Over the past two decades there have been conscious global efforts to promote women’s participation in politics. Some of these efforts include the Beijing Conference held in 1995 with the main agenda being women’s empowerment. The international community has also underscored the importance of women assuming positions of power and influence, not only because their points of view and talents are needed, but also as a matter of respecting their human rights.

In many African countries women are still considered as second class citizens and have been relegated to the background. The situation in some communities is worsened by entrenched traditional practices which do not allow women the right to be part of decision-making on issues affecting them in their communities. Irrespective of the emerging changes on the political landscape of women’s active involvement in political activity, politics continues to be male dominated and women face many socio cultural and economic challenges which prevent them from entring political offices.

For this reason the West African Civil Society Institute and the Women Peace and Security Network Africa (WIPSEN – Africa) organized the 2^nd Women’s Policy Forum. The theme for the second forum was “Our Politics is NOW: Moving Beyond the Rhetoric of Women’s Political Participation”. The gathering brought together 40 women’s civil society groups (women’s groups and networks), government, intergovernmental organisations, academia, ECOWAS gender machineries, and development agencies. Three donor organizations namely the African Women’s Development Fund, the Urgent Action Fund-Kenya and Daphne Foundation were also represented. The aim of the forum was to examine and develop strategies to enhance women’s visibility, involvement and candidacy in upcoming electoral processes across West Africa, to identify potential entry points for women’s political participation in politics and to learn from the experiences of countries that have successfully increased women’s participation in politics. Coming just before the review of Beijing +15, where African governments will evaluate progress made in implementing the Beijing Platform of Action, the need for this forum couldn’t be overemphasized. It actually provided a safe space for women to critically assess progress made and identify gaps in women’s participation in politics. In line with its values and principles, AWDF awarded a grant of US$30,000 towards organizing this forum. During the meeting, AWDF made a presentation on accessing financial support for women’s political participation. The under-representation of women in the political landscape is closely linked with economic difficulties. Funding continues to be a challenge for women’s political participation and the session also highlighted the fact that irrespective of the many challenges around access to financial resources, new fundraising initiatives and opportunities have been created and they are in addition to the existing UN institutions, in the form of women’s funds which have been established across the world to raise funds for women’s rights activities. Women’s funds are committed to funding women’s work at local, national and international levels.

It is a unanimous opinion that many women have competent skills and resources guaranteeing their self-reliance but do not engage in political activities. Attracting self-reliant women to politics therefore must be one of the goals of the women’s empowerment process. On the other hand, adequate strategies must be developed to move women in lower echelons of leadership to higher levels and to help those already in leadership position maintain their positions and be able to influence decisions and policies and make meaningful changes. The timing of this a forum is critical as between 2010 and 2012 many countries like Benin, Burkina Faso, Côte d’Ivoire, Liberia, Cape Verde, Gambia, Ghana, Mali, Niger, Nigeria and Sierra Leone will be holding general elections. This was therefore an opportunity for many politicians and civil society networks to strategize around enhancing women’s active participation in the political circle.

Amongst strategies proposed by the forum to promote the process of women’s political empowerment were collective strategies of research on existing regional and legal instruments to end gender discrimination through legislation, government policy, development policy, documentation of elections models and experiences, capacity building and resource mobilization training.

As key regional organisations, WACSI and WIPSEN Africa form key strategic partners in the realization of women’s active political participation. It is therefore important that organisation’s such as AWDF take keen interest in the management and direction of these organizations to support them to play their role as strategic partner in the quest for enhancing women’s political participation. Personally I think women in leadership positions must also devise means of sustaining their collaboration with women’s organizations, activists and the media to concretely address women-specific concerns, without breaching loyalty to their respective political platforms.

Rissi Assani-Alabi

Francophone Programme Officer

AWDF