STRUCTURES POLICIES ACTIONS CASE STUDIES
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:
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:
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.
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.
Member Parties commitment
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
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:
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 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
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
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
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:
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