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PACER worked with womens groups and other stakeholders to mobilise It did this both by working directly with
support for these women candidates. Campaigns often included voter woman aspirants and candidates, to
education programmes in the constituencies, and contributed to a sense of support them through the election
solidarity amongst women. process, and by raising awareness of the
importance of womens leadership
Showing support for women candidates
Barriers to womens significant barriers at each of these
representation stages. The very first step is for women
There are three main stages to women to believe in themselves and to see
achieving equal representation: firstly, that opportunities are open to them.
women need to aspire to leadership Even after this belief has been built, it
positions; secondly, they must be takes considerable courage for women
selected by their parties as candidates; to face up to societal pressures and
and thirdly, they need to be elected put themselves forward for leadership
by the voters. Women must negotiate positions.
The key barriers to womens political representation These barriers are common to women party candidates are more or less
throughout Sierra Leone. However, guaranteed election. Women therefore
Lack of self-belief and confidence. Low education levels, a lack of value additional factors relating to changes in needed to become the partys official
placed on womens contributions, and a restriction on womens roles the political landscape seem to have candidate in their ward in other words,
in society mean that many simply do not see a place for themselves in particularly affected womens chances in to be given the party symbol. The SLPP
decision-making structures. Kailahun district. The PACER project nomination process is carried out via an
generated strong interest from women electoral college, which is male-dominated,
Low literacy levels. Literacy levels in Sierra Leone are low generally but
wanting to get involved in public life but heavily influenced by traditional power
particularly so among rural women. As few as two per cent of women are
the electoral system presented them structures and lacks transparency. The
literate in some of the wards where the PACER project works. This has an
with considerable barriers to achieving difficulty in getting the party symbol was
impact on womens self-belief and willingness to put themselves forward as
their aims. the single biggest obstacle to womens
potential political candidates, but is also used to justify womens absence
representation at the 2008 elections
from public life.
Competition for seats: In the run-up women, in effect, were blocked from even
Discriminatory attitudes. Although there has been some shift in attitudes to the 2008 elections, voter education getting to the election stage.
towards women as leaders at grassroots level, discriminatory attitudes increased knowledge about the role of
remain entrenched in other areas, particularly within political parties and district councils, which led to greater While the SLPP is not necessarily more
among traditional authorities. belief in the value of district councils and obstructive to womens participation than
increased interest in holding office. In other parties, its defeat in the
Violence. Whether verbal, physical or threatened, violence is a very real
Kailahun district, this was compounded parliamentary elections certainly resulted
fact in many womens lives. Standing out by aspiring to public office often
by a reduction in the number of wards in many more men seeking nomination at
increases this violence.
and by unsuccessful would-be (male) district level in this, the party stronghold.
Lack of finance. Without the resources to campaign, a woman has little parliamentarians leaving Freetown and It also put the party on the defensive:
opportunity to create the vital support amongst voters on a large enough turning instead to local-level politics. The according to some people, women were
scale to make her a viable contender. result was a huge increase in competition viewed as high risk candidates and the
for councillor positions and, significantly, party was not prepared to lose seats by
The electoral system. The first-past-the-post system decreases the space
many more men seeking election, which fielding women. Of the 28 SLPP candidates
for womens representation. The combination of strong, male-dominated
resulted in the marginalisation of women. in Kailahun, only two were women.
parties and the party nomination systems makes it hard for women to be
selected as party candidates.
Party-dominated politics: Politics in Eight of the women who were rejected by
Kailahun is dominated by the SLPP and their parties chose to stand as
support women candidates of all political they said they would. Pressure from the
parties in their election campaigns. SLPP to rally behind male candidates
Case study
Martha Gbow, district council candidate, independent, Kailahun district may have caused some men to withdraw
In Kailahun, PACER also sought to their support.
