Gender in Democratic Governance

1. Gender in Democratic Governance UNDP Tanzania Approach

2. UNDP Gender Focus • Making gender equality a reality is a core commitment of UNDP. As a crosscutting issue, gender must be addressed in everything the organization does. • Why? Because equality between women and men is just, fair and right. It is a worthy goal in and of itself, one that lies at the heart of human development and human rights. • And because gender inequality is an obstacle to progress, a roadblock on the path of human development. • When development is not "en-gendered" it is "endangered".

3. Gender in Elections and ESP: • To ensure election processes are women friendly so as to promote their effective participation and increase their representational level in democratic governance and decision making structures. • The overall objective of the Election Support Project (ESP) is to support the implementation of credible elections in the United Republic of Tanzania in 2010 that will reflect international standards and best practice including; • International standards for elections (articles 7 of CEDAW, 9 of ACHPR-PW 22 of ICCPR, 20 of UDHR, and 29 of CRPD) acknowledge special measure to ensure effective participation of special groups in elections. Among others the special groups include women, people living with disabilities, first time voters, non-literate and persons living in remote areas. Women in Tanzania like many others in the sub-Saharan Africa are among the poorest in the society, have less education than men and also have less access to information. Women and the all other special groups mentioned above are targeted in the ESP programme. Below is an account of programmes/activities that target women. • Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), 1979 • Protocol to the African Charter on Human and People’s Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa (ACHPR-PW) • International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), 1966 • Universal Declaration on Human Rights (UDHR), 1948 • Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD), 2006

4. Expected Outputs • Increased awareness and appreciation of EMB’s and other stakeholders on the special needs of women as candidates and voters during elections, • Strengthened capacities of women organizations, women’s networks and other associations to promote the rights of women to vote and to be elected. • Strengthened capacities of the political party leaders and other stakeholders to understand and promote women issues in elections, • Increased awareness of Community and religious leaders on the importance of women to participate in elections hence improved environment for women to participate in elections as candidates and voters.

5. Strengthened capacities of journalists in reporting women issues in elections, • Strengthened leadership capacities of female political activists through training of a minimum of 600 female political activists on election related issues, • Strengthened leadership capacities of a minimum total of 600 female candidates through trainings on public speaking, networking, interaction with media and campaign techniques, • Voter education materials designed and produced with messages that target women, • Increased access to Civic and Voter Education information to the women in remote areas and with little education.

6. Activities related to support women as candidates • Workshops to identify potential female candidates in all parties. • Leadership trainings for female political party activists. • Workshop to sensitize political party leaders on gender issues in elections. • Training workshops for female candidates to strengthen their capacity on leadership skills. • Hold meetings with women organizations, women’s networks and other associations to promote the role of women in elections. • Regional meetings with community & religious leaders to encourage them to accept female candidates. • Organize workshops with EMBs & other stake-holders to sensitize MBs on the special needs of women.

7. Voter education (VE) for women • Production of TV spots, radio spots, leaflets, posters, brochures and newspapers adds addressing women; e.g. registration, campaigns, voting etc. • Production and distribution of special voter education material for non-literate women. • Purchase & distribute radio sets to women in remote areas to enable them to listen to radio information related to elections • Production of TV and radio sessions (10-60 minutes) to be provided free of charge to all radio stations across the country with specific messages for women. • Voter education supported by a small grants facility through CSO’s includes women as key target groups. • Voter Education road shows will have content targeting women.

8. Implementation Plan • The activities will be implemented by UNIFEM in collaboration with UNDP/ESP after a Letter of Agreement being signed by UNDP and UNIFEM. • UNIFEM would consider engaging other organizations to implement some of the activities due to the nature of tasks involved and the bulkiness. • Other activities will be directly implemented by UNIFEM and UNDP/ESP (e.g. organization of conference to sensitization NEC/ZEC on the special needs of women in elections and the conference to sensitize political party leaders on women issues in elections).

9. Resources • The planned budget to implement all the activities that target women in the ESP Work Plan is USD 750,000 (seven hundred and fifty thousand USD).