Women in parliament : Bayon Numbers

International IDEA's mandate is to think globally, and provide a global perspective on issues related to democracy and elections. Its objectives, as stated in its statutes, are "to promote and advance sustainable democracy world-wide", and to "strengthen and support national capacity to develop the full range of democratic instruments". In this regard, the Institute thinks to elucidate the various models, methods, and approaches being used in different parts of the world to share up democracy at various stages and processes. In keeping with this mandate, work on gender issues at International IDEA takes into account the global perspective while ensuring that the material gathered and discussed also reflects an awareness of and comparisons between different national, regional and local contexts. International IDEA is strongly committed to contributing to the ongoing debate on how to advance gender and democracy issues in general, and how to promote women's equality and representation in particular. To further this goal, a Gender Working Group was established at International IDEA in September 1996. Currently, the Institute is working on two gender projects. The first project is directed internally and its objective is to mainstream gender issues within the Institute and to provide gender training for staff to ensure that all projects are comprehensive and representative. This second project, under which this handbook falls, is to highlight the qualitative dimension of women's political contributions. This project is entitled "Enhancing Women's Political Participation" and its objectives are twofold; first, to compile and present in an accessible manner, the state of the art research on how women can actually impact on political processes through their participation; and second to identify the areas in which women require more information or assistance, in order to be able to devise the means by which such needs can be addressed locally, regionally and globally, today and in the future.