Background Document - Danish Institute for Parties and Democracy

In fact training and capacity building are seen as crucial interventions that would
provide an enabling environment for women to enter and assume leadership in local
politics.
In the e-discussion conducted by iKNOWPolitics in 2009 on women in local politics,
women from Burkina and Ivory Coast including an aspirant from the latter wrote
in about the importance of support and capacity building for women to enter local
politics. The aspirant from Ivory Coast wrote:
“Women are not enough confident they are not prepared for the job. Many of
them refuse to run for election. In order to increase women number in election at
the local level the following measure are required: Strengthen women ability to do
politics; promote best practices in local governance; promote women candidacy
thanks to coaching and experience sharing; and the reinforcement of women’s
leadership.”
Women are also more likely to participate in devolved systems of local governments
which have more autonomy, financial freedom, hold regular elections and are
generally more open to change rather than ones strictly controlled by the central government.
In fact decentralisation is seen as a key to women’s participation in local
level politics.
Contributors from Senegal and Mali made this point in the e-discussions on women
in local governance in August 2009.
For instance Fatou Diop from Senegal made the case for decentralization as a key
tenet in improving local governance mechanisms by making them accessible to women.
“The decentralization process is one of the main measures undertaken for improving
local governance. In order to have solid local institutions, more women involvement
is required. In villages and small towns, women are doing all the work
and they are also the first victims. In order to increase the number of women in
local governance quota is required in the case of Senegal.”
Mariam Diallo makes the point that decentralization can also result in enhancing
the capacity of local communities through knowledge transfer:
“In Mali we have 8 regions, 40 circles, and 287 administrative districts. There is
three level of decentralized authority: Regions are divided into circles, circles into
commune and communes into quarters. The main goal of the decentralization process
is to share the central power with the local entities. Not only will the power be
conveying but also the skills and knowledge for an effective decentralization.”
A proportional representation system can result in more women being elected
and there also appears to be some evidence that local elections based on the ward system
create more visibility for women, and give them a better chance to win elections
as well as keeping campaign costs low.
Introduction of quota systems for women in local government in some parts of
the world such including South Asia has resulted in significant increases in the number
of women being elected and employed. However the discussion around the quota
system may need to be qualified a little further.
The summary of the e-discussions on women in local governments in 2009 cites
the example of Jordan as a case in point where the use of quotas in 2007 led to over
300 women being elected as municipal council members. At the time of the discussion
in 2009, some 35 countries had quotas at the constitutional level or legislative
quotas at the subnational level, quotas at the party level for electoral candidates (pro-
WOMEN IN POLITICS DANISH INSTITUTE FOR PARTIES AND DEMOCRACY PAGE 27