Women's Leadership

The Deputy Special Representative of the United Nations Secretary-General for West Africa and the Sahel, Ms Giovanie Biha, chaired the first edition of the annual Women's Forum for Peace and Security in West Africa and the Sahel, held on 14 and 15 March in Nouakchott, capital of the Islamic Republic of Mauritania.

Top UN officials on Tuesday gathered with government and civil society representatives to draw attention to the scourge of violence against women worldwide who are involved in politics, which is increasingly seeing women parliamentarians, human rights defenders and electoral observers silenced, and intimidated. 

Constituting one-fifth of parliament, women parliamentarians accounted for nearly 35 per cent of parliamentary agenda during 2021-22 – 38 per cent in the National Assembly and 25 per cent in the Senate.

According to the Annual Women Parliamentarians Performance Report 2022 released by Free and Fair Election Network (Fafen) on the occasion of International Women’s Day, this year’s contribution by women parliamentarians is their highest annual contribution since the 15th National Assembly took oath in 2018.

Katalin Novak, a close ally of Prime Minister Viktor Orban, portrays her election as a victory for women.

The Hungarian parliament has elected Katalin Novak, a close ally of Prime Minister Viktor Orban, as the EU member’s first-ever female president.

Novak, who most recently served as a minister for family policy, portrayed her election on Thursday as a victory for women.

An innovative program to advance female participation in Australian politics is calling for new participants and launching a knowledge hub, sharing leading research, articles and interviews on the eve of International Women’s Day 2022.

The Pathways to Politics Program for Women is a non-partisan initiative aiming to change the face of politics by equipping women with the skills, knowledge, confidence and networks they need to run for elected office and thrive as political leaders.

On International Women’s Day, UNDP and UN Women launched the Gender Justice Platform to leverage their partnership on gender justice. Since 2020, UN Women and UNDP have joined together to enable access to justice for 42,000 individuals. In 14 conflict-affected contexts across Africa and the Middle East, UNDP and UN Women facilitated access to justice services and led advocacy initiatives to support women’s leadership.

The launch of the Gender Justice Platform marks the extension of the scope of the partnership.