D emo c r a c y : R u l e o f l aw, r e p r e s e n t a t i o n a n d p a r t i c i p a t i o n Figure 1: Women in parliament (%) Commonwealth Governance Handbook 2013/14 28 b. Parliamentary level The target of 30 per cent of women in decision making in parliament and local government has been achieved to some degree through affirmative action measures such as quotas, reserved seats, and electoral, party, constitutional and legislative reforms in some Commonwealth countries. Women in countries with proportional representation (PR) have a fair advantage in parliaments, with 22.7 per cent female representation in eight member countries, while women comprise 19.6 per cent in parliaments with the first past the post (FPTP) system, the most common electoral model in 33 countries. Moreover, 17 countries that adopted a variation of voluntary and legislative quotas have 27 per cent of women in parliaments; nine of these countries are from Africa. In 2013, 11 Commonwealth countries were in the top 40 countries noted for mainstreaming women into parliament – Guyana, Mozambique, New Zealand, Rwanda, Seychelles, South Africa, Tanzania, Trinidad and Tobago, and Uganda. Rwanda tops the list with 56 per cent women in parliament, closely followed by Seychelles with 43 per cent and South Africa with 42 per cent. In addition, the Africa region ranks high in the number of women in governance, followed by the Caribbean and Asia regions. Despite this steady increase, women’s representation still stands at 20.9 per cent, and is comparable with global statistics which indicate that, on average, only 20.8 per cent of seats are occupied by women. Top performers by regions are: Africa – Rwanda, 56.3 per cent; Americas – Guyana, 33.8 per cent; Asia – Singapore, 24.2 per cent; Caribbean – Trinidad and Tobago, 26 per cent; Europe – United Kingdom, 22 per cent; and Pacific – New Zealand, 32.2 per cent. Women’s parliamentary representation remains particularly weak in the west African region with nine per cent and in the Pacific Island States with an average of 4.2 per cent, a dismal figure in contrast to other regions of the world. In 2010, a few women leaders were selected as potential candidates and served as members of parliament in Kiribati, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Tonga and Vanuatu. Notably, Kiribati’s Vice President, Teima Onorio, is the country’s only female MP and first female cabinet member in 26 years. In 2012, three female MPs joined the Solomon Islands National Parliament. Similarly, in Papua New Guinea, three women won open seats into parliament. c. Local government level Across the Commonwealth, women have played critical roles in local governance. A third of Commonwealth countries have over 20 per cent representation of women in local governance. Almost a third of countries have one form of quota (legislative or voluntary) to advance women’s representation, and Lesotho is in the lead with 49 per cent female participation following legislative quotas of 30 per cent in 2005. Female elected councillors and mayors remain under-represented in all regions of the world. The constitutional amendments to reserve one third of all local government seats in India in 1992, and institutional reforms to increase women’s active participation in Bangladesh in 1997, have seen over one million women be elected to India’s Panchayat Raj and Bangladesh’s Union Parishad (UP). Similarly Australia, Canada, Lesotho, Namibia, New Zealand, South Africa, Swaziland and Uganda have also reached the global target of 30 per cent women representatives at the local government level. However a significant number of Commonwealth member states are yet to achieve the PoA target. Persistent barriers to women’s political participation Since the Beijing Platform for Action of 1995, women have only attained a ten per cent increment in decision-making and leadership positions globally. More efforts are required for women to attain 30 per cent representation by 2015. The under-representation of female participation is mostly symptomatic of persistent gender stereotypes, conflict between family and work demands, patriarchy and the lack of an enabling political environment, inadequate funding to support female candidates, absence of special measures/quotas, low literacy levels, lack of job security in politics, the absence of female role models, politically motivated violence, corruption, and lack of training for political participation. Rationale for Commonwealth Secretariat programming on women’s leadership The Commonwealth Secretariat pioneered Gender Responsive Budgeting (GRB) in the late 1990s. Through strategic engagements with Commonwealth finance ministers, it promoted GRB as a tool that incorporates a gender equality perspective into processes and policies that underpin national budget systems to promote equality 40 35 30 25 20 15 10 5 0 East Africa West Africa Southern Africa Asia Caribbean Europe Pacific Commonwealth regional percentages of women in parliaments
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