Official publication launch of the study „Promoting Women’s Political Participation – From Quota to Parity“.

UNWOMEN published in December 2021 a legal guide as part of the regional Women’s Leadership Programme funded by the government of Canada to increase the understanding of the legal obligations of countries in the West and Central Africa (WCA) region to achieve gender equality in decision-making. Elbarlament’s Managing Director Dr. Birgit Laubach is the lead author of the study. Its official launch will take place via a webinar on 10 February from 11am to 1pm Dakar time. See the draft programme here.

It focuses on strengthening efforts to improve the legal framework in this region to ensure that laws are clearly drafted, implementable and effective. It aims to strengthen law-making processes that build and secure the legal rights of women who want to run for elections and who are ready to take over leadership positions in their parliaments and governments. The comparative experiences presented in the guide address both examples of good practices and laws that have failed because their regulations are imprecise, unclear and/or lack effective sanctions. The guide presents also various provisions of laws resulting from different constitutional requirements or electoral systems, assessing their advantages and disadvantages.

The official publication launch is planned on February 10th from 11am to 1pm (Dakar time) and will:

• Provide a brief overview of the publication contents
• Share regional and national challenges associated with the legal reforms
• Discuss how best the publication could be used at the regional and national level