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FUND FOR GENDER EQUALITY

Advancing Womens Political and Economic Empowerment CONCEPT NOTE CATALYTIC GRANT APPLICATION
I. CATALYTIC GRANT PROGRAMME INFORMATION*
1. CATALYTIC GRANT PROGRAMME INFORMATION

a. The proposed programme is a Partnership (see below) between 8 organizations (Both governmental and non-governmental organizations) b. (Partnerships only) Name of lead organization #1: Women and Media Collective c. Programme Title: Changing Minds: Nominations and Votes for Women d. Programme Summary Through advocacy with political parties supported by media initiatives at the local level this programme will work to achieve increased nominations for women across party lines including for women from minority Tamil and Muslim communities (from approximately 2% nominations generally received by women at Local Council elections to at least 20%) with the ultimate aim of increasing representation of women within these councils. It will specifically focus on Local Council elections scheduled for 2011. Building on the momentum of these local level initiatives, this programme will also engage in national level advocacy for a legally enforceable quota for women and political funds for women within the two largest political parties together with local and national womens organizations, civil society organizations and the gender machinery of the state. e. Country (or territory) in which the proposed programme will be implemented: Sri Lanka II. PROGRAMME DESCRIPTION, RATIONALE AND ANALYSIS II.PROGRAMME DESCRIPTION : RATIONALE AND ANALYSIS a. Catalytic Programme Description In Sri Lanka (SL) women constitute less than 6% of Parliament, 5% of Provincial Councils and 2% in Local Councils. These statistics are the lowest in South Asia and SL is the only country in the region without a quota for women in Local Councils. One of the main reasons for such low representation has been the reluctance of political parties to give sufficient nominations to women candidates. According to available statistics, nominations for women at Local Council elections account for only around 2% of all nominations (1991). This indicates poor political will to ensure

substantive equality for women and continues a trend of discrimination against women interested in a career in politics. The next Local Council elections in SL are due in 2011. This proposal made by The Women and Media Collective (WMC) a nationally recognized womens rights organization in partnership with the Ministry of Child Development and Womens Empowerment (MCDWE) as well as 6 other national and local level womens groups seeks to increase the percentage of nominations for women in selected Local Council electorates in 2011 and enhance womens capacity to be successful candidates. It is believed thereby that womens representation in these Councils will increase even in a limited way. The aim is to increase nominations for women to at least 20% in 50 party lists (including the two largest political parties and smaller parties representing the minority Tamil and Muslim communities in SL) in local government electorates in 5 selected districts in SL. We will also enhance womens capacity to be successful candidates at these elections, by profiling and highlighting women leaders at the local level and raising awareness among the local community about the abysmal representation of women in Local Councils, the implications of such low representation and the urgent need to increase representation by both supporting nominations for women and voting for women. The local initiatives for increased nominations will be strengthened with advocacy amongst political party leaders at the national level. Parallel to this advocacy, this partnership will advocate for a legally enforceable quota for women in Local Councils supported by a national level media campaign highlighting the need increase representation of women at Local Councils and the establishment of Political Funds for women within the two largest political parties in SL the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) and the United National Party (UNP).

b. Background The process that would lead to the desired outcome is envisaged as follows: 1) Conduct baseline survey on political party attitudes on nominations and quotas for women. 2) Establish 5 womens committees (of 10 women each) at the District level, comprising women from womens organizations, working at community level, committed to increasing womens representation in Local Councils. 3) Build the capacity of these committees with training programmes: on concepts relating to representation/quotas, implications of under representation, substantive equality, and advocacy; on alternative media such as street theatre, silk screen posters and virudhu (folk poetry and story telling) for awareness raising and advocacy and on using innovative media techniques including community led video documentation for profiling women as well as documenting the advocacy experience (The video documentation by these Committees will be edited and made into a documentary at the conclusion of the programme).

