DRC: IRI, IFES and Monusco join forces to promote the qualitative participation of women in local elections for inclusive decentralization
On Tuesday June 25, the International Republican Institute (IRI), in collaboration with the International Foundation for Electoral Systems (IFES) and the United Nations Stabilization Mission in the DRC (Monusco), launched a two-day workshop in Kinshasa entitled "Local elections: qualitative participation of women for inclusive decentralization".
These three organizations believe that, given that the fight for parity is one of their main concerns, according to their respective mandates, the local elections scheduled for 2024 and the legislative elections scheduled for October 5 in North Kivu (Rutshuru, Masisi) and Mai-Ndombe (Kwamouth) represent an opportunity to support the quantitative, qualitative and secure participation of female candidates.
"It is therefore important to support ambitious women politicians of all categories (women living with disabilities, pygmy women, etc.) with technical and practical capacity-building. The aim is to enable them to maximize their potential and be competitive in the race towards inclusive and egalitarian democracy at local and provincial level, with a view to qualitative decentralization", explain the organizers.
According to them, this workshop will contribute to improving the qualitative participation of women in local and provincial elections (Masisi, Rutshuru, Kwamouth) for participatory and inclusive decentralization.
Among the participants were women politicians (opposition, majority, taking into account geographical diversity); women's structures from civil society organizations with a national base; and the CENI gender unit.
The first day of the workshop was marked by three highlights:
- Taking stock of women's participation in the electoral process;
- Practical work groups: preparation and evaluation of candidacy files, followed by preparation of results litigation files, defense of the file by lawyers, observations and advice.
- Exchange: Lessons learned and best practices from the morning's practical work.
The organizers point out that the electoral process at the end of 2023 has shown that the more decentralized the level of elections, the greater the number of female candidates: for national and provincial legislative elections, women represented 18% of candidates with 14% elected, up on 2018, and 25% of candidates with 9.5% elected, down on 2018. Women's participation was particularly noteworthy in the communal by-elections, with 43% of women candidates.
Source: actualite.cd/
