The Zimbabwe Election Support Network (ZESN) is organising a Gender Equality and Elections Module BRIDGE Workshop to enhance the capacity of organisations working on gender and elections with skills and knowledge necessary to improve, particularly, women’s participation in electoral processes. The workshop is scheduled from October 29 to October 31, 2024. ZESN will also extend an invitation to critical institutions supporting democracy, which include Chapter 12 Commissions.

Barriers to women’s political participation and representation continue to exist in Zimbabwe. Women’s participation in elections has been marked by little progress and persistent challenges, despite having legal frameworks to promote gender equality. Women often face exclusion and marginalisation as candidates. Although progress has been made, such as appointing women as Chairpersons of some of the Chapter 12 Commissions, women’s representation in decision-making positions remains low. Women participation in the previous 2023 Harmonised Elections have been very low at various levels: Presidential, one female against ten males (8%:92%); National Assembly, 70 against 566 (11%:89%); and Local Authority, 755 against 4191 (15.1%:84.9%). There has been a notable decline when comparing to the 2018 Harmonised Elections, where at the Presidential level, four females against 19 males (19%:81%), National Assembly 243 against 1409 (15%:85%) and Local Authority 1155 against 5641 (17%:83%) contested as candidates. To address these issues, organisations working on advancing gender equality must receive targeted training. This training, carefully tailored to the needs of participants, will empower them to advocate for inclusion and fulfil their mandates throughout the electoral cycle, underscoring their importance in the process.

For this reason, careful tailoring of the module is essential to context and audience. The Gender Equality and Elections module will examine men and women’s participation electoral processes. Given that this module needs a gender expert, ZESN will engage a facilitator and resource person from the UNWomen Zimbabwe. A guest speaker and an expert on gender issues will be invited. We believe this initiative will significantly promote democratic processes and free and fair elections, instilling hope for a more equitable future.