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Gender Equity Roadmap
A. Gender Equity Roadmap
APGF and its member and associate member parties agreed to the Commitments in this paper at the APGF face to face meeting in December 2018. The Gender Equity Roadmap is one part of a larger project to promote and support the political participation of women in the member parties of the APGF. The project, the Gender Equity Action Plan, is designed to do this by establishing data on women’s participation in APGF member parties and associates, developing projects to support women into leadership positions and providing resources in the form of an online Toolkit to increase women’s participation and leadership. The Action Plan is in Appendix Three.
The Roadmap to the full Action Plan includes:
A commitment to support Gender Equity by APGF and its member parties,
A system to collect information on women’s participation and leadership within parties and report that information in their Annual Reports.
A framework to help members and associates create a gender equity plan that sets targets for increasing women’s membership and leadership.
A reporting and monitoring system for APGF and members to track and celebrate progress against their plans
Adoption of a full 3-year Action Plan for Gender Equity
B. Purpose of this document
This document sets out the first step on the Gender Equity Roadmap to increase women’s leadership, participation, and political engagement in all APGF member parties.
This document:
- Clarifies what Gender Equity is and why it is important and seeks a commitment from APGF and member parties to Gender Equity.
- Sets out a commitment by APGF for gathering data on women’s participation and leadership from its member parties and making gender equity more prominent in its processes.
- Sets out a commitment by member parties to a Gender Equity action plan that starts with keeping good information on women’s participation and leadership within their parties.
GENDER EQUITY COMMITMENT
APGF can help to promote Gender Equity by gathering data on women’s participation and leadership from its member parties in order to help us all set targets for improvement in Gender Equity.
Therefore, The Asia Pacific Greens Federation commits to the following steps:
Publication on the APGF website of an online Toolkit for Gender Equity that provides information and resources for our members to use to develop their own plan of action. We will keep the Toolkit updated with case studies and practical measures, so member Parties have access to a wide range of examples, ideas and programs to help improve Gender Equity in their Parties.
Asking member parties to report on progress in Gender Equity measures in their Annual Reports in order to celebrate success and provide assistance when necessary
Amend its own processes to make Gender Equity a greater priority.
MEMBER PARTIES’ COMMITMENT
All APGF member and associate member Parties commit to a program of action that starts with keeping good information on women’s participation and leadership within their parties and reporting that information in their Annual Reports. Therefore, APGF members and associate members will include in their Annual Reports the numbers of women members, women in leadership roles in the Party, women candidates, and women elected to public office.
C. Next Steps
These three commitments of APGF and its member parties are the first steps on the Roadmap to Gender Equity. The next step is for APGF to prepare a Framework to help members prepare Gender Equity Plans. A draft Framework is in the APGF Framework to help create gender equity plans for members Appendix and was approved by the APGF Council in December 2018. All these actions lead towards a full 3-year Strategic Action Plan. A draft Action Plan is in the Gender Equity 3-Year Action Plan Appendix.
Appendix – APGF Framework to help create Gender Equity plans for members
Each Party will have reported on women’s representation in their 2017 Annual Report. The initial report is included in Appendix Two of this paper. APGF will build on that for a framework which will include:
Ways to collect information about the numbers of women in the Party, such as the number of women in leadership roles, who stand as candidates, membership of women, and other statistics
How to set realistic but ambitious targets to increase these numbers
A timeframe for meeting those targets
A system for monitoring the party’s achievements
A method of reporting on those achievements
Appendix – Gender Equity 3-Year Action Plan
1. Purpose of this document
This is the 3-year Action Plan that provides the steps to increase women’s participation in all APGF member parties. The Plan sets out goals for improving women’s participation, leadership, and policy development. It includes measurable objectives that will help members achieve those goals. And it will include a schedule by which members can plan to achieve those objectives. The Commitment, Toolkit, and the Framework previously prepared were the building blocks towards this plan.
2. Goals and Objectives
Structures
Structures and rules within Green parties improve how women can participate and hold leadership positions in the party. This includes systems for the recruitment and training of women in all areas of the party process and political process and training for all party members on bullying, discrimination, and harassment, including sexual harassment.
GOAL: Every APGF member Party will have in its founding or constitutional documents a statement of support for gender equity.
Objectives to achieve this Goal
Constitutional support for gender equity means that the Party’s Constitution will contain
A statement that Gender Equity is a principle or goal of the party
A commitment to the equal participation of women as members, in leadership roles in the party, decision making and as electoral candidates
GOAL: Every APGF member Party will have provisions in its Rules or Bylaws for the participation, decision making, and leadership of women in the Party and as candidates. This includes systems for the recruitment and training of women in all areas of the party process and political process and training for all party members on bullying, discrimination, and harassment.
Objectives to achieve this Goal
The Party’s rules (bylaws, operating procedures, etc) will include rules to promote/encourage women as members, in leadership, decision making and as electoral candidates in the Party. This includes rules on
Sexual harassment and bullying
Transparent recruitment and selection processes in the Party
Equitable recruitment in candidate and executive nomination committees
Quotas for women to hold executive positions
Quotas for women as electoral candidates
Equitable seat/electorate allocation
The proportion of the female delegates who attend party conference
Reporting on organisational culture and monitoring of these rules
Policies
Green Party policies are the vital building blocks for achieving gender equity and for empowering women in our communities, countries and across the globe, as well as addressing issues like climate change, social justice, and environmental protection.
GOAL: Every APGF member Party will have gender specific points in their Issue policies, particularly in policies on Climate Change, Poverty, Economic Development, Environment, Conservation, Education, Health, and Justice.
Objectives to achieve this Goal
Gender specific policy points mean that the policies will include
A statement of how women are affected by that issue
A set of policy solutions to solve, protect or promote women’s rights on that issue
Action
Structures and Policies are essential but there are many more actions that need to be taken to achieve long term, sustainable gender equity. It is important therefore for parties to have a program for change for progress to be measured against.
GOAL: All APGF member Parties will undertake a program of action that sets targets for women’s participation, training, recruitment, leadership, exposure, and political candidature and that monitors and reports on its own progress in meeting these targets.
Objectives to achieve this goal
Each Party will create a plan of Action that shows how they will meet the APGF Goals and Objectives, a timeframe for achieving them and a system for monitoring those achievements. This Plan can include:
Targets for female participation in party conventions, congresses, leadership, and as candidates
Establish women’s wings and sections within the political parties
Ways to expand and train the pool of women candidates and the placement of the women candidates in the winning seats,
Programs designed to engage women in the political process as voters, activists, and candidates through training, inspiration, and networking.
Ways to increase women’s visibility in campaigns by supporting media exposure and providing information to voters that includes specific messages highlighting the importance of women’s votes and women’s rights to vote as equal members of society
Espouse measures and code of ethics to protect women candidates from hostile environments in electoral campaigns
Working with civil society organizations (CSOs) to oversee the implementation of gender equity. Establish avenues so women’s networks and reference groups can help to inform party leadership and decision-making
Sharing experiences with other parties across countries and regions
Monitoring elections, including by recruiting women as party agents to be present at polling stations, particularly if those polling stations are allocated for women only
Holding regular training sessions on sexual harassment should be conducted for all staff members, including managers, supervisors, and workers. Developing a code of conduct to address issues on sexual harassment
Training for women candidates in skills such as fundraising, message development, media relations, communicating with voters, and meeting facilitation Publicize positions in the party that are specific to women, which could also attract more women’s votes for the party.
Invest in opportunities that promote women’s involvement in leadership and office-bearer roles.
Prevent, report, and respond to organizational culture and individual behavior that limits women’s participation.
