By: Dr. Awino Okech
This is the first in a series of three African Women’s Development Fund (AWDF) primers entitled Feminist Perspectives on Governance, Peace and Security. The primers are intended to:
1. Offer a review of the major debates on women, governance, peace and security in Africa.
2. Review and analyse women’s movements’ interventions in governance, peace and security.
3. Offer a set of policy and advocacy priorities based on political and practical realities.
4. Benefit women’s rights activists, organisations and people in government at the front line of local and national mobilisation initiatives seeking to enhance women’s leadership.
5. Assist in building alliances and structuring support across various institutions working towards enhancing women’s political participation.
This particular primer maps key areas of feminist analysis and intervention in governance. Based on existing research on the major factors that hinder women’s political participation, emphasis is placed on electoral systems, political parties, quotas and national constitutional mechanisms. These are also areas where the impact of the women’s rights movement has been felt. This primer therefore assesses the ways in which women’s participation in governance has been assured, the challenges arising from these approaches, and lessons therein. This primer is intended to benefit women’s rights activists and organisations at the frontline of local and national mobilisation initiatives that seek to enhance women’s leadership. We hope the primer is useful for building alliances and structuring support across various institutions working towards enhancing women’s political participation.