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Dear Colleagues,
This month, in celebration of International Women’s Day (IWD), we at the Consortium for Elections and Political Process Strengthening (CEPPS) join our partners around the world in recognizing the monumental contributions and achievements of women and girls in strengthening democracy, human rights, and governance. Under the United States Agency for International Development’s (USAID) Democratic Elections and Political Processes (DEPP) cooperative agreement, advancing gender equality and women’s empowerment is central to the work of the consortium. Without the full and meaningful participation of women and girls in all aspects of civic, political, and electoral life, democracy simply does not exist.
The global theme for International Women’s Day this year is, “Invest in Women: Accelerate Progress”. Whether through promoting gender responsive budgeting, strengthening political party support for women candidates, ending gender-based violence, or building the leadership skills of diverse groups of women and girls, investing in women is essential to accelerating progress towards gender equality and strong and sustainable democracies. On International Women’s Day, CEPPS proudly recommits to doing that all year long.
Sincerely,
The CEPPS Team
Have you gotten The Readout yet? Don’t miss the new video series, Democracy! The Readout, created by CEPPS with support from USAID. Each episode in this digital series captures first-hand accounts from some of the most seasoned experts in the field as they pursue democracy. The Readout is developed in partnership with CEPPS core partners including the International Foundation for Electoral Systems (IFES), the International Republican Institute (IRI), and the National Democratic Institute (NDI), and features many of the consortium’s treasured partners at home in their own neighborhoods, as they tackle real-life problems and strive to secure more democratic processes for all. Follow CEPPS TV on YouTube to never miss an episode!
CEPPS is proud to announce the inaugural DEPP Youth Advisory Council (YAC)! Members include Kamrunnahar Ritu (Bangladesh), Martin Loza (Ecuador), Dema Elya (Netherlands), Oluwafemi John Adebayo (Nigeria), and Samantha Bagayas (Philippines). Throughout their tenure, the DEPP YAC members will support CEPPS in strengthening inclusive youth priorities within its DRG programming.
Learn more about the DEPP YAC members and CEPPS’s work with youth here.
The CHESNO Movement, an independent Ukrainian NGO dedicated to encouraging transparency and accountability of elected representatives and to helping shift society to a more representative democracy, collaborated with CEPPS core partner IFES to implement civic monitoring of political finance from a gender perspective. CHESNO CEO Vita Dumanska shared her thoughts on what investing in gender equality means and how CHESNO’s political finance oversight initiatives are critical in doing so.
CEPPS is pleased to share its newest publication, the Youth Barrier Analysis Toolkit (BAT), a guide for helping DRG practitioners identify and analyze barriers to youth political participation and to better understand the factors that contribute to whether different groups of young people choose to be politically active. The BAT guides practitioners through six steps to better understand why diverse young people choose to be politically active or not, and how to use the findings to better inform program design and implementation.
Join CEPPS partners at their events throughout IWD month. These events are held in conjunction with the NGO United Nations Commission on the Status of Women (NGO CSW).
March 14: Infrastructure that Empowers: The People, Institutions, and Processes Delivering Gender Equality (IRI, NDI, CIPE); Commission on the Status of Women virtual panel. Register to attend NGO CSW64
March 20: Beyond Borders: Expanding the Online Gender Based Violence (OGBV) Fight in the Global South with Male Tech Allies (NDI with TEDIC and Breaking the Silence Movement); Commission on the Status of Women panel Register to attend NGO CSW64
March 20: Charting the Path towards Gender-Transformative Public Debt Governance (NDI with Femnet Africa); Commission on the Status of Women panel Register to attend NGO CSW64
Gender responsive budgeting is key to advancing sustainable, inclusive development for all people. As part of the USAID-supported Sierra Leone Elections Dialogue Series program, in 2020 CEPPS core partner NDI trained 175 civil society organization leaders in gender responsive budgeting and related skills in Sierra Leone.
