Project launched to boost women’s political participation

AMMAN — Minister of Planning and International Cooperation Mary Kawar on Wednesday said the Jordanian government is keen on strengthening women’s economic, social and political participation.

“We want to ensure women’s participation in all sectors of society, especially in the political arena for better and stronger representation, which will eventually expand and publicise the democratic process,” Kawar said.

The minister’s remarks were made during the official launch of the “Eye on Women” project at the Royal Cultural Centre in Amman.

The project, which is co-funded by the EU and the Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation, aims at increasing Jordanian women’s participation in political life and will be implemented by Sisterhood Is Global Institute (SIGI) between 2019 and 2021. 

Kawar told the gathering that His Majesty King Abdullah has repeatedly stressed the importance of women’s contribution to a sustainable development process to ensure the values of justice and equality.

Kawar was quick to add that despite the many achievements for women’s rights in Jordan, “we still have to work hard and constantly on our partnership with the civil society, the private sector and the international community”.

“I trust that our responsibility is to ensure that resources are distributed fairly, to have clear goals and visions and to take concrete decisions and actions to make the world a better and just place for women and men,” Kawar said. 

EU Ambassador to Jordan Andrea Matteo Fontana also addressed the gathering saying that the EU and Spain support the Kingdom in its efforts to strengthen the capacities of civil society.

“Civil society organisations represent the diversity of society and they foster pluralism while promoting policies in line with principles such as effectiveness, equality and sustainability,” Fontana said.

The EU ambassador stressed the importance of civil society in establishing and safeguarding a “vibrant Jordanian democracy”, which was formulated in the “Jordan 2025” national vision and strategy issued by the government of Jordan.

SIGI Executive Director Asma Khader said work needs to be done to reduce the gender gap which is why “we have to work on increasing women’s knowledge and experience and, at the same time, work on amending the mentality of society to become more supportive of women’s involvement in all public spheres”.

“We need to ensure that both men and women are calling for the same kind of equality to ensure stronger representation for women,” Khader stressed.

Eye on Women will aim to support Jordan’s pledges to accomplish the 50/50 gender equality commitment by 2030, as well as make sure accomplishments align with the development of other key reforms, such as electoral reform, the functioning of political parties and the Decentralisation Law, according to a press release by the organisers. 

More specifically, the press release added, the project aims to support women’s political participation by increasing in the number of women involved in the electoral process, encouraging community-based organisations to promote women’s role in political life and getting youth involved in gender auditing. 

To work towards these goals, the project will establish an observatory platform “Ain: Eye on Women”, with around 50 members for monitoring elections from a gender perspective to look at legislation, candidates, electoral programmes and implementation of programmes.

The observatory will also perform post election follow ups of women in elected councils, leadership posts and decision making positions to serve as a channel of information and an advocacy tool.

Furthermore, the project will provide awareness raising and capacity building for qualified female leaders who want to participate in any elections, as well as for elected women in their current or expected roles. All these goals will be reinforced by promoting gender auditing to ensure that public performance of the state authorities takes into consideration gender. 

The project plans to target over 1,100 direct beneficiaries throughout Jordan, among which will include those from grassroots organisations and women voters, youth of both genders, female community leaders, women activists, MPs, senators, governors, council members, municipal members, governmental and non-governmental leaders, as well as media personnel.

According to the Global Gender GAP Report 2018, Jordan ranks 129 out of 149 countries in terms of women’s political empowerment, with figures showing women make up 15.4 per cent of Parliament and 7.1 per cent of ministerial positions, according to the statement. 

The project will be implemented under the framework of the Jordanian Democratic Institutions Development programme.