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Good practice

Lei da Paridade — Cabo Verde's Gender Parity Law for Elected Office

Cabo Verde · Praia · See the Cabo Verde profile

Cabo Verde's 2019 Gender Parity Law set a 40% minimum quota for each sex on all candidate lists and ties campaign funding to compliance. Women's seats in the National Assembly rose from 17/72 (23.6%) in 2016 to 28/72 (38.9%) after 2021.

17 of 72 (23.6%)
Women's seats in National Assembly before the law (2016 election)
28 of 72 (38.9%)
Women's seats in National Assembly after the law (2021 election)
11 seats
Increase in women's seats (2016-2021)
27 %
Women's share of city councillors before the law
29.4 %
Women's share of Municipal Assembly members before the law

Details

Maturity
Established
Promoter
ICIEG — Instituto Cabo-verdiano para a Igualdade e Equidade de Género
Period
2019–2021
Keywords
electoral law, gender quotas, political representation, public funding conditionality

Context

Cabo Verde's Lei da Paridade (Law 68/IX/2019), approved by the National Assembly on 28 November 2019, sets a minimum of 40% representation for each sex on candidate lists for the National Assembly, Municipal Chambers and Municipal Assemblies. Article 431(2) of the Electoral Law reinforces the quota by restricting public campaign funding to parties whose national lists include at least 25% women candidates.

Objectives

The law aimed to raise women's representation in elected office beyond the roughly one-quarter share seen before 2019, using a financial incentive to encourage compliance beyond the legal minimum.

Results

Women's representation in the National Assembly rose from 17 of 72 seats (23.6%) in 2016 to 28 of 72 seats (38.9%) after the first elections held under the new rules in April 2021 — an 11-seat gain in a single electoral cycle. Similar gains were recorded at municipal level, where women's representation before the law stood at 27% of city councillors and 29.4% of Municipal Assembly members.

Conclusions

The law falls short of full 50/50 parity, applying a 40% floor rather than a strict alternation rule, so gains — while the largest single-election increase in Cabo Verde's history — have not fully closed the gap.

Implementation

Implementation detail (cost, timeline, staffing, conditions for success) is not yet available for this practice.

Data sources

Where this practice's information was retrieved from, and when.

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