Scrutiny of policy, budgets and legislation from a gender perspective depends on the ability and willingness of individuals but also policy and practice in political parties. Women can bring particular values and experience to politics and success in pursuing gender concerns can be galvanised by non-governmental pressure. Our work with women politicians, discusses party constraints, the parliamentary process and role of community organisations in developing gendered anti-poverty programmes.
Report on women's participation project
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Report on women's participation project
2000 Adobe PDF Format |
Scoping Study: Women in the 2010 election Ethiopia
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Women’s education for the 2010 election: a scoping study
March 2009 Microsoft Word Format |
Preparation for elections in Ethiopia
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Training for Federal and Regional Parliamentary Representatives in Ethiopia
October 2008 Microsoft Word Format |
Building Bridges Project 2007
Two reports from our work building links between women in parliament and the community.
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Malawi: Building Bridges final evaluation 07
March 2010 Microsoft Word Format |
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Malawi: Building Bridges newsletter
March 2010 Adobe PDF Format |
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Malawi: Building Bridges newsletter 2
March 2010 Adobe PDF Format |
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Malawi national programme on increasing women's representation
March 2010 Microsoft Word Format |
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A report of training with women election candidates in Mauritius
March 2010 Microsoft Word Format |
Training for local government in Armenia
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Armenia: Women’s political participation
March 2010 Microsoft Word Format |
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Armenia: Women’s political participation, Goris
March 2010 Microsoft Word Format |
Support to women parliamentarians, Ethiopia
A greatly increased number of women parliamentarians were elected to the Federal and Regional Parliaments of Ethiopia in 2005. With funding from the British Government, Active Learning Centre supported women election candidates and has continued to support MPs training, with workshops on media skills, legislative procedures and debating. In October, Federal Parliamentarians attended a training of trainers and in March this year they delivered 14 courses reaching a total of 482 regional parliamentarians drawn from 7 regions. A comprehensive manual for this was prepared by Active Learning Centre including materials on key Ethiopian laws as well as parliamentary procedure and skills work. The Active Learning Centre has completed a scoping study to assess the state of the main political parties with respect to women’s representation and training needs for the next election.
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Women Making a Difference
Rights, democracy and political skills for women in Ethiopia This booklet tells the story of a project: a collaboration between the British Council, Ethiopia; the Active Learning Centre, an NGO based in the UK and the women members of key political parties and NGOs in Ethiopia.
BRITISH COUNCIL, Ethiopia ISBN 0 86355 556 X PDF Format |
Cross party work in Armenia
Only 12 of Armenia’s 131 parliamentarians are women. Despite a quota system which requires at least 15 per cent of all candidates to be female, most women candidates find that their low position on party lists makes election extremely unlikely. In September, on behalf of the British Council and the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe, the Active Learning Centre conducted training, working with two different groups in Yerevan and Goris. The course was enthusiastically received and the latest news suggests that a women’s cross party group has formed to press for an improved quota system and greater representation in the forthcoming national and local elections.
Making history, Rwanda
In September 2008 Rwanda’s Parliament made history when it became the first in the world where women held a majority, (56 per cent) of the seats. This year the Active Learning Centre funded a needs assessment with the women’s caucus at the parliament with a view to developing a training programme to be carried out in 2009 -2010 and to identify future funding.
Ten years of women in the Scottish Parliament
Over the 10 years of the Scottish Parliament women have held the main offices of state including justice, health and education. Policy and legislation has included traditional gender concerns including; domestic violence, family law and prostitution. With the support of our own development funds and the agreement of all former women ministers and deputy ministers in the Scottish Executive from 1999-2007 we have begun the process of recording their experience. We plan a conference to highlight the findings in spring 2010.
Women’s political empowerment and poverty, Malawi, India
Research funded by the DELPHE programme with partners in India and Malawi, will capture the process of political empowerment or disempowerment in key poverty related areas. The plan is to record the views of MPs in a series of participatory workshops, develop tools for analysing power and influence over poverty reduction questions and train politicians to use these tools. A meeting in Calcutta in December heard Indian research on the experience of women in reserved seats in local government (panchayats). Key findings described women’s confidence in campaigning in the community but inexperience and lack of influence within their party over policy development. A meeting in Malawi in May discussed the constraints and opportunities faced by women in the new parliament which has more women than ever before.
Background reports from the DELPHE programme
These reports from India and Malawi explore the current experience of women in politics.
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Local Government in India
Microsoft Word Format |
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Report May 2009 elections Malawi
May 2009 Microsoft Word Format |
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Exploring political empowerment of women Malawi
August 2009 Microsoft Word Format |
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Gender in the May 2009 elections Malawi
May 2009 Microsoft Word Format |
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Malawi national programme on increasing women's representation
Microsoft Word Format |