Publications

Women’s Leadership in the Pacific: Mapping of Development Partners

In an effort to understand the scope of activities being conducted towards increasing women’s leadership in the Pacific, AusAID through the Pacific Leadership Program, the Secretariat of the Pacific Community and the Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat convened a half day meeting in Suva, following the conclusion of the 2012 Gender and Development Partners meeting from April 2nd and 3rd. The meeting was attended by representatives of the following organisations, UN Women, UNDP Pacific Centre, UN Volunteers, UNESCAP, UNFPA, Commonwealth Local Government Forum, AusAID Pacific Leadership Program, AusAID Gender Office, Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat, Secretariat of the Pacific Community, and NZAID.

Gender Equality in Elected Office in Asia Pacific: Six Actions to Expand Women’s Empowerment

Request to Caretaker PNG Prime Minister re: Women’s Electorate for 2012 National Elections

Request to the Caretaker Prime Minister to direct the PNG Electoral Commissioner to include women's electorate in the 2012 National Elections according to Constitutional amendments at Section 101, passed 23 November 2011.  Constitutional Amendment No.32 - Equality and Participation Law 2011 - is explained with notes about compliance with constitutional requirements and implications of amendment of Section 101.

Representation of Women in Australian Parliaments

This  Background Paper looks at representation of women at   the  Commonwealth (national),  state  and  territory,  and  local  government  levels,  with  a  particular  focus  on  the   Commonwealth  Parliament.  It  presents  statistical  information  about  women  parliamentarians,   women  in  parliamentary  leadership  positions  and  ministries,  women  as  chairs  of  parliamentary   committees,  and  female  candidates.  It  also  includes  some  comparative  data  relating to representation  in  the  state  and  territory  parliaments,  identifies  current  and  historical  trends,  and   refers  to  recent  research  on representation  in  parliament.

PLP Pacific Women’s Leadership Scoping Study

The Report was commissioned by the Pacific Leadership Programme as a scoping study of women’s leadership outside of national politics in Bougainville, Solomon Islands, Tonga, Samoa and Fiji. The study uses a participatory action research approach to examine the leadership roles of women in local government, the pathways of women’s leadership, and the opportunities for young women’s leadership within civil society organisations.

Empowering Women for Stronger Political Parties: A Guidebook to Promote Women’s Political Participation

This publication identifies targeted interventions for promoting the stronger presence and influence of women in political parties as well as advancing gender equality issues in party policies and platforms. The lessons learned and common strategies in this Guide are drawn mainly, but not exclusively, from 20 case studies that were commissioned by UNDP and conducted by NDI during 2009-2010. The entry points identified are designed to provide ideas for action for political parties, development assistance providers, party foundations, and CSOs in their work to support parties. This full length version, including 20 case studies, is available in English. 

National elections and women candidates in Solomon Islands: Results from the People’s Survey

UN General Assembly Resolution on Women’s Political Participation (2011)

In December 2011, the UN General Assembly endorsed a Resolution that specifically calls upon all States to enhance the political participation of women, to accelerate the achievement of equality between men and women. The Resolution sets out a number of practical actions that States are encouraged to progress.

Solomon Islands: 2011 Panatina Compact on Temporary Special Measures for Women

The 2011 National Women’s Convention on Temporary Special Measure (TSM) was held in Honiara from 28-30 September 2011 to review the 2009 TSM approach and take stock of campaign efforts to date. The Convention brought together 50 Women and men from NGOs, Church Organisations, National and Provincial Councils of Women, Provincial Assemblies, Government Ministries, the National Parliament and development partners. 

Papua New Guinea – Women Candidates Training Strategy – 2012 National Elections

The Strategy, which was developed by the PNG Office of the Department for Women, with assistance from CDI and UNDP’s Women in Leadership Project, is a home-grown response to the poor political representation of women in PNG. ODW's Strategy aims to increase the chances of women being elected by proposing a structured sequence of training and advisory events for women candidates and their campaign managers in the 10 months leading up to the election. The planned Strategy includes a first round of regional training workshops during October-December 2011 in Alotau, Mt Hagen, Madang and Kavieng and a second round of progress check workshops during February-April 2012 in the same locations. For more information, click here.

Designing for Equality: Best-fit, medium-fit and non-favourable combinations of electoral systems and gender quotas

This publication provides an overview of the ‘fit’ of the various electoral systems with different kinds of quota and thereby assesses how increased women’s representation can be achieved under different combinations of electoral systems and quotas. It aims to serve as a reference tool for all those who work to increase women’s representation in politics.

Women in Politics and Aid Effectiveness: An Aid to Evaluation of MDG 3

This paper discusses Millennium Development Goal (MDG) 3 to 'Promote Gender Equality and Empower Women.' This paper is concerned with the fact that the only indicator for MDG3 is political progress measured by counting the number of women elected to national political office.  The author questions whether this is an accurate way to measure the promotion of gender equality and empowerment in the Asia Pacific. Using specific country cases this paper interrogates the ethics of this being the only measure of evaluation/effectiveness, providing discussion about the concept of empowerment, leadership, governance, and effective reporting measures to generate creative and meaningful alternative suggestions for the Asia Pacific context.