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Dear Colleagues,
Today, the Consortium for Elections and Political Process Strengthening (CEPPS) joins our partners in celebrating International Women’s Day (IWD) and honoring the contributions and achievements of women and girls around the world. CEPPS works to strengthen democracies and support democratic values and processes that help transform discriminatory gender norms and institutions and build more inclusive societies. Our programming promotes women’s rights and gender equality, as well as the full and meaningful participation of women and gender-diverse individuals in all aspects of public life.
International Women’s Day is an opportunity to highlight the need to work towards true inclusion and equity for diverse women and girls across all sectors around the world. Although the words equity and equality are often used interchangeably, we recognize that true equity, in fact, considers each person’s individual circumstances and social location while allocating the resources and opportunities needed to reach an equal outcome. CEPPS programming aims to promote equity in all that we do by working to provide resources and programming to support individuals’ active participation in political and civic life.
Despite the fact that there is much to celebrate today on International Women’s Day and throughout the month of March, CEPPS also recognizes that there is still much to do and is committed to working each and every day to ensure gender equity and inclusion in all of our programming.
Yours in democracy,
Jerry Lavery
Managing Director
The Consortium for Elections and Political Process Strengthening
Tune in to CEPPS
In a special, four-part miniseries, Defending Democracy: Ukraine, CEPPS takes an in-depth look at Ukrainians’ fight for freedom and the battle to protect their inclusive, resilient democracy.
Part III, Defending Democracy: The People of Ukraine features three co-chairs of Ukraine’s Verkhovna Rada’s Equal Opportunity Caucus. You’ll hear their personal memories from the first few days of the war and understand how their caucus is fighting for gender equality both on the front line and at home. Find Democracy! The Podcast wherever you get your podcasts.
Research and Innovation
As we celebrate this year’s IWD theme “DigitALL: Innovation and Technology for gender equality”, CEPPS is pleased to launch its Online Violence Against Women (OVAW) Diagnostic Toolkit to measure, understand, and respond to this growing problem. OVAW in elections and politics is a pervasive, global issue that impedes women’s equitable and meaningful participation and their willingness to engage in public life. Women who hold or seek positions of leadership often face gendered commentary, harassment, and violence based on their real or perceived character, morality, appearance, and conformity (or lack thereof) to traditional gender roles and norms. Their representation in the public information space is often defined by sexist tropes, stereotypes, and sexualized content. Check out our new global OVAW tool to learn more about how CEPPS is tackling this issue.
Our Local Partners
CEPPS works to address the underlying causes of marginalization and discrimination and the ways in which intersecting identities often inhibit people’s ability to participate in public life. Women with disabilities in the Maldives, for example, experience compounded discrimination based on their gender and disability status and, as a result, may have less access to full participation in political and civic life. As part of the Global Elections and Political Transitions Award funded Strong and Inclusive Maldivian Democracy (SIMD) program, CEPPS/IFES is conducting the Power to Persuade (P2P) program in the Maldives to ensure that the unique perspectives and priorities of women with disabilities are integrated into national development priorities, particularly those set by local government bodies. Read more about the Power to Persuade program that CEPPS is implementing with the Maldivian disabled people’s organization Care Society to equip women with disabilities with the skills needed to advocate to government leaders for their policy priorities.
Throughout the month of March, CEPPS will be sharing profiles of P2P participants leading the way for greater inclusion of the voices and priorities of women with disabilities in the Maldives. Read about P2P trainer Fathimath Ibrahim’s experiences here and be sure to check out our upcoming spotlights! To never miss an update, make sure to follow CEPPS on Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn.
Democracy by the Numbers
Since 2016, CEPPS and our partners have engaged more than 12.7 million women and girls in capacity building, civic education and engagement, election observation, trainings and more!
