SandeshIndia

Championing Women's Political Empowermen

U.S. efforts to increase women's political participation have spurred dramatic progress in countries all over the world. From Afghanistan, where millions of women voted for the first time ever in historic presidential elections, to Rwanda, where the elected parliament now has a higher percentage of women than in any other country, women are gaining a greater role in political decision-making. Landmark U.N. Resolution on Political Participation The United States has led the way in advancing women's political empowerment worldwide through a wide range of programs and initiatives, including a landmark resolution on "Women and Political Participation," which it introduced at the United Nations. The resolution, which aims to promote and protect the rights of women to participate in political processes, was adopted by the full U.N. General Assembly with 110 cosponsoring nations in December 2003. (See www.state.gov/g/wi/rls/rep/28497.htm.) The origin of the resolution is found in the aspirations of women, explained Ambassador Ellen Sauerbrey, the U.S. representative to the U.N. Commission on the Status of Women. When Sauerbrey spoke with women around the world, invariably they said: "We can't solve our problems unless we have a voice and are active in the political system. But we don't know how to run for office, we don't know how to raise money, we don't know how to change our system to gain more opportunities." It was a perfect issue for the United States to champion at the Commission on the Status of Women. "The United States is very committed to equality for all," Sauerbrey stressed. "The participation of women strengthens democracy. You cannot have a true democracy unless all members can take part in decision-making and government policy." Like earlier documents, dating back to the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the 2003 U.N. General Assembly resolution is rooted in the philosophy of equality and the right of all people to participate in their government. It seeks to promote and protect women's equal right to associate freely, express their views publicly, debate politics openly, petition their government, and otherwise participate in the democratic process. The resolution urges governments to ensure equal access by women to education, and to eliminate laws and regulations that discriminate against women. It calls on governments, nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), the private sector, and civil society groups to encourage political parties to seek qualified women candidates and to support initiatives aimed at expanding women's political, management, and leadership skills. It recommends encouraging the media to provide fair and balanced coverage of male and female candidates, and to address issues that have a particular impact on women. The resolution goes further than previous efforts by setting out a blueprint of practical measures that all levels of government and all entities of civil society can take to facilitate women's full political participation. Nations that are struggling to move ahead look to U.N. resolutions for guidance, Sauerbrey said. The fact that some NGOs and governments indicate they are making the resolution more useful for women by translating it into their national languages is particularly noteworthy. U.S. Programs Make Women Equal Partners The United States is funding programs in every region of the world to support the activities and goals outlined in this resolution. Such programs aim to make women an equal partner in advocacy, voting, leading, legislating, and governing. Most of the programs originate at the U.S. State Department or the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). According to Charlotte Ponticelli, the State Department's senior coordinator for international women's issues, "We try to identify women's critical needs on the ground and then identify potential resources here — not just money, but skills and talents — that could be tied into meeting those needs." U.S. embassies are crucial in that process, she said. She stressed that the U.S. government seeks to match needs with resources through program funding, and through the creation of partnerships among governments and with the private sector and nongovernmental organizations. Many women's empowerment programs are implemented overseas in conjunction with local agencies or local organizations. Others, most notably the State Department's International Visitor Program, bring potential women leaders to the United States to meet experts and see how the U.S. political system operates in person. In Ponticelli's opinion, women need education most. "Wherever we go, women tell us that the main thing for them is acquiring the knowledge, the skills, the education, to enable them to participate," she said. The U.S. government funds numerous basic literacy programs all over the world. But this is only part of what is needed, she explained. In many less-developed countries and emerging democracies, U.S. programs are designed to provide women with an education in democracy. Gender Equality in Iraq What is democracy? How does it work? What are the rights and responsibilities of citizens? Even educated women ask these questions when they have not had access to the free flow of information, Ponticelli said. "A young woman science and public health professor from the University of Baghdad recently turned to me and said, 'Only after Saddam did I even learn that women have rights in the world.'" With strong U.S. backing, Iraq's Governing Council adopted a new basic law providing equal rights for all Iraqis without regard to gender. The Governing Council, the Interim Cabinet, and the Baghdad City Council all include women members. The United States has allocated nearly half a billion dollars to support democracy-building programs in Iraq, including projects specifically designed to help women. It has supported the creation of 11 regional Women's Centers and nine Women's Centers in Baghdad that offer education and training in computers, job skills, health care, and legal services. These centers will be open to all women and run by women who are democratically elected. Then U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell announced two additional initiatives on International Women's Day in 2004. Among other activities, the $10 million Iraqi Women's Democracy Initiative provides education and training in leadership, political skills, coalition building, organizational management, the media, and entrepreneurship to help women gain control of their lives through social, legal, and political action, and job opportunities. The U.S.