4th

Annual West African Womens Policy Forum

Win With Women: Best Practices in Promoting Womens Quantitative and Qualitative Representation in Decision Making

[Forum Communique]
Monrovia, Liberia (September 7 8, 2011) Ms. Omolara Balogun

Over 60 women delegates representing 9 countries in West Africa convened in Monrovia, Liberia for a 2-day from 7-8 September, 2011 to discuss and discern strategies which aimed at providing womens rights activists, women politicians and party activists a practical guide on advocating, lobbying and collaborating to overcome existing challenges frustrating equal representation of women in decision making, and particularly establish the platform for women political and advocates to reflect on their previous works and learn from the experiences of other countries such as Rwanda, Uganda, South Africa etc. to develop a best practice suited for West African policy and political context. At the end of the 2-day dialogue, Forty-Four (44) practical recommendations aimed at visibly increasing womens quantitative and qualitative representation in overall governance and ascendancies to politically contested and elected emerged. These recommendations were directed forum conveners, Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), National Governments, Political Parties, Electoral commissions, Civil Society (including womens network and groups, youth groups etc.) and forum delegates.

National Government Should revisit and ensure that obsolete constitutions that discriminate on the basis of gender be abolished in national architecture and gender mainstreaming laws that takes cognizance of womens political inclusion and advancement be established within various state governing structure across the sub-region; Should create a threshold for political parties candidature fee to enable women compete with their male counterpart in party primary elections, in order to increase womens chances of emerging as party candidates to via for political positions; and Governments should domesticate ratified international Instruments such as CEDAW, BfPA and create gender sensitive laws that seek to engender national electoral commissions to include 50 percent women representatives. ECOWAS: Should consider the inclusion, active participation and contribution of women to the ongoing review process of the ECOWAS Protocol on Good Governance and Democracy; Should grant recognition and support the inducted group of trained and experienced West Africans who forms the West African Womens Elections Observation Team (WAWEO) for possible deployment to complement the work of ECOWAS Elections Observation Missions across the sub-region from 2011 2012; and The ECOWAS directorate on Gender and Civil Society should recognize and support WAWEO team in pursuing it mandate and be particularly granted necessary accreditation from the ECOWAS Political Affairs Department and the President of the ECOWAS Commission;
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 Independent Electoral Commission (NEC) Should collaborate with civil society and other stakeholders to review existing electoral systems and laws to identify its suitability for womens political advancement and or limitation; Should welcome collaboration from civil society to embark on mass review of Electoral laws in existence for each country in order to ascertain the degree of limitations to womens fair and non-discriminatory participation in politics; Should take specific steps to educate voters (particularly women who constitute over 50% of voters) in all pre, during and post-electoral activities such as voters registration, vote-counting procedures and result pronouncements procedures; and Should reserve the right to sanction political parties who lacks and or violate party laws, constitutions and code of conduct which seeks to promote adequate representation of women in both primaries and general elections; Political Parties Female politicians who holds political party membership in each ECOWAS member states should unanimously develop a clear Plan of Action for sustainable engagement with political parties leadership in their respective countries; Should ensure the formulation of party gender policy which aimed at promoting equitable representation, nomination and candidature of women (as the underrepresented group) and men for all contestable positions within the party structure including the party leadership using the Tanzania and South African model; Should establish within party constitutions, gender sensitive laws and financial/fee requirement that realistically offer women opportunity to vie and hold positions at par with their male counter-part within the party; Should avail female party members the right to establish and manage Womens Wing of the party to further discuss womens specific issues and develop a mechanism to achieve the UN approved 30% representation in decision-making; and Political parties should put in a place a more transparent system open and receptive to women demands and projects womens candidature in party primaries. Womens Movement Female politicians and supporters should adopt practical strategies to significantly increase their friends-raising portfolio in order to gather more human support for campaign processes and mobilisation; Should sensitize and educate other women particularly grassroots and community- based womens groups on the benefits and limitations of Affirmative action;
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Should unanimously identify and enlist all resources required to run an effective and successful political campaign in an holistic manner; Should increase engagement with traditional/religious leaders and institutions in order to gather grass rooted supports from such crucial constituents relevant to contemporary political determinations; Should institute girls club in their respective countries/contexts with the aim to inform younger girls on their right to equal participation in political activities, ascendancy to leadership positions, and also serve as a succession plan mechanism for advancement of womens development agenda; Should cease the opportunity of the ongoing constitutional review process in Nigeria and Ghana to push for a minimum inclusion of 30% of womens overall participation in all levels of governance and decision structure; Should engage private sectors/corporate entities, individual philanthropist in mobilisation resource for political participation; and Should support the participation of young women in future forums considering the absence of younger women in the forum since inception in 2008; delegates and participating organisations are encouraged to finance the participation of younger woman.

