Details

Technical Note

Women Political School

Mobashir Sara, Naqvi Syed Ammar

INDUSTRY :

AREA : Devolution & Governance

ORGANIZATION : Siffat Tutorial Systems

LENGTH : 24

LUMS No : 20-012-2007-2

PUBLICATION YEAR : 2007

KEYWORDS:

Women Political School,Devolution,Governance,Politics,Women Empowerement,Gender,Election,Women Councilors

DESCRIPTION:

After the local Government System 2001 reserved 33 percent seats for women councilors the biggest challenge for the local government was to promote and strengthen the participation of women councilors in governance and enable 36,000 newly-elected women councilors at the district, tehsil and union council levels to play an effective role. Keeping this in view, United Nations Development Programme implemented Women Political Participation Project (W3P) in collaboration with the Ministry of Women Development Pakistan and financially supported by Norwegian Agency for Development NORAD. Under this capacity building of women councilors project more than 70 percent of elected women councilors from the local government elections of 2000-2001 were given training from February 2002 to March 2004. In this phase there was a single team in each province which gave training in all the districts. To build upon the gains of the first phase, and to address the capacity building of newly elected women councilors during Local Government election 2005, a follow-up project envisioned as a Women's Political School was designed as a sustainable, long-term, second generation initiative. Its aim was to institutionalize the process of enabling and empowering women in public office so that their concerns are raised in the policy agenda and are addressed through public policy. UNDP, in collaboration with the Ministry of Women Development launched the second phase of W3P i.e., Women Political School (WPS). The training was given to newly elected union, tehsil and district women councilors. This approach was introduced in order to give training in broader perspective. A pool of two women councilors and one research analyst was selected from every district, depending upon the number of union councils. WPS project was made more interactive by including pictorial training manuals, group work, group discussions and role playing of real situations. The project aimed to develop district support networks, district resource centers and institutional strengthening of women empowerment and capacity building programs for their sustainability. The note outlines the issues faced by women councilors during the training and provides a set of recommendations in specific areas which determine the level of participation and performance of women councilors. The paper attempts to assess the effect of the training on women councilors after the first phase. The assessment is based on research and information gathered through persistent interaction and interviews with women councilors. Input from women councilors has been taken through questionnaires and discussions with lead mentors and research analysts. 

LEARNING OBJECTIVES:

N/A

SUBJECTS COVERED:

Governance, Devolution