4) Identify suitable Local Council electorates for awareness raising on womens under representation and advocacy for increased nominations /representation; 5) Raise awareness within the electorate on the need for increased nominations / representation. 6).Engage from the local to the national level of political leadership, local level government bodies, civil society organizations (led by men and women) community leaders including religious leaders for increased nominations; 7) Profile potential women candidates with a focus to obtaining candidacy; 8) Ensure women account for at least 20% of those nominated in the selected local council lists; 9) Continue profiling the capacity of women and campaign for votes for women candidates to ensure their success. In parallel to the above: continue current advocacy efforts for a legally binding quota for women in Local Councils including through the media. begin discussions with the two largest political parties on the issue of establishing political funds for women. Our allies include the National Gender Machinery; womens organizations; critical civil society organizations (mixed); strategically selected parliamentarians, women members of political parties, and the UN system. We envisage opposition for increasing nominations/as well as a quota for women from the leadership and hierarchy of most political parties as well as some parliamentarians. The arguments against increasing nominations are: There arent enough women interested in politics; who can win seats; who have sufficient resources. The argument against quota is that women in SL enjoy a high human development index and face no legal discrimination in contesting elections, and therefore there is no need for affirmative action (Women activists and the Ministry have challenged all these arguments). c. Progress and Gaps Womens organizations, including the Women and Media Collective, have been advocating for a legal quota for women at Local Council level with mainstream political parties since the late 1990s. As a result the two major political parties have made commitments to a quota in their election manifestos. The United National Party was the first to make a commitment to increase representation at local level through a 25% reservation in nomination lists. The election manifestos of the two main presidential candidates (Mahinda Rajapakse and Ranil Wickramasinghe) at the presidential elections held in 2005 again pledged to implement a quota for women. Wickramasinghes Peoples Agenda explicitly committed to increasing nominations for women, while also ensuring 30% minimum representation of women in the central decision making committees of all political parties within three years of coming to power. The manifesto of the

winning candidate Mahinda Rajapakes, the current president states that, I will arrange to increase the number of nominations of women to a minimum of 25% of the total number of candidates in respect of provincial councils and local government authorities. In reality however, beyond the symbolic inclusion of one or two women in nomination lists, both parties have not taken concrete action to seriously address the under-representation of women in elected political bodies. Minority parties have made no written commitments. Womens groups together with the Ministry of Child Development and Womens Empowerment and the National Committee on Women (NCW) also made written and oral submissions before the Parliamentary Select Committee on Electoral Reform in 2003 demanding for a quota for women at Local Council level. The Select Committee in its report dated June 2007, has recognized the need to increase womens representation in politics, albeit in a relatively weak recommendation stating, Political parties should include provisions in their policies to ensure nominations of women candidates in order to guarantee better representation of women in Parliament, Provincial Councils, and Local Government bodies. Despite these pronouncements, lack of political will and opposition from political party hierarchies have impeded implementation of a legally enforceable quota. In this context it has become necessary rethink and re-strategize on the question of increasing representation of women at least in Local Councils. This UNIFEM call provides an opportunity to do so. We believe that 2011 Local Council elections presents an opportunity to attempt to increase nominations/ representation of women at Local Council level in light of above policy statements but taking into account lessons learnt from the past. d. Programme Rationale Recent efforts to increase womens representation in SL have primarily focused on two strategies: 1) training of women for political leadership with the expectation that these women will be recognized by political parties and be given nominations. A July 2009 report estimates that from 2000 to 2008, at least 5000 women have been trained including from within political parties for political leadership by various state and womens organizations. These training programmes have fulfilled an important need in relation to not only building the capacity and confidence of women, but also in inspiring and motivating them to seriously pursue a career in politics which otherwise they might not have wanted to do. Training programmes have however not been a magic bullet to increasing nominations /representation and even women from political parties who have been trained have found it extremely difficult to obtain nominations. 2) Advocacy for a legal quota in Local Councils Despite policy statements making a commitment to quotas from the major political parties, a legal quota has not materialized due to opposition from within party hierarchies. Appeals to increase nominations for women as well as the demand for a legally enforceable quota have failed mainly due to 1) lack of recognition of womens right to engage in politics as part of democratic process; 2) lack of acknowledgment of womens political work which reflects their capacity and ability to engage in politics; 3) lack of understanding of the structural obstacles that impede women from pursuing a career in politics; 4) lack of recognition of the responsibility of

