMs), has, however, varied across contexts. This paper advocates analysis of the actors and factors that impact the design, influence, and function of NWMs, with an emphasis on the role of state gender ideology. It argues that NWMs, as formal state institutions, are never conceptualized and formed in a vacuum, with various competing interests impacting their design and function especially in non-democratic and unrepresentative contexts. Through a case study of NWMs in the Islamic Republic of Iran, it shows that despite efforts for cabinet-level women’s rights policy-making since the early 1990s, throughout the past decades such gains have faced backlash and reversal as a result of conservative ideological shifts, at times rendering such institutions illegitimate in the eyes of the Iranian feminist movement.
The act was a forceful symbol of her support for the movement and condemnation of the Iranian regime. “We cannot remain silent against the killing of women and girls like Mahsa (Jina Amini) or Armita (Geravand) who were killed merely because of their hijab,” she says.
Other prominent women, including celebrities, had removed their hijabs in public acts of defiance against Iran’s mandatory hijab laws during the protests. But Vasmaghi’s unveiling held particular significance. Until then, her public persona was that of a deeply pious scholar who consistently observed the hijab in a strict sense without showing any hair—even while lecturing in Europe on her expertise in Islamic fiqh (jurisprudence). What Vasmaghi clearly opposed was not veiling itself but its compulsory nature: Just months before her public unveiling, she had drafted an open letter to the Supreme Leader challenging the Islamic justification for forcing women to cover their hair. In it, she asked pointedly: “How can the Islamic Republic justify such strict enforcement of mandatory veiling when even the Quran does not explicitly require women to cover their hair?