Transforming political parties from within: Gender audits and action plans

Political parties are often called the ‘gatekeepers’ of democracy, and, in particular, of women’s political participation, because of their fundamental and unique role in the democratic process. They represent the views and perspectives of citizens — men and women — and, once elected, should incorporate these into political decision-making, public policy and legislation. Political parties are the pipeline through which women and men candidates emerge as elected representatives and decision-makers.

ODIHR assists political parties in assessing their gender equality through ‘gender audits’. In the last decade, ODIHR has supported more than 40 political parties in 10 OSCE participating States in conducting gender audits and developing party-specific gender equality action plans and has published numerous guides, manuals and toolkits on gender equality. Lessons from this process were transformed into our latest publication: Transforming political parties from within — Gender audits and action plans, as part of our Gender-responsive Governance Toolkit.

At this webinar, we will present:

• Existing good practices on how political parties are promoting women’s political participation and gender equality in politics, and
• ODIHR’s revised methodology on gender audits of political parties.

Questions for discussion:

• How do we understand gender equality in political parties?
• What are some effective strategies applied by political parties to promote gender balance & parity, gender-responsive policies and gender-sensitive organizational cultures?
• How can gender audits support a political party to institutionalise gender equality?

Moderator & methodology presentation

Saša Gavrić, ODIHR’s Adviser on Gender Issues

Why internal and voluntary reforms within political parties’ matter?

• Hedy Fry, OSCE PA Special Representative on Gender Issues
• Prof. Meryl Kenny, Professor of Gender and Politics, University of Edinburgh
• Susan Markham, NDI Director for Gender, Women and Democracy

Lessons learned with gender audits of political parties

• Valentina Minić, MP and President of the Women’s Forum of the Democrats, Montenegro
• Adnan Kadribašić, International Gender Audits Expert

Closing remarks

Yulia Netesova, ODIHR’s Chief of Democratic Governance and Gender Unit

Registration

Register your participation here to receive the Zoom Webinar access link.

The webinar will be in English.

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