Good practice

Suriname's Gender Vision Policy (2021-2035) and Rising Women's Representation

Suriname · Paramaribo · See the Suriname profile

Suriname's Bureau of Gender Affairs issued a 15-year Gender Vision Policy (2021-2035) on political participation, building on a decade of steady, unlegislated gains: women's share of National Assembly seats rose from about 10% in 2010 to over 31% in 2025.

9.8-11.8 %

Women in National Assembly (2010)

31.37 %

Women in National Assembly (2024-2025)

Suriname's Gender Vision Policy (2021-2035) and Rising Women's Representation

Details

Maturity: Scaling
Promoter: Bureau of Gender Affairs, Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of Suriname
Period: 2010-2025
Keywords: gender policy, political participation, national gender machinery

Context

Suriname has no legislated candidate quota, but its Bureau of Gender Affairs (BGA) has built institutional support for women's political participation, producing a Gender Plan of Action (2019-2020) and a 15-year Gender Vision Policy (2021-2035) covering seven priority areas including power and decision-making.

Results

Women's share of Suriname's 51-seat National Assembly rose from about 9.8-11.8% (6 seats) in 2010, to 25.5% (13 seats) in 2015, to 29.4% (15 seats) after the 2020 election, reaching 31.37% by 2024-2025.

Conclusions

Because the gains are not anchored in binding electoral law, they remain more exposed to reversal than quota-based systems elsewhere in the region; independent verification of specific numeric targets within the Gender Vision Policy document itself was not possible from the published text alone.

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.

C-NAPSE web research — accessed 2026-07-11
Bureau of Gender Affairs, Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of Suriname — accessed 2026-07-11
UN ECLAC Gender Equality Observatory: Suriname Gender Vision Policy 2021-2035 — accessed 2026-07-11
The Global Economy: Suriname Women in Parliament — accessed 2026-07-11

Attachments

Source image

Quality score: 85/100

How is this calculated?

Evidence: Observational / pre–post

Top 22% in this catalogue (719 scored practices)

Scores cluster high, so position within the catalogue is often more telling than the number alone.

Evaluation

Evaluated by C-NAPSE

Score profile — the dimensions behind the score — how it's computed

Transferability / replicability2/3

National gender-policy frameworks with prioritized action areas are a widely used, replicable mechanism hosted comparably across the region by the UN ECLAC Gender Equality Observatory.

Impact on gender equality1/1

Women's National Assembly representation rose from about 10% (2010) to 31.37% (2024-2025), a sustained and substantial gain (theglobaleconomy.com, World Bank/IPU data).

Effectiveness1/1

Representation increased in every measured election cycle (2010, 2015, 2020) and held through 2024-2025, indicating a consistently positive trajectory.

Efficiency0/1

No budget or cost-effectiveness data for the Gender Vision Policy or Bureau of Gender Affairs activities was available in the sources reviewed.

Evaluated outcomes1/1

Women's parliamentary representation is tracked and quantified annually (theglobaleconomy.com/World Bank aggregation), giving a clear, evaluated outcome series.

Sustainability1/1

The representation gain has held and slightly increased across three consecutive election cycles (2015, 2020, 2024), and is now anchored in a policy framework running to 2035.

Achievement / evidence1/1

The policy's existence, issuing body and structure are corroborated by three independent sources (UN ECLAC, theglobaleconomy.com, Catalyst), though specific numeric KPI targets inside the policy document could not be independently verified.

Gender-mainstreaming embedding1/1

The Gender Vision Policy explicitly mainstreams gender across seven government priority areas, including power and decision-making.

Curator validation1/1

Sources are independent and consistent, and the entry transparently notes that an initial unverified 'gender-balanced cabinet' claim was excluded rather than reported as fact.

Cite this

Evidoria. Suriname's Gender Vision Policy (2021-2035) and Rising Women's Representation. Persistent ID: 859d324b-e01d-4ec7-a8a4-fb40a2107c8d.

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