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Gender Equity Roadmap

A. Gender Equity Roadmap

APGF and its member and associate member parties agreed to the Commitments in this paper at the APGF face to face meeting in December 2018.

The Gender Equity Roadmap is one part of a larger project to promote and support the political participation of women in the member parties of the APGF.  The project, the Gender Equity Action Plan, is designed to do this by establishing data on women’s participation in APGF member parties and associates, developing projects to support women into leadership positions and provide resources in the form of an online Toolkit to increase women’s participation and leadership.  The Action Plan is in Appendix Three.

The Roadmap to the full Action Plan includes:

1. A commitment to support Gender Equity by APGF and its member parties, 
2. A system to collect information on women’s participation and leadership within parties and report that information in their Annual Reports.
3. A framework to help members and associates create a gender equity plan that sets targets for increasing women’s membership and leadership.
4. A reporting and monitoring system for APGF and members to track and celebrate progress against their plans
5. Adoption of a full 3-year Action Plan for Gender Equity 

B. Purpose of this document

This document sets out the first step on the Gender Equity Roadmap to increase women’s leadership, participation, and political engagement in all APGF member parties.  

This document:

• Clarifies what Gender Equity is and why it is important and seeks a commitment from APGF and member parties to Gender Equity.
• Sets out a commitment by APGF for gathering data on women’s participation and leadership from its member parties and making gender equity more prominent in its processes.
• Sets out a commitment by member parties to a Gender Equity action plan that starts with keeping good information on women’s participation and leadership within their parties.

Gender Equity commitment

Gender Equity means fairness of treatment for women and men, according to their respective needs.  This can be equal treatment or different treatment as long as both men and women have the same rights, benefits, obligations, and opportunities. 

Our Global Greens Charter 2017 says that we will strive for the democratisation of gender relations by promoting appropriate mediations to enable women and men equally to take part in the economic, political, social sphere.

Achieving Gender Equity is a collective goal of the APGF and the responsibility of all of us as individuals, party members, and political organisations.  

Therefore, APGF and its member Parties commit to Gender Equity and to supporting women to become Green party members, to share leadership roles, and to participate confidently in the political activities of their respective countries. 

Asia Pacific Greens commitment

APGF can help to promote Gender Equity by gathering data on women’s participation and leadership from its member parties in order to help us all set targets for improvement in Gender Equity.

Therefore, The  Asia Pacific Greens Federation commits to the following steps:

 Publication on the APGF website of an online Toolkit for Gender Equity that provides information and resources for our members to use to develop their own plan of action.  We will keep the Toolkit updated with case studies and practical measures, so member Parties have access to a wide range of examples, ideas and programs to help improve Gender Equity in their Parties. 

• Asking member Parties to report on progress in Gender Equity measures in their Annual Reports in order to celebrate success and provide assistance when necessary
• Amend its own processes to make Gender Equity a greater priority.

Member Parties commitment

All APGF member and associate member Parties commit to a program of action that starts with keeping good information on women’s participation and leadership within their parties and reporting that information in their Annual Reports.

Therefore, APGF members and associate members will include in their Annual Reports the numbers of women members, women in leadership roles in the Party, women candidates, and women elected to public office. 

C. Next Steps

These three commitments of APGF and its member parties are the first steps on the Roadmap to Gender Equity.  

The next step is for APGF to prepare a Framework to help members prepare Gender Equity Plans.  A draft Framework is in Appendix One and was approved by the APF Council in December 2018.

All these actions lead towards a full 3-year Strategic Action Plan.  A draft Action Plan is in Appendix Three.

Appendix One

APGF Framework to help create Gender Equity Plans for members

Each Party will have reported on women’s representation in their 2017 Annual Report.  The initial report is included in Appendix Two of this paper.  APGF will build on that for a framework which will include:

• Ways to collect information about the numbers of women in the Party, such as the number of women in leadership roles,  who stand as candidates, membership of women, and other statistics
• How to set realistic but ambitious targets to increase these numbers 
• A timeframe for meeting those targets
• A system for monitoring the party’s achievements
• A method of reporting on those achievements

Appendix Two

Gender Equity 3-year Action Plan

1. Purpose of this document

This is the 3-year Action Plan that provides the steps to increase women’s participation in all APGF member parties.  The Plan sets out goals for improving women’s participation,  leadership, and policy development.   It includes measurable objectives that will help members achieve those goals.   And it will include a schedule by which members can plan to achieve those objectives.  The Commitment, Toolkit, and the Framework previously prepared were the building blocks towards this plan.

