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The UN Democracy Fund Celebrates the International Women's Day

Empowering women is very much what the United Nations Democracy Fund is about. When the Secretary-General states: "empowering women is not only a goal in itself. It is a condition for building better lives for everyone on the planet", the Democracy Fund works to contribute to this goal by funding civil society organisations, especially women CSOs and NGOs, who contribute to democracy-building in their countries. UNDEF provides support to strengthen women's political participation in the Great Lakes Region of Africa, in Ecuador, Haiti and Nepal under UNIFEM's coordination. Other projects strengthen women's participation in democratic decision-making in Cambodia (Committee to Promote Women's Political Participation), the Democratic Republic of the Congo (Femmes Afrique Solidarité), Nigeria (Alliances for Africa) and Kosovo (Women's Peace Coalition). Inter Press Service is implementing a programme to encourage gender-sensitive media reporting on elections in Africa, and in Argentina, Fundación Mujeres en Igualdad supports women to organize against corruption. In Morocco, the Consultative Council on Human Rights will promote implementation of the recommendations of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, highlighting the need for stronger protection of women's rights. All these efforts ultimately try to contribute to ending impunity for violence against women by guaranteeing power-sharing mechanisms, this year's leit-motive of the International Women's Day. It follows, with this specific call for protection, what in 2006 had been a declaration in favour of political participation: "Women in decision-Making: Meeting Challenges, Creating Change".

Opening or widening the political space for women has its best expression in MDG 3. The 2006 MDG Report of the UN indicates that "Women's political participation has increased significantly since 1990. One in five parliamentarians elected in 2006 are women, bringing the percentage of parliamentary seats held by women in 200 worldwide to almost 17. In 20 countries, more than 30 per cent of parliamentarians are women. Striking disparities remain, however. While Rwanda and the Nordic countries have come close to parity, women's national political representation is very low in Oceania, Northern Africa and Western Asia. The most encouraging signs come from Latin America and the Caribbean, where women now hold 20 per cent of parliamentary seats. Several factors are at work. Public debate and advocacy have shifted the political landscape. Quotas and other measures have broken barriers and triggered positive change. More than 9 countries have now implemented either mandatory or voluntary measures to increase women's political participation. New constitutions in countries emerging from conflict have been especially effective in this regard: After the 2005 elections in Afghanistan and in Iraq, for example, women now represent 27 and 2 per cent of parliamentary seats, respectively."

The Democracy Fund is actively working to promote the political participation of women and their access to the democratic processes. When last September 2006 the Secretary-General approved the first batch of projects, UNIFEM Deputy Director Joanne Sandler stated: "We are very gratified by this positive response. Beyond support for UNIFEM and our partners, we see it as a very positive sign that 47 out of 125 supported initiatives have a strong focus on gender equality and women's rights. The message that democratic governance is not possible without women's full and equal participation is increasingly recognized."

 

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