-Iraqi Women's Network, a public-private partnership, links women's organizations in both countries to match private-sector resources with women's needs on the ground in Iraq. U.S.-sponsored workshops for Iraqi women are reshaping the country's political landscape. The first symposium for women in municipal government was held in the Babil Governorate in July 2004; it focused on strategies for fostering women's participation in upcoming elections. Iraq's Minister of State for Women's Affairs Narmin Orthman hosted a similar national meeting in Baghdad in November 2004. She noted proudly during a visit to Washington, D.C., in October 2004 that under Saddam there was only one government-controlled "women's organization"; now there are 500 vocal and independent women's organizations. Women are organizing at all levels, she said. Opening Opportunities for Women Leaders in the Arab World Another flagship U.S. endeavor for women is President Bush's Middle East Partnership Initiative (MEPI). Launched in December 2002, it offers a framework and funding for U.S. partnering with the region's governments and private sector and civil society actors to expand political, economic, and educational opportunities, with an emphasis on women. The first program implemented under MEPI auspices was the "Women as Political Leaders" International Visitor Program. It brought 49 women officials, aspiring candidates, civil society leaders, activists, and journalists to the United States to look at grassroots U.S. electoral politics and to learn political campaign skills. Participants were surprised at the prominent role of the media and fundraising in campaign efforts. The United States has provided $500,000 to two nongovernmental organizations headquartered in Washington, D.C. — the International Republican Institute (IRI) and the National Democratic Institute (NDI) — to create campaign schools for current and future women leaders in the Arab world. Women are taught, for example, how to run a campaign, manage a democratic organization, and monitor elections. The first course, held in Doha, Qatar, in February 2004, trained more than 50 women from Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, and Yemen; the second was held in Tunisia in July 2004 for 60 women from Tunisia, Morocco, and Algeria. The U.S. Department of State also gives human rights grants to strengthen women's advocacy. A project in Jordan focuses, for example, on training, research, collective action, and contact with decision-makers at all levels of government. Other U.S. programs in Jordan provide training on campaign techniques, parliamentary procedures, and public relations. A project in the Maghreb promotes women's rights advocacy in the entire region through workshops for human rights lawyers, networking initiatives, and an education program for illiterate and semiliterate women to develop grassroots awareness and mobilization. Dramatic Progress for Afghan Women In Afghanistan, political progress for women has been swift and dramatic. Women were engaged in the constitutional process as members of the Constitutional Drafting Committee and the Constitutional Review Commission. Women comprised a record-breaking 20 percent of the delegates to the Constitutional Loya Jirga, the traditional grand council used in Afghanistan for deciding important political matters. And women greatly mobilized to vote in the October 2004 presidential elections. The United States had provided more than $84 million to support the Afghan election process, including discussion groups that helped educate women on the importance of voting and political participation. Other programs trained women candidates and helped political parties to mobilize female members. The U.S.-Afghan Women's Council links the U.S. and Afghan governments, private sectors, and NGOs in practical projects benefiting women. In one notable example, the organization is providing more than $1 million for literacy and job training programs in 17 new Women's Resource Centers across Afghanistan. At one of these in Kabul, the State Department's Charlotte Ponticelli recalled seeing a poster showing women signing up to vote, registering to vote, and dropping a ballot in a voting box. As it turned out, hundreds of Afghan women gathered at that center and walked miles to the nearest voters' registration site. "They showed their voice through action," Ponticelli stressed. "This is the impact these programs can have." Initiatives for Women in All Regions Other regions of the world are just as important to the U.S. effort to enhance women's political participation. In post-conflict societies from the former Yugoslavia to Colombia and the Congo, the United States has led efforts to ensure that women are included as planners, implementers, and beneficiaries of international recovery and reconstruction work. The United States supports initiatives all over the world that help women acquire the skills necessary to become fully engaged in the political process. In Africa, for example, the United States has partnered with nongovernmental organizations to provide women leadership training. Before the 2002 elections in Senegal, the National Democratic Institute trained more than 2,000 women in campaign techniques and skills. The result was impressive: 93 percent of the more than 1,500 women elected to local government positions in the elections had participated in this comprehensive training. The ALVA Consortium, a nongovernmental organization based in Washington, D.C., is training many women in Africa in political skills and how to run for office. With $400,000 from the State Department's Human Rights and Democracy Fund, this group's program is reaching women in