Around the world, EMBs
and other relevant stakeholders make efforts to promote gender equality and
women’s participation at different stages of the electoral process, including
the pre-electoral, the electoral and the post-electoral periods. EMBs in
different countries have put in practice a number of gender-targeted
interventions to promote the registration of women voters, including women-only
registration teams, mobile registration and outreach campaigns. During the
candidate nomination and registration stage, a number of TSM can be adopted to
promote women’s representation, such as instating legislated quotas in the
candidate lists and using public funding measures as an incentive for
compliance with certain levels of representation of women in the lists, among others.
EMBs, civil society and international organizations can contribute to launch
civic and voter campaigns to promote women’s participation, by targeting women
specifically or mainstreaming gender in outreach messages addressed to the
general population. In certain countries, women leaders and candidates have
participated in capacity building initiatives to improve their performance
during the campaign and help them reach better electoral results. During the
voting process, EMBs can adopt specific measures to promote gender equality and
women’s participation, such as placing polling stations in accessible
locations, establishing inclusive identification procedures, putting in place
gender segregated voting mechanisms, fighting family voting and ensuring vote
secrecy. Dispute resolution mechanisms should be accessible and clear to women
candidates, integrate women into their structures and avoid gender
discrimination.[1]
Furthermore, all throughout the electoral cycle, EMBs, civil society
organizations and other stakeholders in different countries follow strategies
to promote effective participation of LGBTI persons.
One of the key
publications on this topic is the UNDP and UN Women’s 2016 “Inclusive
Electoral Processes: A Guide for Electoral Management Bodies on Promoting
Gender Equality and Women’s Participation”, [2]
which offers a general overview about what can be done to mainstream gender
from the perspective of electoral management. With the purpose of illustrating
strategies used by EMBs in different countries, examples of good practice can
be found in this section, mostly selected from UNDP and UN Women’s 2016 guide.
Throughout the electoral
cycle, EMBs, political parties, civil society organizations, electoral
assistance providers and other relevant stakeholders can take action to promote
women’s participation and gender equality. The following graphic resource
depicts the electoral cycle, a visual planning and training tool to assist
development agencies, electoral assistance providers and electoral officials to
understand the cyclical nature of the various challenges faced in electoral
processes. The electoral cycle was developed by UNDP, International IDEA and
the European Commission as a response to obstacles to the implementation of
long-term assistance in the field of elections. For more information on this
topic, please see related content of the ACE Project, including:
[1] UNDP and UN Women
(2016): “Inclusive Electoral Processes: A Guide for Electoral Management Bodies
on Promoting Gender Equality and Women’s Participation”.
