Peru's new congresswomen participate in a July 2006 seminar, co-sponsored by IDEA, which gave impetus to the creation of the country's first Women’s Parliamentary Caucus.
Photo: Juana Nina, IDEA/PeruIDEA is working closely with Peru’s newly elected women legislators to help them work more effectively in Congress. A seminar in early July on “Congresswomen: the Representatives we all Want” gave impetus to the formation of the country’s first Women’s Parliamentary Caucus shortly before the new administration of President Alan Garcia took office.
“Peru has elected a record number of female parliamentarians this year, a critical mass of about 30 per cent. However 29 of them are in the Congress for the first time. Ironically, they face intense public pressure and demands coupled with abysmally low levels of citizen trust in elected officials. We’re moving beyond the numbers to support these parliamentarians to work as effectively as possible — both in coordination with their parties and as part of a concerted, inter-party women’s caucus”, said Kristen Sample, IDEA Programme Officer for the Andean Region and for Gender Issues in Latin America.
The seminar with the new congresswomen, held in Lima on 7-8 July 2006, followed a series of workshops held throughout the electoral process to help women prepare more effective legislative campaigns. A total of 35 women were elected to Peru’s 120-seat unicameral Congress on 9 April 2006.
The two-day seminar, which was sponsored by IDEA, the Canadian International Development Agency, the Spanish Agency for International Cooperation, the International Republican Institute and UNDP, featured a series of presentations which included Bolivian congresswomen sharing their experience of multi-party consensus building.
Robert Izurieta of the George Washington University Graduate School of Political Management discussed effective political communication between representatives and voters; congressional staff member José Elice discussed the best way to use congressional resources to improve legislative performance; Beatriz Llanos, coordinator of training and dialogue for IDEA, presented an assessment of women’s political participation in Peru; and Violeta Bermúdez, an expert on gender and public policy, provided an overview of Peru’s Congress from a gender equity perspective.
The seminar participants also took a closer look at gender equity in the legislature and an initiative to develop a women’s parliamentary agenda. After Rosario Paz Ballivián of the multi-party Unión de Mujeres Parlamentarias en Bolivia (UMPABOL) described that group’s experience, there was a plenary discussion of an initiative to form a multi-party women’s caucus in the Peruvian Congress.
That idea became reality on 19 July 2006, when the country’s congresswomen announced the formation of the country’s first multi-party Women’s Parliamentary Caucus, with the goal of keeping gender equity on the legislative agenda and ensuring a gender balance on congressional commissions.
The legislators pledged to work from a gender perspective on such issues as education, health, employment, access to justice and defense of human rights. They also called on President Garcia to abide by his campaign pledge to name a gender-balanced cabinet. Nine days later, the newly inaugurated president announced that six cabinet posts — foreign trade and tourism; interior; justice; women and social development; labor and promotion of employment; and transportation and communication — would be held by women.
IDEA will continue to foster and support the activities of the Women’s Parliamentary Caucus. As a follow up, several weeks later Argentine congresswoman Elisa Carrió visited Lima at IDEA’s invitation to present the book, La concepción del poder desde las mujeres (The concept of power: women’s perspectives).
The Women’s Parliamentary Caucus is presented to the media. Photo: Congressional Press OfficeContact: Kristen Sample, Programme Officer for the Andean Region