2. Goals and Objectives

Structures 

Structures and rules within Green parties improve how women can participate and hold leadership positions in the party.  This includes systems for the recruitment and training of women in all areas of the party process and political process and training for all party members on bullying, discrimination, and harassment, including sexual harassment.  

GOAL: Every APGF member Party will have in its founding or constitutional documents a statement of support for gender equity.

Objectives to achieve this Goal

Constitutional support for gender equity means that the Party’s Constitution will contain

• A statement that  Gender Equity is a principle or goal of the party
• A commitment to the equal  participation of women as members, in leadership roles in the party, decision making  and as electoral candidates

GOAL: Every APGF member Party will have provisions in its Rules or Bylaws for the participation, decision making, and leadership of women in the Party and as candidates.  This includes systems for the recruitment and training of women in all areas of the party process and political process and training for all party members on bullying, discrimination, and harassment.

Objectives to achieve this Goal

The Party’s rules (bylaws, operating procedures, etc) will include rules to promote/encourage women as members, in leadership, decision making  and as electoral candidates in the Party.  This includes rules on

• Sexual harassment and bullying 
• Transparent recruitment and selection processes in the Party
• Equitable recruitment in candidate and executive nomination committees
• Quotas for women to hold executive positions
• Quotas for women as electoral candidates
• Equitable seat/electorate allocation 
• The  proportion of the female delegates who attend party conference
• Reporting on organisational culture and monitoring of these rules

Policies 

Green Party policies are the vital building blocks for achieving gender equity and for empowering women in our communities, countries and across the globe, as well as addressing issues like climate change, social justice, and environmental protection.

GOAL: Every APGF member Party will have gender specific points in their Issue policies, particularly in policies on Climate Change, Poverty, Economic Development, Environment, Conservation, Education, Health, and Justice.

Objectives to achieve this Goal

Gender specific policy points mean that the policies will include

• A statement of how women are affected by that issue
• A set of policy solutions to solve, protect or promote women’s rights on that issue

Action 

Structures and Policies are essential but there are many more actions that need to be taken to achieve long term, sustainable gender equity.  It is important therefore for parties to have a program for change for progress to be measured against.

GOAL:  All APGF member Parties will undertake a program of action that sets targets for women's participation, training, recruitment, leadership, exposure, and political candidature and that monitors and reports on its own progress in meeting these targets. 

Objectives to achieve this goal

Each Party will create a plan of Action that shows how they will meet the APGF Goals and Objectives, a timeframe for achieving them  and a system for monitoring those achievements.  This Plan can include:

• Targets for female participation in party conventions, congresses, leadership, and as candidates
• Establish women’s wings and sections within the political parties
• Ways to expand and train the pool of women candidates and  the placement of the women candidates in the winning seats, 
• Programs designed to engage women in the political process as voters, activists, and candidates through training, inspiration, and networking. 
• Ways to increase women’s visibility in campaigns by supporting media exposure and providing information to voters that includes specific messages highlighting the importance of women’s votes and women’s rights to vote as equal members of society
• Espouse measures and code of ethics to protect women candidates from hostile environments in electoral campaigns
• Working with civil society organizations (CSOs) to oversee the implementation of gender equity.  Establish avenues so women's networks and reference groups can help to inform party leadership and decision-making
• Sharing experiences with other parties across countries and regions
• Monitoring elections, including by recruiting women as party agents to be present at polling stations, particularly if those polling stations are allocated for women only
• Holding regular training sessions on sexual harassment should be conducted for all staff members, including managers, supervisors, and workers. Developing  a code of conduct to address issues on sexual harassment
• Training for women candidates in skills such as fundraising, message development, media relations, communicating with voters, and meeting facilitation Publicize positions in the party that are specific to women, which could also attract more women’s votes for the party. 
• Invest in opportunities that promote women's involvement in leadership and office-bearer roles.
• Prevent, report, and respond to organizational culture and individual behavior that limits women’s participation.