evidoria

← Back to browse

Good practice Imported

Zimbabwe Section 124 — 60 Reserved Parliamentary Seats for Women (2013 Constitution)

Zimbabwe · Harare · See the Zimbabwe profile · See the Harare profile

Evidence: Observational / pre–post Top 80% 37/100 · Ask Evidence Copilot about this practice

Zimbabwe's 2013 Constitution reserved 60 PR seats for women, raising female representation to 31.5% in 2018; however women won only 10% of constituency seats in 2023, revealing a perverse sidelining effect documented by IPU, Veritas Zimbabwe, and Friedrich Naumann.

60 seats
Reserved seats for women
6 seats
Reserved seats per province
10 of 60 seats
Reserved seats guaranteed for women under 35 (since 2021 amendment)
31.5 %
Women's share of National Assembly seats (after 2018 election) (after 2018 election)
10 % (approx.)
Women's share of constituency (first-past-the-post) seats (2023 election) (2023 election)
Zimbabwe Section 124 — 60 Reserved Parliamentary Seats for Women (2013 Constitution)

Details

Maturity
Established
Promoter
Parliament of Zimbabwe / Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC)
Period
2013–2028
Keywords
government, constitutional, political participation

Context

Section 124 of Zimbabwe's 2013 Constitution created 60 additional seats in the National Assembly — six per province — to be filled by women elected through proportional representation, as a temporary affirmative-action measure intended to run across four parliaments (the 2013, 2018, 2023 and 2028 elections). A 2021 constitutional amendment extended the mechanism and specified that at least 10 of the 60 seats must go to women under age 35.

Results

The reserved seats produced an initial sharp increase: after the 2018 elections, women held 31.5% of National Assembly seats overall. However, analysis by the Friedrich Naumann Foundation (2021) and Veritas Zimbabwe's 2023 Election Watch found that political parties routinely place women on proportional-representation lists rather than backing them in first-past-the-post constituency races, effectively treating reserved seats as a substitute for organic representation. By 2023, women won only about 10% of constituency seats, the lowest share in recent parliaments.

Conclusions

The Friedrich Naumann Foundation's conclusion — that the model amounts to 'exclusion by inclusion' — is supported by IPU Parline data. This cautionary case shows that temporary reserved-seat quotas without accompanying party reform can entrench, rather than dismantle, structural barriers to women's representation.

Implementation
Indicative cost
Low (< €50k)
Time to results
Long (> 3 years)
Staffing & skills
Political parties are responsible for compiling proportional-representation candidate lists; the mechanism relies on party-level list procedures rather than dedicated programme staff

Conditions for success

  • Accompanying reform of party candidate-selection processes so women also contest first-past-the-post constituency seats, not just proportional-representation lists (per Friedrich Naumann Foundation recommendation)
  • Sustained constitutional protection of the mechanism across multiple parliamentary terms (extended by the 2021 amendment)

Common failure modes

  • Parties treating reserved proportional-representation seats as a substitute for backing women in constituency races, described by the Friedrich Naumann Foundation as 'exclusion by inclusion'
  • Declining share of women winning constituency (first-past-the-post) seats over time (about 10% by 2023, the lowest in recent parliaments)

Commonly funded by

National / regional programmes

Indicative funding routes for practices of this type — always check each programme's current calls and eligibility rules.

Do you run this practice? Claim it — verified implementers get a public contact pathway and can propose corrections.

Data sources

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

Attachments

Similar practices you may find useful