ODIHR Advocacy School on Gender and Politics

ODIHR is organizing the second edition of the Advocacy School on Gender and Politics to strengthen capacities and advocacy efforts of women’s rights activists from civil society organizations and women’s movements from Central and Eastern Europe, South Caucasus and Central Asia.

This school will bring together up to 25 gender advocates to create a platform for exchange and capacity building, as well as for the development of practical advocacy campaigns on women’s political participation and gender equality in politics at local levels.

Due to the current COVID-19 pandemic, the training will be held online.

For detailed information on training dates and the application process, please refer to this document.

Objective

The main goals of the Advocacy School are:

• Establishing a broad platform for exchange on challenges, lessons learned and promising practices among gender advocates working practically on advancing gender equality in politics;
• Supporting gender advocates to gain an in-depth overview of existing knowledge and findings from academic research on women’s political participation, gender equality in politics and governmental institutional mechanisms for the advancement of gender equality, with a focus on case studies and work on the ground;
• Helping gender advocates in identifying local advocacy priorities around advancing women’s political participation, conceptualizing concrete advocacy campaigns to be put into action after the Advocacy School and learning about their implementation and assessment of results;
• Stimulating cross-cutting collaboration among civil society organizations and women’s movements.

Why is it important?

Support to independent women’s rights organizations and to their advocacy efforts on gender equality in political and public life facilitates democratic institutions to become more inclusive and gender-responsive.

The OSCE and its participating States are committed to “recognize the vital role women and women’s organizations play in national and international efforts to promote and enhance women’s rights by providing, inter alia, direct services and support to women and encouraging a meaningful partnership between governments and these organizations for the purpose of advancing equality for women” (Moscow Document, 1991). 

Contact

In case of questions, please reach out to Sara Haapalainen, Adviser on Gender Issues, sara.haapalainen@odihr.pl.