National Workshop to educate Burkinabe Women on Gender and Elections
A national workshop for educating Burkinabe women on gender and elections is scheduled to hold from the 23rd of June 2015 in the Burkinabe capital of Ouagadougou.
The event aims to further promote women’s participation in electoral processes in the West African sub-region and to provide participants with the tools with which to critically evaluate elections from a gender perspective. The event also intends to raise women’s awareness on the value of their empowerment.
The workshop further aims to inform Burkinabe civil society organisations and women advocacy groups of the strategies for promoting women participation in electoral processes. The event subsequently aims to create a women advocacy network on gender and elections within the Community space.
Participants at the workshop mainly include representatives of women organisations involved in electoral activities, the electoral administration and the Burkinabe Ministry for Women Affairs.
Resource persons scheduled to participate in the training include partners from the Democracy and Electoral Assistance Unit of the African Union Commission, the International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance and the International Foundation for Electoral Systems.
The training will focus on practical issues with modules that offer a variety of activities designed to give participants the main ideas clearly mapped out and to produce specific learning results.
Organised by the ECOWAS Commission through the Gender Directorate, and with the support of the Danish International Development Agency (DANIDA), the training will comprise 24 modules, of which one is devoted to “Gender and Elections”.
This capacity building workshop is devoted to developing skills and knowledge of the electoral systems from a gender perspective and goes beyond shoring up gaps in the area of women advocacy as a constituted group.
There is no doubt that these capacities will improve the political commitment inculcated and strengthen support and action for increased involvement in national democratic processes at all levels.