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Good practice Imported

Handbook on Promoting Women’s Participation in Political Parties

· Warsaw · Transnational

This Handbook on Promoting Women’s Participation in Political Parties aims at encouraging political party leaders, men, and women alike, to support the integration of gender aspects into internal political party decision-making processes, thus promoting gender equality in politic

Handbook on Promoting Women’s Participation in Political Parties

Details

Maturity
Established
Promoter
OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) — website
Power domain
Political Power
Methods / tools
Gender Training, Awareness-raising, Self-regulation, Benchmarking
Keywords
political actors, political parties, gender-balanced representation, decision-making, public offices

Context

Published by the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR), this handbook guides political party leaders -- men and women alike -- on integrating gender aspects into internal party decision-making across OSCE participating States in Europe and Central Asia.

Objectives

Promote women's participation in political-party structures and develop the capacity of women politicians to advance their political careers, addressing internal barriers such as weak party democracy, gender-insensitive candidate selection and centralised decision-making.

Activities

The handbook provides voluntary recommendations and a checklist for gender mainstreaming, covering awareness-raising and training programmes, quota or affirmative-action policy options, equal access to party funding and staff, campaign support for women candidates, anti-harassment measures, and partnerships with women's organisations; it includes case studies from political parties in Europe and Central Asia.

Implementation
Indicative cost
Low (< €50k) — No cost data for producing or distributing the handbook was found.
Time to results
Medium (1–3 years) — Framed as a standing reference resource; no specific timeline for party-level uptake or implementation is documented.
Staffing & skills
OSCE/ODIHR gender-equality unit (production and maintenance of the handbook), Internal party champions/gender-equality committees needed to act on recommendations

Conditions for success

  • Political will within party leadership to adopt the voluntary recommendations
  • Integration of quotas or affirmative-action measures into party statutes
  • Monitoring of whether parties actually implement the checklist

Common failure modes

  • Recommendations are voluntary with no enforcement or reporting requirement, so uptake by individual parties is not tracked or guaranteed

Where it fits

Governance type
transnational guidance document for political parties
Scale
transnational
Income level
mixed (spans OSCE participating states of varying income levels)

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