Civil Society Should support the capacity building of female politicians in electoral laws, code of conduct, timing, and how to run effective and successful election campaigns; Should research on the effect of electoral systems on womens participation in politics in West Africa and should disseminate the result to increase stakeholders knowledge including womens group, networks and movements; WACSI as a civil society training institute should design more trainings targeted at enriching women participation in political governance, engagement in political and policy formulation processes; civic education; effective public speaking; personal productivity skills; leadership skills and self-confidence building; Forum Conveners (WACSI and WIPSEN-Africa) Should develop practical communication strategy for future correspondences on the forum. Should explore the use of social media platform, database, listserve and other communication mechanisms to convey information across to all past and present delegates on various topical issue bothering on womens development agenda in the sub-regions and beyond; Should encourage forum delegates to self-finance their participation commencing for the 5th West African Womens Policy Forum (scheduled for September 2012 in Freetown, Sierra Leone) as a mean to leverage donor funding and sustain the continuous organisation of the forum;
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 Should collaborate with concerned stakeholders and experts within civil society to commission a research that seek to Review existing electoral laws and political party constitutions constraining womens political advancement in West Africa; Should ensure an equal and significant representation of delegate for the 15 ECOWAS member states in future forum, in order satisfy its legitimacy and validate communiqu, recommendations and decisions made on behalf of West African women; Should liaise with hosting country/ local partners to schedule meeting with key policymaker including president, minister of gender/womens affairs annually as a mean of profiling, fund/human raising and media coverage strategies; Should work with women movement to create a framework that promote the transparency and independency of electoral laws and bodies in the sub-region; Should partner with participating delegates and organisation promoting what women are doing in their respective countries on a case-by-case basis; and Should build a database of women leaders in the sub-region including grassroots, elites, experts, politician, corporate representative for accessibility and involvement into various strategic womens agenda and discussion. Development Partners International and local funding agencies should design special grant scheme to support womens candidature in politics; Joint Recommendation Research should be commission to review and evaluate the available political parties constitutions, and identify how each have considered womens advancement within the party structures; Stakeholders including forum delegates, gender experts and womens movements across the sub-region should unanimously promote Gender Equality and Not Gender Parity, which looks beyond numerical representation and participants of women in political governance rather than mere parity of men and women in number; Government and National Electoral commissions should revisit and redraft anti- women laws debarring women from contesting for certain positions within political parties and selected for certain leadership position within the commission; Governments, international organisations, civil society and others should exert more effort at observing the injunctions of the Beijing Platform for Action after fifteen- years and CEDAW after thirty-years;
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Government, electoral commissions and political parties to reach a consensus on how to provide for affirmation, particularly when proportional representation system are more favourable to womens participation in electoral processes and eventual elections to political positions; and Political parties, national governments, local foundations and international financial institutions should allocate specific sums of money to support womens political campaigns.

On behalf of 2011 forum delegates: . . Nana A. Afadzinu (Ms.) Leymah Gbowee (Ms.) Executive Director Executive Director, WACSI WIPSEN-Africa WACSI and WIPSEN-Africa acknowledge and appreciate the support provided by the African Womens Development Fund (AWDF), the International Womens Programme of the Open Society Institute (IWP-OSI), the Open Society Initiative for West Africa (OSIWA), Daphne Foundation, Humanity United and IBIS-Liberia, towards the 4th West African Womens Policy Forum.

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