FEM-ABLE
Lithuania
Good practices on women political participation
WIP: Women Initiative for Parity
FOR: Building the future now
Women's Political Participation for Progress: from Analysis to Action
WIP: Women Initiative for Parity
- Objective
- Target group
- Implementation
- Results/Impact
- Lessons learned
- Transferability
- Resources/ Support
- Contact information
Problem: There is no strong lobbying organisation engaging in professional lobbying activities (forming gender equality policy, monitoring assurance of women rights). In addition, the men and women’s presentation in politics is distributed inadequately and disproportionately.
Objective: To improve gender equality mechanism through strengthening advocacy and lobbying skills of Lithuanians women’s lobby organisation in order to seek gender equality in a systematic way.
- NGOs, actively working in gender equality sphere,
- Women politicians clubs,
- Youth, studying in higher education institutions in Lithuania‘s regions,
- Lithuania‘s politicians,
- Lithuania ‘s society.
The main outputs of the Project:
- extended number of members of Lithuanians women’s lobby organisation up to 40 members;
- strengthened 120 NGO members‘ skills in advocacy and civilian control of gender equality implementation by taking best practices of partners from Italy and Iceland;
- created social network of gender equality lawyers‘;
- organised 10 round table discussions and National conference „50/50“in order to make influence on political decisions in gender equality sphere;
- no less than 50 LMLO‘s representatives got skills to prepare alternative CEDAW reports;
- 100 young people learned about gender roles and 24 of them were integrated to LMLO‘s activities as volunteers or employees;
- the content of 3 political parties programmes were revised in terms of the gender equality and suggestions how to integrate gender equality aspect into political programmes were made;
- a campaign for women‘s rights “LT Parliament in a Different Way“ with a press conference was organised to raise awareness and represent the results of this project.
In addition, project partners from Iceland and Italy contributed their know-how and many years of experience in forming gender-equality laws, UN CEDAW convention analysis as well as civilian control, advocacy, and lobbying.
The main result was that project partners (Social Innovation Fund and Kaunas women’s information centre), which were founders of new Lithuania‘s Women Lobby organisation – LWL, took responsibility for LWL‘s strengthening, net developing, inclusion of new members and improving their skills.
Nowadays the Lithuanian women’s organisation is a strong organisation making a significant lobby on gender equality in Lithuania.
The women’s clubs MILDA, uniting women from the different political parties, were created across Lithuania. They are active today. In these clubs women-politicians discusses how to strengthen women’s positions in politics.
This project could be transferred to another country.
The idea of the creation of women’s clubs, uniting women’s politicians from different political parties and leaders, should be initiated by NGO, but not by political party.
The EEA and Norway Grants supported the project.
Project was implemented by NGO – Kaunas women’s employment centre, Social innovation fund and Lithuanian women’s lobby organisation.
Social innovation fund, Women’s information employment centre, Lithuanian women’s lobby organisation, www.lmlo.lt.
FOR: Building the future now
- Objective
- Target group
- Implementation
- Results/Impact
- Lessons learned
- Transferability
- Resources/ Support
- Contact information
The project “FOR: future create now” aims to promote young people’s active citizenship and increase the sustainability of NGOs by strengthening the capacity of young people to participate in the formulation of public policy on gender equality.
The following problems are addressed:
- Low awareness of the importance of gender equality among Lithuanian youth, especially in the regions, and low youth participation in the formulation and implementation of equality policy between women and men hinder the development of society and democracy.
- Insufficient involvement of NGOs and lack of instruments to promote young people’s active citizenship on gender equality issues, such as public campaigns based on research, facts or international documents, underdeveloped mechanisms for civic control of political parties, and especially at the municipal level.
- Young people (14-29 years old);
- Representatives of organisations working with young people;
- Representatives of NGOs working in the field of gender equality (members of Lithuanian women‘s lobby organisation);
- General public.
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- Identification of the problem and analysis of the situation regarding the low participation of young people in the development and implementation of gender equality policies. Gender roulette – a survey to identify young people’s attitudes towards the roles of women and men in politics, the labour market, education, the family; and other spheres of public life, and to monitor the dynamics of attitudes among young people participating in the project.
- An awareness campaign “For a gender-equal future for young people”, based on interactive educational sessions about the gender perspective in politics, the labour market and the family, its causes and consequences, and possible measures to overcome inequalities.
- Mentoring for gender equality in politics. Aimed at engaging young active women in political life and in gender equality policy.
- “Training on civic actions for equality between women and men”. This training is designed to strengthen the capacity of NGOs to promote youth citizenship in the field of gender equality, to activate young peoples’ participation in the development of policies on equality between women and men and to monitor the implementation of these policies.
- Civic Action “FOR: Building the future now” – training to prepare representatives of youth organisations for discussions with politicians.
- Creating and promotion of the animated video on the importance of gender equality in politics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uvL1JRu9zYQ
- Meetings of NGOs (Lithuanian women’s lobby organisation members) and young people with representatives of political parties. Discussions focused on issues related to the implementation of equality between women and men.
