Issue
In Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan, women continue to face challenges in participating in electoral processes, including ability to vote and running for elections.
How we are helping
Supporting project partners to raise awareness and mobilise young women and wider communities to increase public support for women’s political participation.
About the project
Peace Direct and Aware Girls are strengthening the capacity of a network of women to engage with policy makers, state institutions and political parties to advocate for increased protection of women’s political rights. This is being achieved by organising and building the capacity of a Women’s Advocacy Network of 20 young women and supporting existing Citizens’ Committees to advocate for women’s political rights in order to seek ways to contribute to a better, more conducive environment for women’s political participation in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
The project is also raising awareness and mobilising young women and wider communities to increase public support for women’s political participation; this will include radio programmes and peer-to-peer education activities by young women to promote women’s participation in the general elections of 2018. By promoting dialogue and engagement between the network and Citizens’ Committees and decision makers, like the Electoral Commission of Pakistan. The project will seek solutions to accessibility issues for women at polling stations, and advocate for the collection of gender segregated data on elections. They will also approach representatives of political parties, including senior party leadership to advocate for changes to parties’ manifestos and practices to reflect support for women’s political rights.
By the end of the project, greater awareness of women’s political rights would have been generated among young women and communities. The network of women is expected to have secured relevant skills and experience to continue to promote women’s political rights after the project ends. It is hoped that advocacy initiatives by the network and the Citizens’ Committees will contribute to a more conducive environment for women’s participation in electoral processes in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, thus resulting in greater participation of women in the general elections of 2018.
Photo credit: Aware Girls
Project Partners
We support people's participation in democracy and development by providing grants, platforms, and expertise.
