Mission to Nigeria, April-September 2021 (digital)
– as consultant for the Inter-Parliamentary Union, IPU, to provide “advice on legal drafting to enhance women’s and youth participation (i.e. representation) in parliament based on international experience and good practices.” At the moment, women only have 3.6% of the seats in the federal House of Representatives and 6.4% in the Senate. The main indicator seems to be that the political parties, who are the gatekeepers to elected positions, nominate very few women as candidates for election.
Drude Dahlerup’s final report on Nigeria: Executive summary
“This report analyzes the causes of women’s underrepresentation in Nigerian politics and discusses appropriate measures to change the situation, based on experiences from other countries. The present report concludes that the main indicator of women’s underrepresentation is that the political parties in Nigeria – which are the gatekeepers to elected positions – nominate very few women as candidates. Consequently, the report offers several options for Parliament to introduce financial incentives and/or legal obligations for all political parties to recruit more women and youth candidates and place them in winnable seats, thereby following the international agreements and targets to which Nigeria has adhered.”
In addition, the report comments on the bill on ‘gender diversity’ bill, presently being discussed in the Nigerian Parliament, and outlines several possible models, incl. from other countries, to increase the number of women in Parliament within the Nigerian first-past-the-post (FPTP) electoral system.
Mission to the Bhutan for The Danish Institute for Parties and Democracy, DIPD, March 6-10, 2017.
This is my second mission to the new democracy of Bhutan. The quota regulations, which we designed during the first mission in 2014, see the report below, had been rejected by the government. For the upcoming Natioal Assembly election in 2018, the task is to design some ‘temporary special measures’ (the language of the CEDAW-Convention, which Bhutan has signed), which will make the political parties nominate more women candidates. The political parties are the real gatekeepers to elected positions, and in the previous election the parties had nominated no women candidates in as many as 3/4 of all constituencies, giving the voters no choice to vote for a woman if they so wanted.
Mission to Ivory Coast, June 30-July 1st, 2016.
I have just been on an mission for the Inter-Parliamentary Union to the Ivory Coast, invited by the cross-party Women’s Causus in the National Assembly. As women only have 9 % af the seats in the parliament, women parliamentarians and a group of associated male MPs demand a gender quota law of at least 30 % women (and male) candidates on the lists of both the single member and the multimember constituencies. Plus alternation of female and male candidates allthrough the multimember lists. During two days of hard work, we came up with a proposal for a changed electoral law. The Causus will now start a campaign for this reform.
Mission to Kenya July 13-17, 2015.
As a gender quota expert, Drude Dahlerup was part of a mission by the Inter-Parliamentary Union, IPU, to Kenya in July. The delegation met with a broad range of stakeholders in this process, and in the end came up with recommendations about how to increase women’s representation in Kenyan politics.
In Kenya, a new Constitution was approved by 67% of voters at the August 2010 referendum. It has set the basis for a more peaceful electoral process following the violent events in 2007. Its achievements include a Bill of Rights and the principle of increased representation and participation of women, youth and minority groups in public and political life.
In particular, the 2010 Constitution provides that no more than two thirds of the members of an elective body shall be of the same sex (Art. 81(b)). In order to enhance women’s representation in both chambers of the Kenyan Parliament, the Constitution provides for reserved seats for women (47 in the National Assembly and 18 in the Senate).
Obviously, this minor quota provision does not fulfill the requirement of the constitution demanding a minimum of one third women elected. In the first election, 2013, after the new constitution, only 19% women were elected. The Supreme Court has set a dead-line at August 27 this year for new rules that fulfill the constitutional provisions.
2014 Spring
* June 2014 report: “Women’s Under-representation in Politics in the New Democrcy of Bhutan – the need for new strategies. READ & DOWNLOAD the PDF: Women’s under-representation in politics
* April 2014 (week 17): Mission to Egypt on how to empower women in parliamentary politics under the new constitution of January 2014. A mission for the IPU.
IPU Draft Proposal Advisory Delegation
* April 2014 (week 14): On mission in the new democracy in Bhutan:
Aim of mission: DIPD Consultancy Contract.2
Earlier mission, and mission reports:
Egypt, Tunisia, Cambodia, Sierra Leone
Mission to Sierra Leone,
Mission to Cambodia, 2010 for UNDP.
Final Report here:
Drude Dahlerup 