Women's political leadership

Funded by Global Affairs Canada, WFD began implementing the ASEAN women’s political leadership programme in February 2022, aimed at creating an environment that better enables politically active women to participate and exercise leadership in politics across the ASEAN countries. In December 2022, WFD published a research report on the state of women’s political leadership in Indonesia, Malaysia, and Thailand.

Political parties are the building blocks of any elective democracy in that they define the pathways for mobilising and canvassing for votes as well as serve as focal points for engaging on governance. As pivotal as the place of political parties in a democracy are, Nigeria's experience with party organising has been one of mixed results, with particular concerns about the exclusion of women, young people, and persons with disabilities.

This resource provides a comprehensive analysis on the unique challenges and opportunities faced by women candidates in legislative elections. Driven by empirical data of women’s representation in elections across different time periods and regimes, the module offers concrete insights for women candidates to navigate the complex political environment. Development of this module also benefitted from feedback gained through a series of trainings that engaged over 100 women legislative candidates running for parliamentary seats at subnational and national levels.

Women and other marginalized groups continue to face obstacles and challenges in their political representation. One of them is a lack of access to political funding, both from party sources as well as from external funding. 

Despite several legal improvements and concrete steps to ensure equal representation between men and women in politics, Albania is still lagging behind. Women don’t have the same access to financial resources, stemming from generally lower-paid jobs and less access to property, financial assets, and other resources that are needed during elections.