Gender Integration

Support civil society to conduct media monitoring for
gender differences in treatment of candidates.
• Affirmative Measures. Provide technical assistance to
political parties, legislators, staff, and government representatives
on the creation and/or implementation of quotas
or other affirmative measures that help remedy historic
marginalization and facilitate greater representation of
women in parliament.
• Internships and mentoring. Support legislative
internship, mentoring, and exchange programs to provide
staff for youth and women members. Internships for
university students to staff women legislators can help fill
vital staffing gaps and expose young people to positive
women role models.
• Networking. Provide support for efforts to increase
networking and professional development opportunities for
women and others who may lack access and connections to
existing networks.
• Political Violence. Study and combat politically motivated
violence perpetrated against female candidates.
Challenge: Enhance the skills and influence of women
in the legislature.
Opportunities:
• Orientation. Include training on gender (in)equality and
gender analysis as a regular component of orientation and
training sessions for all newly elected legislators and newly
hired staff. Include a breakout or additional session(s) for
newly elected women, who often have different or additional
needs than their male counterparts.
• Training and professional development. Provide ongoing
training and professional development opportunities for
women and minority group members of parliament.
Developing expertise in areas that may be viewed as
“non-traditional” for women, such as defense and finance,
is often a path to powerful committee assignments.
Experience has also shown that women in particular
appreciate ongoing capacity building opportunities in skills
such as public speaking, leadership, political management
and communication, networking, and fundraising.
• Women’s caucuses. Support efforts to create or
strengthen women’s caucuses, particularly multi-party
caucuses. Such caucuses provide important networking and
mentoring opportunities, help consolidate and leverage the
power of women in parliament, and often provide a venue
for skills development and advancing legislation on issues
of particular concern to women. Provide capacity building
support for women’s caucuses or other identity-based
groups to draft and advocate for legislation on a range
of issues.
• Coalition-building. Support the development of coalitions
that support gender equality, including both male and female
legislators. Engaging and supporting male allies can help
garner broader support for issues related to gender equality
and female empowerment, and may also contribute to
shifting institutional culture.
• Public outreach. To mobilize support for women’s
caucuses and gender equality issues, develop the capacity
of women’s caucuses to engage in public outreach including,
but not limited to: participating in radio and TV programs;
hosting events; engaging in charitable activities; and creating
PROGRAM SNAPSHOT
The Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU),
with support from USAID, is implementing
the Gender Equality in Politics
Program. In 2012, the IPU began a
global research project on women’s parliamentary
caucuses. It mapped existing
structures, identified good practices,
and produced a set of guidelines for
women members of parliament (MPs)
who wish to set up a caucus or improve
an already existing one. Based on the
research carried out, the IPU Handbook
on Women’s Caucuses was produced
with information from more than 72
parliaments and 60 women’s caucuses
collected. Additionally, they conducted a
regional seminar that brought together
40 men and women MPs from eight
countries in East and Southern Africa.
The meeting endorsed a set of priority
steps for parliaments to take in order
to secure a robust response to violence
against women (VAW), including:
adopting comprehensive legislation;
allocating budgetary resources to ensure
adequate funding and long-term sustainability
of programs; and establishing a
monitoring system to periodically assess
the implementation and effectiveness of
legislation on VAW. Most recently, the
IPU conducted workshops and seminars
in several countries, including Cote
d’Ivoire and Burundi, bringing together
MPs, government officials, and civil
society activists to discuss issues such as
gender based violence, gender and land
reform, and women’s caucuses.
Source: “Guidelines for Women’s
Caucuses,” Inter-Parliamentary
Union, 2013.
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USAID | Gender Integration in Democracy, Human Rights, and Governance (DRG) Programming Toolkit