Kenya, Rwanda, Uganda, and Angola. In both Kenya and Rwanda, several women who received ALVA Consortium training have been elected to public office or appointed to high-level government positions. In Liberia, Nigeria, Sudan, and the self-declared Republic of Somaliland, the International Republican Institute is using a U.S. grant of $897,000 to partner with Muslim civic groups to increase Muslim women's participation in politics and civil society and to increase men's support for and cooperation with women's activism. This project addresses what Sauerbrey has called one of the greatest impediments to women's empowerment — the cultural barrier of differing expectations for women and men. Sauerbrey, who led a team of trainers in Cote d'Ivoire in August 2004 that included Josie Bass, president of ALVA Consortium, and Odette Nyiramilimo, a Rwandan senator and founder of the Coalition of Rwandan Women Leaders, has seen firsthand the impact of U.S training initiatives. "The workshops in Cote d'Ivoire," Sauerbrey explained, have "inspired a number of women to run for political office. We watched them develop the skills and confidence to do it." The State Department and USAID have also provided funding to nongovernmental organizations in Eastern Europe and Eurasia to conduct women's leadership programs. Prior to the 2000 elections in Serbia, for example, the National Democratic Institute used U.S. funding to provide training, polling, and strategic consultations to attract women voters. In Russia, the International Republican Institute is coordinating a women's parliamentary program that offers training in parliamentary procedures, how to draft legislation, and how to run a communication program. The U.S. Embassy in Belarus works with women's organizations to promote democracy and political activism. In Kazakhstan, the State Department is funding a $400,000 project to increase the participation of provincial women in the electoral process, public policy formation, and the oversight of local legislative bodies. In Tajikistan, NDI is managing a $500,000 project to develop a women's political network to train women candidates and increase women's participation in the country's political development. In South Asia, NDI is coordinating a $716,000 project to improve the capacity of women to campaign for elected office in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Bangladesh, and to develop a sustainable local capacity to train women party members and elected officials. In Vietnam, the U.S. government provided a $100,000 grant to an NGO, the Spangenberg Group, for a program to support the drafting of that country's first gender-equality law, establish a women's rights task force, and strengthen strategic litigation. The 40 members of Vietnam's Gender Equity Law Drafting Committee — from the Vietnam Women's Union, National Assembly, Supreme Court, Ministry of Justice, and several other ministries — attended the first training seminar in November 2004. The committee is mandated by the government of Vietnam to produce a draft gender-equality law by March 2005. In Cambodia, with U.S. funding, the National Democratic Institute sponsored "Women in Politics" conferences, while the local NGO Women for Prosperity held public forums with female candidates on "Women in Politics," which were taped and later broadcast on local radio stations. The Girl Guides Association built the capacity of girls and young women for self-reliance, self-esteem, and assistance to their own communities, including training focused on rights and responsibilities, democracy, and the culture of peace. The "Mobilized to Develop Women" program used U.S. funds to provide advocacy and legal-rights training to disadvantaged women, with emphasis on women's rights and rule of law. The United States continues its unwavering support of the Burmese democracy movement and its leader, Nobel Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, who remains under house arrest. Through the National Endowment for Democracy, the United States has long supported the development of strong women's organizations that have become important contributors to the democracy promotion and advocacy activities of the Burmese democracy movement. Ethnic minority women's groups are now represented by an umbrella organization, for instance. By working together, organization members hope to build solidarity and understanding among women of all nationalities in Burma. They have programs in capacity building, peace and reconciliation, and combating violence against women. They also play a large advocacy role as a platform for the women of Burma to push for political change in Burma and work for gender equality in society. They conduct women's rights and empowerment-training workshops, and they advocate for women's rights at the United Nations and in other international fora. Some U.S.-funded programs also focus on the role that the media can play in fostering women's political participation or in obstructing it. Media coverage of women who step forward in places where they are normally not politically active gives them credibility. But, as Ambassador Sauerbrey said, "If the media dismiss women as irrelevant to the process, that is a huge barrier." The Women's Media Center of Cambodia, run entirely by women, strives to improve women's status by promoting socially conscious television, video, and radio programs. With financial and technical assistance from USAID through The Asia Foundation, the center began operating as an independent NGO in 1995. The center owns and operates Radio WMC, the only nonpartisan, noncommercial radio station in the country. The station's slogan is "Women Using the Media to Promote Social Change." During the 1998 and 2003 national elections, the center played a critical role in educating the public about the importance of women's participation as candidates and voters. U.S.-funded programs like these can help women become more active citizens and overcome barriers to their full political participation and empowerment. "The momentum cannot be stopped," said Ponticelli. All over the world, "women are taking heart from progress."

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