political parties to address those obstacles; and 5) a lack of political will to change the political culture at the local level where nominations are bestowed according to patron client relationships between party hierarchy and local members. Most women are in the margins of patronage politics and patron - client relationships (except if they are a wife, widow or daughter of a politician of course) making it extremely difficult to get recognition as potential candidates in their own right. In our analysis the gap in womens activism to increase representation in SL so far has been in raising consciousness about under representation of women in elected political bodies, but particularly in Local Councils as a critical issue for women in SL as well as a serious democratic deficit - both within targeted local communities as well more broadly at the national level. Unless and until the public imagination is captured in a way that it becomes impossible for political parties to ignore the demand for increased representation, this partnership believes that womens groups as well as the National Gender Machinery will be fighting a losing battle. This programme therefore builds on ad-hoc initiatives implemented in the past at the local and national level by attempting to work simultaneously at both levels. It puts in place a comprehensive strategy which innovatively engages a range of relevant actors at the local level as well as national simultaneously unlike isolated initiatives implemented in the past. The aim is to mobilize support for increased nominations within a geographically small Local Council electorate using innovative media such as film and documentary screenings, street theatre, community radio, and posters as well as one to one discussions with political party, civil society and community leaders. The Womens Committees will also engage women and men at the community level by highlighting their concerns and profiling women leaders at the community level through self made radio programmes and video clips which will be fed into supportive mainstream media programmes. Capitalizing on this momentum built at the local level, this programme will engage in advocacy with political parties /nominations committees and parliamentarians both for increased nominations and for a legal quota for women in Local Council bodies. Engagement and advocacy with political parties will be supported by a sustained national level media campaign calling for a quota /increased nominations for women as well as votes for women. The national campaign on mainstream radio and television will use high profile personalities (both men and women) from the spheres of sports, arts, academe and the corporate sector as spokespersons for the need to increase womens representation in Local Councils in SL. This programme therefore aims to complement and build on activism so far to mainly capture public imagination of the vital need to increase representation of women in Local Councils. The main actors involved would include community based organizations, existing Local Councilors and community based political party leaders. Also engaged in this programme will be key personalities from national gender mechanisms, the media, women and men from within political parties and popular personalities who will act as goodwill ambassadors and advocates in the mainstream supporting increased womens representation. e. Programme Areas Womens political Empowerment enhances womens participation and increases womens voice, leadership and influence over decision making in all sphere of life. It advances womens civil and political rights, which create a fair

distribution of power and translates gender equality policies into concrete systems for implementation. It also transforms institutions and promotes access to gender justice.

f. Long and Medium- Term expected Results Womens Political Empowerment Key Result Areas (Below are three categories of long-term results, each with a number of related possible medium term results. Please choose all that apply to your proposed programme and /or include any that are no listed in the other category) Key result Area 1 Key Result Area 2 Key Result Area 3 Enhancing womens access Strengthening womens Transforming institutions to and participation in influence in decision making and ensuring gender justice decision making Indicative medium term results Increased womens share of Increased effectiveness o Expanded and improved legal seats and leadership in parliamentary caucuses that services for women (including national parliaments, local promote womens legal literacy for men and bodies, political parties, empowerment and gender women) and public interest government, private sector and equality litigation to address gender or community based injustices Increased percentage of Increased capacity of political Enhanced capacity of judicial women in decision making leaders in gender responsive and law enforcement budgeting and public policy personnel to implement gender formulation equality laws and directives (including CEDAW) Increased percentage of Womens movementCapacity of womens women from excluded racial building efforts to increase machineries and rights activists and ethnic groups and other accountability for implementing to monitor justice mechanisms marginalized women in gender equality commitments to ensure gender justice is decision making are strengthened enhanced Reduced impediments to Improved ability of Sustainable partnerships to womens ability to run for and womens associates and/or align customary and formal retain political positions national womens machineries justice systems with womens to work with and track progress rights and international human of political decision makers rights standards are enhanced Other Increased E-governance and other right nominations for women in party to information initiatives are lists implemented with a strong focus on gender equality and womens empowerment Judicial reform in line with constitutional and legal guarantees of womens rights is achieved.

Women leaders of other social movements already in position of power are sensitized in gender quality and justice Other

Other

g. Baseline data What kind of baseline data do you anticipate collecting to measure progress? Describe how the data will be collected and/or cite the source of information where relevant. 1. Baseline survey of political party attitudes towards quotas for women to ascertain level of political commitment Interviews with key leaders within political parties. h. Strategies and Activities The Main strategies of the programme include a partnership between government and non government organisations, capacity building of local level groups for effective advocacy using innovative media, Media initiatives at the local level as well as a national level media campaign using high profile personalities as spokespersons for increased nominations/representation, and strengthening support structures for women candidates. The specific activities under the proposed programme include: 1) Conducting baseline survey of attitudes towards and level of political commitment to implement a quota among political parties. 2) Establishing 5 trained womens committess comprising 10 women each in 5 districts including in the predominantly Tamil, Musim North and/or East of the country. Each committee will identify at least 10 local council electorates within their district where they will to undertake the following activities: Raise awareness about the role and responsibility of Local Councils among the local populations, while highlighting the under representation of women within these councils, the implications of under representation of women for effectiveness of Councils and mobilizing support within the community for increased nominations for women. Profile local level women leaders across party lines and their views on Local Council issues through the local /alternative media and creating spaces for interaction between potential women candidates, local leaders and local representatives of political parties so that womens capacity and capabilities are made known. Advocacy with political party leaders and nominations committees at the local level for increased nominations for women in the selected electorates with support from the Ministry of Child Development and Womens Empowerment, Women and Media Collective and the other sub partner organisations. The target is to increase nominations to at least 20% in 50 party lists in selected local council electorates.

