Bringing Women Into Governance

Published by the Center for Development and Population Activities (CEDPA), this handbook focuses on efforts to bring women into governance, illustrating ways that organisations and activists around the world can foster greater gender equity in civic engagement, advocacy, voting and governance efforts to improve the quality of life for everyone. Five chapters highlight key approaches to supporting women's leadership to make governments worldwide more responsive to the needs of women.

Approaches include:

• Strengthening women's leadership: Through training workshops, women tend to gain a stronger sense of purpose and self-efficacy and are better able apply their new skills effectively.
• Building advocates and coalitions: CEDPA identifies that it is key to support advocates to be more effective through training in making effective presentations, speaking in media-friendly sound bites, and enlisting help from their network of contacts. By uniting stakeholders with a common goal and pooling their person-power and resources, coalitions can broaden advocates reach and ensure that policymakers and the public pay attention.
• Mobilising women to vote and run for office: To exercise their rights, women need to understand the political process and recognise their value as an influential voting bloc. For women's issues to be given adequate attention, women must be represented in political bodies. Women candidates for office often face difficult hurdles. Providing them with the necessary information and skills to become effective candidates can help them to build a base of support, especially among women voters.
• Holding public officials accountable: Regular contact with elected officials backed up by on-the-ground reports from "watchdog" groups can maintain pressure for policy change and for implementing existing reforms. CEDPA has identified that advocacy groups can be strengthened by forming broad coalitions, working with women's professional organisations, supporting local activists and promoting media coverage.
• Advancing peace and security Conflict affects women in many ways - as displaced persons, victims of violence, and caretakers of the young and old. Given their role as social stabilisers, CEDPA has found that women should also be involved in brokering peace, restoring social order and rebuilding infrastructure and trust.

Drawing from more than 30 years of CEDPA's experience, this handbook focuses on these strategies in more detail, illustrating ways that organisations and activists around the world can foster greater gender equity in civic engagement, advocacy, voting, and governance efforts to improve the quality of life for everyone.