International IDEA published in 2018 “Gender-targeted
Public Funding for Political Parties: A comparative analysis.”
According to this study, “gender-targeted public funding either means that the amount of
public funding a political party receives is connected to the level of gender
equality among the candidates it puts up for election (or manages to get
elected), or that a certain proportion of the public funding a party receives
is earmarked for gender-related activities”, such as training for women members
of the party. The main goals of gender-targeted public funding include to
increase women’s representation in elected bodies and to empower women in
political parties. Gender-targeted public funding can be an effective
instrument to promote women’s participation, especially in systems where “the
share of total party income received from public sources is high”, like it is
the case in Albania, where 90 percent of the parties’ budgets comes from public
funding.[1]
Example: In Georgia, “an additional 30 percent in funding will be
awarded to parties that have 3 women for every 10 candidates.”[2]
Example: In Moldova, “parties with
40 percent women candidates receive additional 10 percent public funding, plus
an unspecified multiple for each woman elected.”[3]
Example: In Albania, “30 percent of
candidates must be women in all elections. Failure to comply is punishable by
fines, which are taken from each party’s respective public funding.”[4]
Example: In France, “if the gender difference among candidates is
larger than 2 percent, the public funding is reduced by 1.5 times this
difference.”[5]
Example: In Panama, “at least 10%
of the public funding is devoted to civic and political education activities.
2.5% shall be channeled solely to support women’s training activities.”[6]
Example: In Mexico, “each party must
devote 2% of its annual regular public funding to the training, promotion and
development of women’s leadership.”[7]
In a 2018 iKNOW Politics
e-discussion on “Funding for Women Candidates”, participants made the following
recommendations to enhance women’s participation through funding
mechanisms.
- “Limiting
campaign budgets to reduce the fundraising races;
- Ensuring
transparency in campaign financing to limit the use of illegal money and
networks/companies;
- Strengthening
the mandate and operating budget of the EMB to properly monitor campaign
spending and hold political parties to account;
- Provide
interest free loans to women candidates;
- Deduct
taxes from donors financing women candidates’ campaigns;
- Introducing
financial incentives for political to increase women’s political
participation.”[1]
[2] Ohman, Magnus (2018):
op. cit.