3) Advoaocy with the two major political parties as well as smaller parties representting the minority Tamil and Musim communities for increased nominations for women at 2011 elections in general and particularly within selected Local Council electorated identified by the Womens Committees. 4) Advocacy for a legal quota for women at Local Council level with all membersh of this partnership as well as other allies. 5) Advocacy with the two major political parties in SL their leadership and their womens wings on the issue of financial support for women candidates and the possibility of establishing a special fund to exclusively support women candidates. 5) Launching a media campaign highlighting the abysmal numbers of women in local government, the need for a quota and urging both men and women to cast at least one of their preferential votes for women.

i. Sustainability The womens organizations and the Ministry which are part of the partnership applying for this UNIFEM grant has a history of working to increase womens representation in politics. The National Institutions for the Protection and Promotion of Womens Rights in Sri Lanka, comprising the Ministry of Child Development and Womens Empowerment, the National Committee for Women and the Womens Bureau, have been working to address the issue of womens participation and representation in politics in Sri Lanka for well over a decade through training and capacity building programmes, awareness raising, and advocacy for a quota for women in political institutions. These efforts were further strengthened when the Ministry entered into a partnership with UNDP in January 2008 to more systematically address this issue under a project titled Enhanced Womens Political Representation and Participation in Decision Making. As part of this project the Ministry undertook a number of activities including capacity building and training of women for political leadership, a media campaign to raise awareness on this issue and the preparation of a stocktaking report. The stocktaking report sought to trace the history of womens representation in political institutions in Sri Lanka, understand the obstacles that women face in trying to do politics, and map the work that has been done by womens organizations/ the national Institutions for women in order to increase womens participation and representation in political institutions in Sri Lanka. The stocktaking was followed by a Multi-Year Action Plan for the National Institutions for Women and is based on the documentation and analysis that was undertaken as part of the stocktaking report, and takes into account the structure and the activities of these three institutions to protect and promote womens rights Every year a certain percentage of the Ministry budget has been spent on increasing womens participation and representation in politics. It is currently under resourced to implement the entire action plan. It is envisaged that this programme will also act as a catalyst to leverage resources to implement this Multi Year Action Plan. The Ministry envisages that until benchmarks in the action plan are achieved this issue will remain a critical concern for the Ministry.

Increasing womens political representation is one of the main strategic themes of the WMC. WMC has worked on the issue of womens political representation for well over a decade. It has been part of WMCs strategic plan and this work will continue for the next three years, when the next strategic plan is due. This work includes advocacy, capacity building, raising awareness through media and most recently monitoring local governance. WMCs strategy is to work with community level womens groups building on their commitment to engage in local politics and building their capacity to carry on independently of the WMC. Three of the local level partners to this programme Womens Resource Centre (Kurunegala District), Uva Wellassa Farmer Womens Organisation (Monaragala District) and the Womens Development Center (Badulla District) have a long history of working on the issue of political representation both individually and collectively with WMC. Sarvodaya Womens Movement and Viluthu have been part of collective national level advocacy work and they too continue to work at local level with a deep commitment to this issue. We believe that this commitment to the cause of increasing womens representation at Local Councils will ensure the sustainability of efforts long beyond the UNIFEM grant. Furthermore, the experience gained from this programme will strengthen womens organizations efforts while contributing to lessons learnt. Depending on the success of the local level advocacy in particular, which builds on a bottom up model for advocacy, the programme can be replicated in the future. j. Programme Target Populations Which groups of women and girls wll be the major beneficiaries of the programme? Women who are excluded on the basis of race, ethnicity, ability, etc Please specify: Women and girls generally Women in politics k. Please provide an indication of the number of people that can be expected to benefit from the programme: The beneficiaries of this programme are: - The women who we expect will obtain nominations to contest local council elections in 2011. If nominations for women account for at least 20% of nominations in at least 50 lists approximately 250 women will directly benefit. This includes women from the minority Tamil and Muslim community. - Womens Committees (5 committees comprising approximately 10 women) at the local level will benefit from increased capacity to engage in local level advocacy and awareness raising and increased understanding of issues relating gender justice. - Through enhanced understanding of the need for increased representation of women at the local level, we expect men and women of locally based community organizations and political parties in general to benefit from the programme. - The focused advocacy with the leadership of local and nationally based political parties, we believe will strengthen internal democracy and non discrimination policies within political parties, particularly benefiting women within these parties.

