Cultural boundaries create the largest hindrance for women to enter politics in West Africa: this is the main finding of a two-day conference on “Enhancing Women’s Political Participation in West Africa” that was held in Accra, Ghana, 24-25 November 2005.
Some 60 parliamentarians, political party members, civil society activists, academics and journalists from 10 countries attended the event to provide comparative information on quotas, share experiences across the region and provide networking opportunities for those involved in the debate in West Africa.
The conference was organized by International IDEA, Abantu for Democracy (Ghana) and Center for Governance and Democracy (Burkina Faso).
Participants discussed the obstacles to women’s participation in West Africa, where the number of women represented in parliament is below the continent’s average. The barriers include:
- Cultural obstacles: resistance from husbands, families and society at large are the largest hindrances both for women attempting to enter politics and for those already elected;
- Political obstacles: political party leaders are reluctant to consider women as candidates in most of the countries and they refuse to nominate women for leadership positions.
The role of the media was also discussed. Participants agreed that the media was key in reaching greater gender awareness, not only among the politicians but also among the general public.
The conference made recommendations to enhance women’s political participation and the number of women in parliament. Some of them include:
- Form a regional network of women’s organizations to increase women’s representation;
- Encourage women to work across party lines to implement quotas or other measures to advance women’s political representation;
- Document and publicize good practices in the region with respect to women’s representation;
- Create strategies on how to increase the parties’ willingness to adopt quotas and provide opportunities for women to actively participate in leading positions in the parties.
This event is part of IDEA’s quota project and West Africa programme. IDEA hopes to increase women’s access to political settings and their ability to influence politics by sharing experiences regarding quotas, implementation measures, and possible results from introducing these tools.
A conference report will be produced outlining the current trends for quotas use in West Africa and the steps forward to reach greater gender equality between men and women in the region.
Contact: Goran Fejić, Head of Programme, Democracy Assessment and Analysis
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