Tashkent, Uzbekistan (UzDaily.com) – UNDP and CEC held the final, 5th course on Elections and Gender: International and National Practices of Supporting Women in Politics which aimed at enhancing participants’ electoral awareness and promoting their understanding about direct participation of women in election, politics and decision-making processes.

A group of representatives of the Ministry from Sirdarya region and approximately 40 regional representatives of the NGO “Istiqbolli Avlod” joined the online event. This interactive training was part of the gender programme launched on 12 October 2021.

The curriculum including the specialised gender manual was designed to train participants on the importance of gender equality in election, international gender standards and electoral procedures. The programme has also provided the opportunity for participants to learn about electoral cycle through “a gender lens."

It is expected that the knowledge received during the training course will deepen participants understanding about gender equality and international gender standards and good practices and help to determine the ways forward for promoting direct participation of women not only in electoral process but in politics too.

The importance of expanding the role of women in elections was underlined by the permanent member of the CEC Gulnoza Rakhimova upholding that “In our country, gender equality and the participation of women in political processes are expanding. Of course, this is also observed in the electoral process. The role of women in the electoral process is increasing not only as participants, but also as organizers of elections. The CEC has developed 11 indicators to monitor the dignified participation of women at all stages of elections and have introduced them since the beginning of this year’s election campaign.” 

According to George Baratashvili, UNDP Chief Technical Adviser, the training course provides an excellent opportunity to learn about importance of promoting gender equality in electoral process, therefore “It is essential that participants convey the information received during this training course to their colleagues and the people they work with in regions, so all stakeholders are aware of significance of gender equality and direct participation of voters in the election.”

During the assessment, participants underlined the importance of the training programme which helped them to obtain new information and to look at the gender equality from another perspective.

Since 2019, the United Nations Development Programme jointly with the Central Election Commission of the Republic of Uzbekistan, have been implementing the project "Support to the electoral process in Uzbekistan in 2019-2021" with the financial assistance of UNDP, United Nations department of political and peacebuilding affairs, the Government of Sweden, and the Embassy of Swiss Confederation. As part of the implementation of the main activities of the project, active work is underway to increase the capacity of election organizers and stakeholders, promote participation of women, youth, and people with disabilities in elections, as well as to carry out electoral legal reforms for strengthening the electoral process in accordance with international legal standards and good practices.