We expect that the Media campaign will catalyze change and create a domino effect benefitting women in politics in general.

l. Main characteristics of target populations (choose all that apply) Age Girls (0-9) Adolescents (10-19) Young Women (20 24) Adult women (25- 59) Older women (60 and above) Socio-economic level Low Medium High Location Urban Rural Both

m. Which institutions with this programme seek to finleuce and /or engage Community leaders Local or Municipal councils Parliamentarians Political Party Representatives NGOs and Groups led by men Media n. Programme scope (please specify) Community /local National (federal government) o. What are the ultimate long-term impacts that this programme will achieve? (1/2 page maximum) The long term impacts envisaged by the proposed programme are: 1) Increased capacity of womens committees at the local level on innovative ways of highlighting gender concerns 2) Raised profile of women leaders at the community level and their abilities so that it becomes more difficult for political parties to say that there are no women who are willing and able to contest elections, 3) Raised awareness among the public about the abysmally low representation of women in local government and the need to increase representation 4) Increased support for a legally enforceable quota for women in local government both within and outside political parties 5) Enhanced awareness within political parties about the need to increase womens representation within elected political bodies in SL. 6) Political Funds for women established within the major political parties to support women particularly at local level.

7) Increase political will to implement a legally enforceable quota for women at Local Council level. 8) Increased sensitivity in the Media on gender issues, in particular women and politics p. How will the programme be monitored and evaluated? The programme will be monitored as follows: Local level advocacy and awareness raising initiatives will be monitored by the respective local groups on an on-going basis. Women and Media will host a quarterly face to face meeting of all local level and national level partners to share experiences, progress, results, and engage in critical reflection. Progress reports will be prepared by all partners at the end of the first year and a comprehensive consolidated report will be prepared at the end of the second year. An external evaluation will also be conducted at the end of 2 years. Evaluation of progress will be in relation to measurable outputs, including: The number of awareness raising programmes within the community The number of meetings and interaction with local level leaders of political parties No of radio and television broadcasts (at national and local level) The quality of TV/Radio spots produced for national media level campaign, channels on which they were broadcast and the frequency of broadcast The increased percentage of women nominated in 50 party lists. The percentage of women elected to local councils in the selected local council electorates. The number of discussions with leaders of political parties at the national level Commitment to implement a legal quota for women at the end of the 2 year period compared with political will at the commencement of the programme as reflected in baseline survey Video documentary made by womens committees at the local level documenting their advocacy and awareness raising initiatives III PARTNERSHIP INFORMATION a. Partnership Strategy (1/2 page maximum) What is the partnership strategy for this programme? (E.g., will it build on an existing partnership and/or coordination mechanism? Will it create new partnerships?) Why is this partnership strategy essential for achieving the results and impact articulated above? The Women and Media Collective has worked closely with the Ministry of Child Development and Womens Affairs in the past on critical issues of concern for women in SL. The WMC engaged with penal code reforms in 1995, helped draft and advocate for the act to prevent domestic violence; has been part of the drafting of the National Plan of Action of Women; and been an Advisory to the Parliamentary Womens Caucus. The Women and Media Collective and the International Center for Ethnic Studies have also previously worked together, when these two organizations with three other womens organizations made joint written and oral representations to the Parliamentary Select Committee on Electoral Reform appealing for a quota for women in Local Councils. WMC

