POLICY BRIEF:

REGIONAL ACTION FOR LOCAL GOVERNANCE

ARAB WOMEN ELECTORAL AND LEADERSHIP CAMPAIGNS

CAWTAR organized a regional roundtable on March 14, 2008 in Tunisia to disseminate the findings of its project and to deliberate on a regional advocacy strategy to intervene  if its project is to effectively contribute to the support of Arab women in local governance  in terms of  their leadership and  their accountability to their constituencies at the local level. CAWTAR’s partners attended the regional roundtable from the five countries covered by the project in addition to others from Arab countries, which witnessed either significant developments with respect to women entry to the political life such as Bahrain or growing relevant activism such as Morocco. The participants included NGOs, activists, women who had experience in running elections, training centers and representative of specialized regional networks and journalists.

The participants contended that the regional advocacy strategy is to focus on Arab women electoral and leadership campaigns, which are critical for both preserving opportunities for equal participation and the equitable voice-building at the local level but in the region largely weak.  In this respect, the participations proposed different interventions stemmed from the lessons learned from election and political participation in their respective countries as well as their own actual experiences.

Click here to see the Regional Advocacy Strategy