Advocacy is a form of participation in public affairs and has the potential to help individuals and organizations promote and protect human rights. In many countries, women’s associations have played an important role in fostering gender equality and women’s participation in politics and elections. Through advocacy campaigns, domestic and international women’s groups have succeeded in convincing relevant stakeholders of the paramount importance of ensuring equal opportunities and rights for men and women, contributing to positive social change. Through monitoring, documentation and effective communication strategies, gender equality advocates can foster inclusion at different stages of the electoral process. 

Advocacy strategies used by women’s groups throughout the electoral process can be addressed to various stakeholders, and seek a wide variety of goals, including increasing gender balance among candidates, decision-making positions in political parties, observers, election administrators and other actors; influencing political agendas and public debate; supporting legal reform and review of electoral procedures; promoting gender-sensitive media coverage of the electoral process; and strengthening the gender component in election observation, among many others. 

Example: In Madagascar, the National Council of Women conducted an advocacy campaign ahead of the 2013 electoral process, reaching out to political party leaders. This initiative included meetings with political party leaders to encourage an increased representation of women in the candidate lists, as well as to engage the party into progressive policy positions favoring women’s rights. In addition to these advocacy efforts, the National Council of Women, the Independent National Electoral Commission for the Transition (CENI-T) and UNDP hosted a high-level inter-party dialogue with presidential candidates addressing gender equality policies.[1] 

Example: In Haiti, International IDEA and the Ministry of Women Affairs and Gender Issues organized a forum in 2017 that allowed “political parties and women’s organizations to meet, network, share experiences and lessons learnt in order to successfully promote women’s political participation and representation.”[2] 

Example: In Mali, as a result of advocacy efforts by women’s associations and other civil groups, a gender quota bill was passed in 2015, requiring at least 30 percent of elected or appointed officials to be women. In this advocacy work, civil society organizations joined forces with women legislators of the Network of Parliamentarian Women and the Ministry on the Promotion of Women, Children and the Family. Male allies, especially parliamentarians, also played a key role in the adoption of the law.[3] 

Example: In Paraguay, a multi-sectorial coalition with diverse political parties and civil society organizations launched a national debate on women’s under-representation in politics, organizing a number of trainings and fora from 2014 to 2018 to sensitize women and advocate for the adoption of a parity democracy law. This initiative, supported by UN Women, UNDP and the Ministry of Women, reached 14 out of the 17 regional departments in the country. Civil society organizations taking part in these efforts included the Center for Documentation and Studies (CDE, Centro de Documentacion y Estudios), DECIDAMOS Campaign for Citizen Expression (DECIDAMOS Campaña por la Expresion Ciudadana), the Women in Municipalities Network (Red de Mujeres Munícipes del Paraguay), and the Southern Women’s Network (Red de Mujeres del Sur), among others.[4] 

Example: IFES has been supporting the advocacy efforts of women with disabilities in a number of countries. In Nepal, in 2018, IFES and the National Disabled Women’s Association offered advocacy training to women with disabilities, which covered how to develop a unified policy platform and practice of advocacy skills for communicating with government stakeholders.[5] In Kenya, IFES partnered with Women Challenged to Challenge, an umbrella organization for people with disabilities, to develop a policy platform document that would help women with disabilities in their advocacy efforts.[6] 

Example: In Myanmar, IFES launched in 2017 the “We Stand Together” campaign, in partnership with the domestic organization Yaung Chi Thit (YCT), to encourage women’s political participation. Supporters reached out to elected officials on the importance of women’s political participation, mobilized their communities and collected photo petitions demonstrating support from them at regional-level roundtables.[7] 

Example: In Honduras, party leaders and aspiring presidential candidates from seven parties met in October 2016 to ratify the “Political Parity and Alternation Pact”, by which the parties committed to place women in the top positions of candidate lists, ensuring the application of parity among their candidates and effective alternation mechanisms. This agreement was the result of the advocacy campaign “The Pilgrimage of the Braid” (la Peregrinación de la Trenza) launched by Honduras Interparty Women’s Network (Red de Mujeres Interparetidarias de Honduras), in partnership with NDI.[8]