has also worked with three of the local partners to this programme Womens Resource Center, Uva Wellassa Farmer Womens Organisation and the Womens Development Center facilitating the monitoring of local councils at the community level, advocating for better governance and for increasing womens representation. WMC has also worked at the national level with the Sarvodaya Womens Movement and Viluthu and collaborated with Viluthu to conduct a consultation between women from the Municipal Council area in Jaffna (almost exclusively Tamil electorate) and southern women as well as women candidates in the run up to the Jaffna Municipal Council election in August 2009. This election was held in the post war context after a lapse of 12 years. It is however the first time that the Ministry and these womens organizations have come together in a formal partnership. We believe that this partnership between the Ministry and national and local level organizations are essential for the success of this programme. Past efforts to increase representation concentrated on national level advocacy with very little work at the local level. This partnership allows for simultaneous work at both the local and national level with the potential for effective co-ordination to achieve maximum impact. The partnership also brings together different but complementary perspectives and a range of experiences. While the Ministry and national institutions have better leverage to promote a legal quota and better access to political party hierarchies, the womens groups have a strong presence at the local level, and ability to put pressure on local level leaders for increased representation. All the womens organizations in this partnership also bring their analytical skills and critical reflections on the question of womens under representation to address the gaps in current strategies and activism. b. Does the proposed partnership have a track record of working together?
YES

NO c. partner names, Roles and Activities (250 worlds maximum for leader partner, 100 words maximum for each non- lead partner) Lead Partner 1: Women and Media Collective The Women and Media Collective (WMC), played a key role conceptualising and further developing different aspects of this programme, and if successful in obtaining this UNIFEM grant will play a facilitator and implementor role. The WMC and the Ministry of Child Development and Womens Empowerment, together with other partners to this proposal as well as allies at the national level will be responsible for 1) national level advocacy with political parties, nomination committees and parliamentarians for increased nominations for women at 2011 Local Council elections, for Political Funds for women within the two largest parties and a for legal quota for women at Local Council level. 2) Coordinating media campaign between government owned and private media.

WMC together with ICES will conceptualise the entire programme as well as different aspects of the programme such trainings, awareness raising strategies, advocacy and media campaign, etc. WMC individually will be responsible for: 2) Coordinating and facilitating the work of local level partners supporting their work, organising training programmes and monitoring meetings . 3) Coordinating the production of the national level media campaign and its broadcast in the private electronic media. 3) Housing, budgeting and distributing the funds to all non lead partners to all non lead partners, according to budget lines, work categories and agreed upon Memorandums of Understanding signed between all implementing partners. Non Lead Partner 1: The Ministry of Child Development and Womens Empowerment The Ministry of Child Development and Womens Empowerment as the lead government agency responsible for the empowerment of women SL will primarily play an advocacy and facilitator role. Together with the Women and Media Collective and other partners it will primarily play an advocacy role at the national level, engaging with leaders of political parties, Parliamentarians and members of nominations committees for increased nominations, for political funds for women within the two largest political parties and for a legal quota for women. In addition the Ministry will: Facilitate meetings between womens committees and local level leaders of political parties. Negotiate space /competitive rates in the government owned electronic media to broadcast TV/ radio spots.

Non Lead Partners Sarvodaya Womens Movement / Uva Wellassa Farmer Womens Organisations (UWFWO), Viluthu /Womens Development Center / Womens Resource Center All above partners as local level partners will mainly play an implementation and a facilitation role at the local level. They will be responsible for: 1) Establishing a Womens Committee at the district level and supporting the committee in the following activities which include: identifying at least 5 local council electorates within their district where they will to undertake the following activities: Raising awareness about the role and responsibility of Local Councils among the local populations, while highlighting the under representation of women within these councils,

the implications of under representation of women for effectiveness of Councils and mobilizing support within the community for increased nominations for women. Profiling local level women leaders and their views on Local Council issues through the local /alternative media and creating spaces for interaction between potential women candidates and local representatives of political parties so that womens capacity and capabilities are made known. Advocacy with political party leaders and nominations committees at the local level for increased nominations for women in the selected electorates with support from the Ministry of Child Development and Womens Empowerment and WMC.

2) Engage in national level advocacy with WMC, MCDWE and ICES for increased nominations targeting 2011 local council elections 3)Engage in national level advocacy for a legal enforceable quota for women 4)Engage in national level discussions with the two largest political parties on the issue of setting up Political Funds for women. 5)Monitor progress of work of the committees 6) Attend partner meetings Non Leader Partner : ICES ICES will : 1) support the work of WMC and MCHWE in national level advocacy with political parties, nomination committees and parliamentarians on the issue of increased nominations for women, for political funds within the two largest parties and for a legal quota for women at Local Council level. 2) Support the WMC in conceptualising the training programmes, national level media campaign, etc 3) Prepare briefing notes for discussions with political parties on democracy and representation, quotas for women, political funds for women 4) Conduct baseline survey on political party attitudes on quotas, the findings of which will be analysed and compiled as a report which will be translated into Sinhala and Tamil and printed in all three languages.

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