BY BETELHEM BEDLU
Looking at the previous general elections that the nation held, it becomes easily apparent that gender and disability inclusiveness was not given due attention. Despite the fact that women and people with disabilities constitute a high percentage of the population, they have been highly underrepresented in Ethiopian politics in the elections preceding the 6th general election.
Realizing this fact and to make the 6th National Elections more inclusive, the Gender Equity and Social Inclusion Department of The National Electoral Board of Ethiopia (NEBE) has been undertaking various activities. The recent the first ever legal and skill training offered for women, PWDs candidates, is the one in this regard.
According to Medhanit Legesse, Gender Equity and Social Inclusion Director with in NEBE, in a great departure from the past, there are number of activities that are being undertaken by The National Electoral Board of Ethiopia (NEBE) in an effort to conduct an election that is inclusive of women, people with disabilities and other traditionally marginalized segments of the population.
The Board has not only committed to include traditionally marginalized people at every stage of the election cycle, it has also been taking concrete measures to ensure that there is legal and institutional framework that supports inclusive activities at every stage.
In order to achieve that, it has given due emphasis to priority areas such as strengthening its Gender and Inclusion program at an institutional level which it did through human resource and program development.
Through the legal reform it has been undertaking, it has revised and updated former proclamations and issued new directives. Mainstreaming inclusiveness in the legal reform was an area that the Board has been working on with great emphasis for ensuring women, PWDs and others participate in all aspects of the election. Many say that NEBE’s laws and directives have emphasized inclusiveness like no other legal document in the country, she added.
“NEBE has also been endeavoring to encourage political parties to enhance the participation of women and Persons with Disabilities (PWDs).”
In addition to provisions in the electoral law that encourage inclusion of women and PWDs in political parties, NEBE have been conducting several awareness creation workshops with political parties on the need to address issues of women and PWDs in their programs, election campaigns and general messaging, the Director remarked.
The Board has also been supporting the establishment of a cross-party female political party members’ council.
Moreover, she indicated that the Board just concluded providing a series of legal and skill training sessions for female political party and independent candidates and candidates with disability. “The training is a first of its kind in that apart from the selected topics, it targeted all candidates from all political parties running for all electoral levels.”
The training, which targeted candidates from all parties and at every electoral level and from all regions, took place in seven regional and administrative cities: Adama, Bahir Dar, Dire Dawa, Hawassa, Gambela, Benishangul and Afar and addressed more than 1,300 candidates so far.
The major objectives of the training were enhancing the knowledge of women and candidates with disabilities on international legal framework on human rights, democratic rights, political participation of women and PWDs, concepts and principles of gender, standards and best practices. In addition, it covered lessons on the Ethiopian electoral legal framework as well as the role of stakeholders to conduct gender inclusive elections, she said.
She further noted that equipping participants with knowledge on these topics is very important in the sense that most of the candidates, especially at the regional level have minimal exposure to such opportunities for capacity development.
“Trainees were able to share their experiences of challenges they have faced as candidates. They further underscored the significance of the training for the betterment of their performance and expressed their hopes of using the knowledge they gained to stand as better candidates and competent people’s representatives post-election,” said the Director.
Comparing with their experiences of previous elections, the participants expressed that they have never witnessed such level of commitment by the Election Board towards ensuring participation of women and PWDs. According to the participants, this is not the first forum that they have seen NEBE’s hard work on inclusion and that they have witnessed various platforms where the Board has been making tangible efforts towards the participation of women and PWDs. They added that this is highly encouraging in the sense that it shows, NEBE, the highest authority in conducting elections in the country as trustworthy and dedicated to the inclusion of all citizens in the process of the election.
The Director further explained that the selection of topics of the training was done with great care. In doing so, the Gender and Inclusion team consulted with other institutions that have provided trainings for party members, albeit on smaller scales, and made an attempt to find-out what the major areas of need were. Having seen a gap in the knowledge of would-be candidates on international and local legal frameworks, on democratic rights, political participation of women and PWDs and electoral legal framework and considering the importance of knowledge on such to have candidates aware of their rights as well as their duties towards fellow women, the trainings are offered.
The Director also expressed gratitude to UN Women that she said made it possible to perform not only the series of trainings but also a number of other activities that NEBE undertakes on inclusion.
All of the aforementioned activities reveal the strong efforts of the Board and its serious commitment towards empowering women and PWDs regardless of what political party they represent. Such activities taken by the NEBE or any other concerned institution would have a paramount significance in making the soon-to-be-held General Elections fair, transparent and more importantly, democratic.
THE ETHIOPIAN HERALD JUNE 17 /2021
