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Breaking Barriers to Build Leaders

In the CSW side event Breaking Barriers, Building Leaders: Advancing Women’s and Girls’ Political Participation and Leadership at the Local Level, grassroots leaders and global advocates explored innovative strategies for breaking systemic barriers and fostering inclusive leadership. Perspectives and best practices were shared from Latin America, Africa and South Asia.
Despite global commitments to gender equality, women and girls remain underrepresented in political leadership. It’s time to change that.
Rumbidizai Kandawasvika-Nhundu, principal advisor Democracy and Inclusion at International IDEA was asked what she is missing in political participation and leadership. She shared about the importance of addressing the lack of participation and representation: “When women are participating, we see what is missing [in for example policies].”  

In India, there is a system of gender quota for local politics whereby 33% of seats are reserved for women. This is called the Panchayati Raj Act and it has been in place already since 1993.1 Since then, the percentage of women in local politics in the country has risen to 50%!  

“That means that there are 1.25 million women in local politics in India”, shared Ruchi Yadav from The Hunger Project in India gladly. At national level, however, the number of women in politics remains low with currently only 14% women. Since 2023, they are trying to also get gender quota in their parliament, “as quota are a start”, she said.

Nereida Hernández is a human rights advocate for Indigenous women, from Oaxaca in Mexico. She stressed the importance of participation of Indigenous women in politics. Nereida is also a student at the Municipal School for Community-Led Development, a program by The Hunger Project México focused on democracy, participation, and the defense of civic space. She shared her concerns about barriers that women experience to get into politics and the violence women experience once they are in politics.  

As Advocacy Coordinator at the Center for Justice, Democracy and Equality (CEJUDI), Silvia Esquivel shared that it is important to have data and evidence to support our advocacy. For example, when policies or mechanisms are in place, but are not implemented well. A reality many of us know all too well.

For Esmeralda Alfaro working at Asociación Las Crisálidas in Guatamala, the leadership of young people is important. However, to get into politics you often have to be able to provide for yourself and have money for campaigning. This makes it diffictul to get into politics, particularly for young people. It is a big barrier. To conclude, her advice to young people would be: “dare to be in leadership and take care of yourself”.   

by Yara Bon, Alliantie Politica, WO=MEN Dutch Gender Platform 

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The Hunger Project, Plan International and IPPF ACRO organised this insightful session on the sidelines of the UN Commission on the Status of Women on Tuesday 11th of March. More information about the speakers can be found here: https://buildingleaders.confetti.events/.

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