• Governance and political participation

Governance and political participation

Involvement of women in peace processes brings skills, attributes, and perspectives to government processes. Post conflict governments that have involved women have tended to build governance systems which are stable and transparent. However, despite their documented contributions, women are often largely excluded from these processes. UN Security Council Resolution 1325, which mandates women’s full participation in peace building, is little known and consequently not fully implemented by policy makers. 

This guide provides the international community with concrete strategies for bringing women into government. The guide points out various policies and programmes that can be used to increase women’s participation in government. Success stories from post conflict democracies that have used these mechanisms are highlighted. They include Rwanda, Cambodia and Afghanistan.

Top recommendations include:

• demand women's inclusion in transitional institutions, especially constitution-drafting bodies
  
• support constitutional provisions such as parliamentary and executive branch quotas that guarantee women's participtation in all all branches and at all levels of government
  
• establish election mechanisms that advance women's representation, including quotas for political parties, indirect elections, and proportional representation systems with closed lists which alternate the names of male and female candidates
  
• support electoral systems that require voters to select male and female candidates

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