Women in Urban Local Government (Phase 3): Capacity building of local government training institutes to undertake training of women in local government

Background

This project focuses on the capacity building of women in order to empower women to become effective decision makers at the local level and to enable them to play a transformative role in local development.

Over the past years, ESCAP has been undertaking a multi-phase project on the Advancement of Women in Local Government funded by JECF. Phase I of the project culminated in the convening of the first ever Asia-Pacific Summit of Women Mayors and Councillors, held from 19 to 22 June 2001 at Phitsanulok, Thailand. The Summit emphasized the lack of training of newly elected and appointed women in local government as a key constraint to their ability to participate in the decision-making process at the local level. Women councillors and civil servants have to work in a male-dominated and gender insensitive political environment, and since they often have little knowledge of the political process, their duties, responsibilities and powers, they cannot represent their constituencies effectively. Therefore the Phitsanulok Declaration on the Advancement of Women in Local Government, adopted by the Summit on 22 June 2001 calls for the provision of training for newly elected and appointed women on gender issues, local government systems and their governance roles, rights and responsibilities so as to be more effective, transparent and accountable to their electorate.

The Declaration also emphasizes country-level training needs assessment as well as identification of training providers. This requirement implicitly recognizes that generic training modules developed by international organizations are often ineffective because they fail to reflect local government structures, cultural and social norms, and the social status of women in a particular country. There is a need to develop country-specific training material and training programmes.

The activities of this project are linked closely to the Phase II of the same project, which called for the convening of national summits of women in local government in five countries and the setting up of national resource facilities and networks on women in local government that are connected to a regional network and resource facility on women in local government. The national resource facilities will amongst others provide training for women entering local government.

It is expected that by the end of this third phase of the project, the training institutes in each of the participating countries will have increased their ability to develop training materials and conduct training in order to better equip women in local government in their countries to understand their powers, responsibilities and duties and will be equipped with techniques and methodologies to utilize them. The target beneficiaries are newly elected and appointed women in local government, women running for local government, and local government training and research institutes in participating countries.

For proceedings of the Phase II Summits and earlier activities, please go to the Regional Information Resource Facility (RIRF).

Target groups:

Newly elected and appointed women in local government, women running for local government, and local government training and research institutes

Links to other related documents:

Women in Urban Local Government in South Asia