LESSONS FROM EVALUATIONS: BOOSTING WOMEN’S POLITICAL PARTICIPATION
Lead author: Anna Guerraggio, UNDP Co-author: Florencia Tateossian, UN Women
INTRODUCTION Although women’s political participation has been improving worldwide - the number of women parliamentarians has more than doubled in the last 30 years - women continue to be under-represented in political life. As of 2022, only around one in four members of parliament (MPs) and 8 percent of the world’s heads of State or government, are women. The proportion of women in local decision-making bodies is higher (34 percent), but still unequal. At the current pace of progress, it will take another 40 years to achieve gender parity in politics. 1 Target 5.5 of Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 5 aims to ensure women’s full and effective participation and equal opportunities for leadership at all levels of decision-making, including in national parliaments and local governments. Women’s equal participation and leadership in political and public life is not only critical for democratic governance, but also essential to achieving the SDGs by 2030, promoting a world where the diversity of women’s experiences is reflected in decisions that impact their lives. Several countries have taken important steps to promote women’s political participation, including through antidiscrimination legislation, affirmative action and special temporary measures.2 While these initiatives have contributed to valuable results, women continue to face a number of barriers to political participation, including a lack of resources and capacity, frequent threats to their security, and entrenched social norms. According to a 2020 survey by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), beliefs and biases against women in politics continue to be very pervasive, with almost half of the global population perceiving men to be better political leaders than women.3
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