The Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) will be organising a Gender Equality and Elections BRIDGE Module workshop for its electoral staff. ZEC is in the process of reviewing its Gender Policy and felt it prudent to capacitate its staff with knowledge and information that will hopefully improve their understanding of the subject and enhance their approaches to access and inclusion issues for disadvantaged and marginalised groups.

While Zimbabwe’s policy and legal framework generally recognises the disparities that exist between men and women and the need to advance women’s participation in political and public life, women’s participation remains low with the 2023 Harmonised General Elections showing a significant dip in women’s representation in elective offices. Admittedly, the inclusion of provisions in the law on women’s quotas at both Parliamentary and local authority level has helped in boosting women representation, a lot more, however, could still be done to enhance participation by addressing the myriad of barriers that still confront women.

This training will help participants understand the need for an EMB to ensure inclusive electoral processes and identify the strategies that the Commission could employ to enhance women’s participation and inclusion in the electoral process and throughout the electoral cycle.