iKNOW Politics @ 56th Session of CSW (2012)

The 56th Commission on the Status of Women was held from 27 Feb - 9 March 2012 in New York City. Every year the iKNOW Politics team participates at side events and plenaries to capture the stories of women in politics. The Priority theme for this year was "The empowerment of rural women and their role in poverty and hunger eradication, development and current challenges". The Review theme was "Financing for gender equality and the empowerment of women (agreed conclusions from the fifty-second session)". The Emerging issue this session focused on "Engaging young women and men, girls and boys, to advance gender equality".

To see live webcast and any other updates, visit the CSW56 corner on iKNOW Politics.

27^th Feb: US-China panel on Rural Women and Sustainable Development

This side event featured an impressive panel including UN Women Executive Director Michelle Bachelet, US Ambassador at Large for Global Women's Issues Melanne Verveer, China Ambassador to the UN Wang Min, All China Women's Federation VP Weng Xausi, Fiji Minister for Poverty Alleviation, Women and Social Welfare Jiko Loveni, and Uganda grassroots leader Joyce Nangobi. Participants discussed the importance of including rural women in decision making to foster innovation and sustainability in development. They also stressed the importance of multilateral cooperation in advancing rural women and sustainable development. Ms. Bachelet concluded the event by noting that the political and economic gender gap are the biggest barrier for improving sustainable development.

27^th Feb: UNDP and Huairou Commission panel on Women and Corruption

The event featured presentations from Uganda Community Based Assoc for Child Welfare and Union of Women's Producer Cooperatives Las Brumas Nicaragua who had conducted the survey research in their home countries. The research found that poor and rural women are disproportionately impacted by corruption because their needs are high and resources are low. Both panelists recommended training for women on how to combat corruption. The event was packed and comments from the crowd focused on complimentary not competitive efforts to fight corruption by grassroots, national and international bodies. Winnie Byanima of UNDP concluded by saying election corruption silences voice of the poor and this study says women have the agency to fight it but need the resources.

Watch the full video of the "Women and Corruption: Grassroots Experiences and Strategies: side event, posted by the UNDP Gender Team

28^th Feb: Engaging Young Women and Men in Advancing Gender Equality

This side event was hosted by the European Union delegation to the UN. Minister of Equality of Ireland Kathleen Lynch , Portugal Secretary for Parliamentary Affairs & Equality Teresa Morais, European Women's Lobby Board member Viviane Teitelbaum, Minister of Gender Equality of Denmark Manu Sareen, and Ioannis Vrailas of the EU Delegation gave comments on country efforts to target youth via education curriculum and other means to enhance cultural awareness of gender equality. Many panelists commented on the need to have individuals dedicated to gender equality in positions of leadership to spearhead programs and make progress. iKNOW Politics live tweeted this event.

29^th Feb: IPU side event Empowering rural women: What role for parliaments?

IPU president and Speaker of the Moroccan Parliament Abdelwahad Radi, Ms. Bachelet of UN Women, Winnie Byanima of UNDP, Lenita Freidenvall of Stockholm University, and Ms. Fernandez of the Ecuador National Assembly discussed the role of parliaments, legislation, and implementation in advancing gender equality and empowering rural women. Ms. Bachelet made a call to action for parliaments to turn "words into action" to monitor and implement policies to support women. Ms. Byanima highlighted the role of parliament, civil society and political parties working together to empower women and address issues of importance to women.

29^th Feb: NDI and UNDP launch new guide on Empowering Women for Stronger Political Parties: A Good Practices Guide to Promote Women’s Political Participation

iKNOW Politics attended the reception held to launch the new NDI and UNDP publication sharing good practices to promote women's political participation by building strong political parties. "Parties that take women’s political participation seriously benefit from stronger electoral positions, access to new groups of voters and stronger relations with their constituents"

1^st Mar: Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) side event on "Women in politics: latest trends"

iKNOW Politics presented the work of the network in the Middle East and North Africa and particularly reflected on the gains made in perception of women as political actors during the revolution. The project also reflected on the challenges in the insititution building process that women today face, particularly in the face of on-going violence and exclusion. The presenters included: Piyoo Kochar, Project Manager-iKNOW Politics; Roberta Blackman-Woods, Member of Parliament - UK; Maria del Carmen Quintanilla Barba, Member of Parliament - Spain; and the session was chaired by Margaret Mensa Williams, Member of Parliament - Namibia. The discussion was lively and saw women parliamentarians from around the world exchanging ideas and experiences of how they use ICT and manage expectations and communication from social media.

5^th Mar: International IDEA Launch of A Practical Guide to Constitution Building

iKNOW Politics participated in the launch event of IDEA's practical guide to constitution building. the discussion focused on the rapid changes over the past year that have called for democratization in countries across the globe, not least in the West Asia and North Africa (WANA) region. One of the core elements of the advancement of democracy has been the initiation of processes of constitutional change in the world. The presenters were from Egypt, Benin, Sweden and South Africa. The experts presented their experiences with constitution building processes in their countries and answered questions on:

• What are the key constitutional concerns in democratic development and current constitutional processes?
• What can past experiences of constitutional change tell us about current processes? What is the appropriate role for international organizations?
• How can they maximize their capacity to best support democratic constitutional change, while respecting the fundamentally national nature of constitutional change processes?

iKNOW Politics live tweeted the event and webcast it on the network.

6^th Mar: International IDEA Side Event on the Commitment of Political Parties to Gender Equality:

This event was attended by international development actors, women politicians, civil society actors and participants from the CSW. The focus of the discussion was to highlight the case studies that were commission by International IDEA. International IDEA commissioned an analysis of political parties’ policy documents from a gender perspective. The review covered 36 countries in Africa and 3 in Asia. The researchers presented findings from India, Nigeria and Morocco.

The main conclusions of the roundtable included:

• Even though political parties promote women’s political empowerment in their campaign manifestos, these promises are hardly ever met. This is because most political parties have not yet incorporated gender equality into their policy documents. They are lacking in party rules and regulations for identifying, selecting and nominating women candidates for leadership positions within the party and other positions of power and decision making.
• Institutions such as constitutional courts, electoral management bodies and electoral tribunals, as well as political party registrars and monitoring agencies have a significant role to play in enforcing the legal and policy provisions related to political participation and the representation of women.
• Public funding of political parties needs to be linked to the implementation of gender balance and gender-equality policies in parties.The political culture tends to be patriarchal in nature: one where hard power, the ability to attack and defeat opponents through aggressive rhetoric and actions, instead of intelligent arguments and deliberation, the lack of women power brokers and political leaders, all negatively affect the opportunity for women to pursue successful electoral campaigns.
• Data on political parties’ compliance with national and international commitments for gender-equality and women’s empowerment should be publicised so that the electorate can take this information into account when deciding on their electoral choices.

iKNOW Politics live tweeted the event and also web cast the event.

8^th Mar: UNDP & iKNOW Politics joint screening of Film "Women of my country, Women to reckon with"

The role of women in Tunisia has been a controversial issue throughout the transitional period, with some fearful that they would lose precious rights from the previous era, and others arguing for a return to traditional values. The film pays tribute to the women who were at the forefront of the revolution in Tunisia and competed for a seat in the country’s first free and democratic national elections on 23 October 2011. The film highlights the path of 5 Tunisian women from across the political spectrum who share their experience of the campaign, speak out for their rights, express their hopes and fears regarding entering politics, and their aspirations for the future.