Crisis response

In 2013, Alice Wahome ran in her third attempt to win the hotly-contested Kandara constituency parliamentary seat in Murang’a County, Central Kenya. As is typical of rural politics, the field was male-dominated, with the stakes being high for all candidates but more especially so for Wahome — no woman had ever occupied the Kandara constituency parliamentary seat.

In rewarding Tokyo’s first female governor, Yuriko Koike, with a second term on Sunday, voters endorsed her highly visible leadership as the sprawling metropolis has avoided the kind of spiraling death toll from the coronavirus seen in other world capitals.

But a recent resurgence in cases in Tokyo has made clear that her challenge is far from over.

The appointment of only four senior female Cabinet Ministers is a “missed opportunity” directly linked to the lack of women candidates put forward in winnable seats across the State, women’s rights groups have said.

Women still face systemic barriers in politics, said Ciairín de Buis, chief executive of Women for Election: “It is disappointing that once again a Government has missed the opportunity to appoint a balanced Cabinet.

The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Pacific Office in Fiji has launched a new webinar series, to highlight and promote parliamentary innovation and response to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.