Gender Equality and Elections

The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) with the assistance of the International Foundation for Electoral Systems (IFES) arranged a three-day BRIDGE workshop on the “Gender Equality and Elections” module for its female officers working in Grade 17. The workshop was held at PC Hotel, Bhurban, Pakistan from 17-19 August 2024. 

2.       Out of a total of 26 participants, 23 belonged to ECP whereas 3 belonged to IFES Pakistan. Almost all the participants were relatively newly inducted having around three years of electoral experience. The workshop was facilitated by the following facilitators:

a.     Asif Ali Yasin                                 Accrediting Facilitator

b.     Kulsoom Akhtar                            Workshop Facilitator 

c.     Muhammad Aslam Brohi               Workshop Facilitator

d.     Shabir Ahmed                               TtF Complete 

3.       The objective of the workshop was to provide electoral principles to officers of ECP for their professional development and to provide them with the skills and knowledge necessary to improve women’s participation in the electoral process. Accordingly, the contents of the workshop were carefully tailored to focus on gender-inclusive elections in an international perspective as well as a locally contextualized perspective. The main sessions held during the workshop inter alia included the following:

a.     Equality & Equity, International Standards and Principles;

b.     Gender and Electoral Cycle;

c.     A Level Playing Field;

d.     Target and Numbers;

e.     Quota Controversies; 

f.      Electoral Systems Overview;

g.     Gender-Inclusive Electoral Management Bodies;

h.     Gender Disaggregated Data; 

i.       Barriers Women Face in Accessing Electoral Processes; 

j.      Registration Obstacles and Identification Issues; 

k.     Understanding Temporary Special Measures: Gender Quotas 

l.       Internal Gender Policies for EMBs, Gender Mainstreaming & Social Inclusion Framework (GIMSIF) & its implementation in ECP.

m.    Make it Happen: Making a Personal Action Plan: Strategies & Step by Step guide.

3.  Another important aspect of this workshop was its happy coincidence with the finalization of the Gender Mainstreaming and Social Inclusion Framework (GMSIF) of ECP which is expected to be launched in a few weeks. The content of the finalized GMSIF was included in a session on the last day of the workshop which was delivered by a technical resource person namely Ms. Fauzia who was specially invited for the purpose.  

4.   The participants were very keen to learn various aspects of gender equality and elections from global and local perspectives. They actively participated in different interactive sessions of the workshop with much interest and made frequent queries during each session to clarify their understanding of the concepts. Activities designed to enhance participants’ understanding of different aspects of gender inclusion in the electoral process were eagerly performed by the participants and they realized the importance of women’s participation in electoral processes and by extension in democracy.

5.       Participants appreciated the interactive methodology being used in BRIDGE workshops. They acknowledged the idea of BRIDGE being activity-based, offering a range of activities designed to convey identified Key Understandings and Learning Outcomes together with the methodology based on adult learning principles, prioritizing teamwork and experiential learning.

6.       Keeping in view the overall enthusiasm of the participants supplemented by the extremely positive impact of pre-assessments and post-assessments (showing enhanced understanding of the content of the workshop), the objectives of the workshop were well achieved and hopefully, this will lay a strong foundation on an understanding of gender-inclusive elections in participants and they will be able to use the provided tools to analyze electoral processes and elections from a gender perspective.