- Social campaign
The implemented activities:
- strengthened civic education and encouraged more active participation of young people in civic activities;
- strengthened the capacity of NGOs (members of the Lithuanian women’s lobby organisation) to promote young people’s citizenship in the field of gender equality, involve young people in the formulation of policies for monitoring equality between women and men and monitor the implementation of these policies;
- laid the foundations for cooperation between NGOs (members of the Lithuanian women’s lobby organisation) and youth organisations in promoting youth citizenship in the field of gender equality;
- raised awareness of civil rights, active citizenship, problems of gender inequality and means of addressing them.
New awareness raising methods among young people are popular: animated videos, social media campaigns, interactive educational tools.
The discussions between politicians and youth on gender equality should be initiated.
Extremely important to cooperate with youth organisations.
Involvement of the youth departments of the political parties is recommended.
Such activities could be implemented by NGOs or youth organisations.
The project is supported by the Active Citizens Fund.
It is implemented by NGO – Women’s information employment centre and Lithuanian women’s lobby organisation in cooperation with youth organisations.
Lithuanian women’s lobby organisation, www.lmlo.lt.
Women's Political Participation for Progress: from Analysis to Action
- Objective
- Target group
- Implementation
- Results/Impact
- Lessons learned
- Transferability
- Resources/ Support
- Contact information
To encourage women to engage and actively participate in political life and elections, as well as to reduce gender stereotypes in political activities, through information, education and advocacy activities supported by evidence-based and data-driven analytics.
Women politicians and the general public.
Project’s activities:
- An information campaign on the benefits and necessity of gender balance in policy formulation, implementation and enforcement, which includes social media messages, podcasts on women’s empowerment and participation in politics, entitled “The Courage to Lead”, online TV programmes “Dose of Feminism”, articles on portals and social media to activate women in politics, national and regional radio programmes.
- Analytical monitoring of women’s involvement and participation in political life and elections through 3 analytical activities:
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- Analysis of political parties’ 2020 election programmes from a gender equality perspective, identifying which parties and to what extent they include solutions to gender inequality in their election programmes.
- Analysis of women’s involvement and participation in the 2023 local council and mayoral elections, identifying the factors that enable women to be elected.
- Establishing the link between women’s participation in local politics and the gender equality situation in municipalities, which will lead to the development of a gender equality index for 60 municipalities in Lithuania.
- Educational measures to empower women to become more active in politics:
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- A national debate on “Women’s political participation for progress: from analysis to action”.
- Discussion at the Lithuanian Science Council on promoting gender balance in decision-making positions.
- Advocacy measures for the application of temporary special measures to increase the number of women in politics.
- Dissemination of the project and its results.
- Increased opportunities for women’s participation in politics through public education and public discourse to promote gender-parity democracy:
- Analytical monitoring of women’s involvement and participation in political life and elections.
Advocacy measures for the application of temporary special measures to increase the number of women in politics.
The project seeks to contribute to a positive change for Lithuania in the EIGE Gender Equality Index “Power” domain.
- The project improved cooperation and capacity building among Lithuanian women’s NGOs, and raised women’s engagement and enthusiasm for women’s representation in politics through Lithuanian women’s lobby organisation It will also establish and strengthen links between women’s NGOs and women politicians.
- The project not only promoted women’s political activism, but also emphasised the need for women politicians to be more active on gender equality issues. The gender analysis of the political parties’ programmes; the selected gender equality areas and the measures proposed by the parties to address gender equality issues are publicised through information and education activities, thus encouraging and empowering women politicians to be proactive in the actual implementation of gender equality at national and regional level.
- The added value of the results of the advocacy activities on the application of temporary special measures to increase the number of women in politics and to accelerate the actual gender balance in political decision-making is that the project will also contribute to the fulfilment of Lithuania’s EU and international commitments. The project will help the Government of the Republic of Lithuania to implement the recommendations of the UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, which call for Lithuania to take action on the use of temporary special measures in politics.
Project could be adapted in any other country as a full or some parts planned activities: analytics, educational, informational, advocating.
It also could be implemented at regional and municipality level, especially educational and informational activities: it is very useful to find women role models at the municipalities and promote them at the local level, writing articles about their success, or creating attractive broadcasts or podcasts.
The project is supported by the Ministry of Social Security and Labour. It is based on the experience and expertise of the Lithuanian NGOs working on gender equality issues. The project coordinator is Lithuanian women’s organisation – umbrella association, uniting 43 Lithuanian organisations. For the analytics research experts from universities are involved. The information campaign and educational activities are implemented by NGOs, which involves professionals: national and local radio for the creating broadcasts, journalists, gender equality experts for creating podcasts, as well social media experts to implement wide social media campaign. Also, Association of Local Authorities in Lithuania is invited as an associated partner to disseminate Project results widely to all 60 Municipalities of Lithuania.
Lithuanian women’s lobby organisation, www.lmlo.lt.
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