UNIFEM Pacific and AusAID launch $7.2m gender equality in political governance program [1]
Tuesday, June 3, 2008 - 05:46. Updated on Tuesday, July 28, 2015 - 15:32.
UNIFEM Pacific in partnership with AusAID is launching a new AUD$7.2 million, five-year, multi-country regional programme to advance gender equality in political governance in the Pacific region.
Pacific Island Countries have fallen behind the rest of the world with the lowest levels of representation of women in parliaments and local governments. The Federated States of Micronesia, Nauru, Palau, Solomon Islands and Tuvalu are among five of the total of eight countries in the world with no women elected or appointed to sit in parliament.
Furthermore, the statistics reveal that except for the short-lived success of women in Fiji's 2002 and 2006 national elections, no substantial advances have been made in women's political representation in the region over the last decade.
Over the past decade, UNIFEM and other development agencies and partners have supported projects to advance women's presence and participation in politics. However, the poor statistics for Pacific Women's political representation and participation are longstanding and enduring. It is now widely acknowledged that a new, more strategic and coordinated approach is needed.
UNIFEM in partnership with AusAID and in consultation with Pacific governments, non government organisations and training and research institutions realise that there are many lessons to be learnt from the advances made in other regions in gender equality in governance in regions and nations.
The programme goes beyond the past program support for women's efforts to run and get elected. The new programme will work broadly across countries and relevant sectors to increase women's understanding of democracy, citizenship and leadership especially at community and local government level; to support the application of democratic principles and accountability of leaders in local organisations, including women's organisations
The programme will also educate women and men on the gains made in other regions through the introduction of temporary special measures to increase women's political representation, including quotas to get more political party endorsement for women and the establishment of reserved seats for women in parliament and systems of local government.
The Programme will work towards opening up and gender sensitising parliamentary and local government structures and operations. Women...s involvement in policy formulation, legislative reviews and change and budgeting will be encouraged and supported, demonstrating that women can be politically active and effective as citizens, advocates and activists and not only in the capacity of elected members.
Throughout the five years of programme implementation, the GEPG will involve governments and partners in the collection of quality, sex-disaggregated baseline data, followed up by systems to monitor and evaluate progress towards project goals, and expected results. The results will contribute to the implementation of CEDAW, the achievement of MDG Goals and the implementation of the Pacific Platform of Action for the Advancement of Women.
UNIFEM looks forward to operationalising this ambitious and exciting project design, and to the strategic partnerships that will contribute to a great leap forward in gender equality in political governance in the Pacific region in the next decade. UNIFEM, 03/06/08.