Martha has been an active member of the SLPP for many years, and is engage the Paramount Chiefs and other
one of only a few women involved in the district office. She believes she key male power holders. They worked It is curious that the project has had
has strong community support it is community members who financed together to draw up a list of criteria different outcomes in the two districts
her attempt to win the party symbol for the 2008 local council elections. that viable women candidates should despite using the same strategies. It
She puts her failure to win the symbol down to the perception that women demonstrate and to identify women who seems, though, that having a mixed
should not be involved in politics, and to the partys preference for a possessed such qualities. However, team of men and women working on
man. She experienced lots of pressure to step down in favour of a male although a handful of men have been the PACER project has maximised its
candidate, and finally did so on the eve of the election. She chose to run supportive of women, many didnt fulfil likelihood of engaging a wide range of
as an independent because she believes she has the right to participate in their promises and support women as stakeholders both men and women.
politics, regardless of the negative perceptions of women and the damaging
allegations made against her.
independent candidates, but in a district However, womens perceived failure was I visited the UK and saw that women are active in public life there. If Sierra Leone
where a single party holds so much used to justify not selecting more women wants to be as advanced as other countries, we need women leaders too.
power, it takes a lot of courage to do candidates for the 2008 elections.
I realised that there is nothing in the religious texts that supports the idea
so. The women were subject to a lot of
that women should be subservient. In fact, both the Bible and the Quran say
personal abuse and intimidation, and The positive outcomes of the
that women are our equals.
were accused of trying to undermine PACER project
the SLPP. Only one of the eight female Although the primary focus of PACER We can see that there is a more productive relationship between men and
independent candidates was elected. has been to support women to achieve women, that there is greater interaction between them, when greater respect
leadership positions, the effects of its is given to women.
Women being judged by past work have been felt far beyond this. The
We want to see what difference women will make.
performance: The Kailahun district positive outcomes of PACER include:
council elected in 2004 is widely Women were more vibrant than men during campaigning. I can see that the
perceived to have failed and the elected Gaining the support of influential men women councillors have some brilliant ideas.
women seem to have been judged harshly One of the key factors behind womens I really appreciated PACERs work, the way that they began by holding
on their inability to deliver in a way that success in Koinadugu was the projects consultative meetings [with powerful men] and explained to us the
men have not. In truth, the district council ability to gain the support of influential importance of womens leadership.
faced an uphill battle from the outset. men in the district, including religious
As the new system was put in place, the and traditional leaders, and former The training with imams and elders has had a big impact. We can see that
roles and responsibilities of the council council members. These men are not the way we conducted our relationships previously was an error. Women
were poorly defined and council members merely supportive of women taking on arent our possessions.
were confused about their duties. Women leadership roles but speak passionately Women and men must be co-partners in development. Womens
have been accused of not doing their job about their desire to promote womens participation is essential for the development of the whole community.
properly when in fact the system wasnt rights in their district! One man even
functioning and the whole council failed. donated a significant sum of money to
Building the capacity of women and energy to cope with difficult situations.
candidates
Case study
Women aspirants, candidates and It is notable that Kailahun district had a Haja Bintu Mansaray, district councillor, APC, Koinadugu
councillors in both districts have said that higher number of female independent
the support they received from PACER candidates than elsewhere in the country. Haja is a teacher and first got involved in the PACER project out of a general
was invaluable and that they couldnt This can be attributed to the PACER conviction that womens leadership was important, thinking that she could
have got as far as they did without it. project, which motivated and supported motivate and support other women to stand for election. However, she
In some cases, they had been involved women who were unsuccessful in gradually came to believe that she could do it herself and took the decision
in politics previously but still found the gaining the party symbol. The fact to run for a position on local council. She found the process hard, with
training they received useful. In other that women were prepared to face up resistance from the party and from her community, but her determination
instances, the women hadnt even to inevitable difficulties and abuse is to work for development drove her on. Now that she is a councillor, she
considered getting involved in politics testimony both to the support that PACER recognises that the expectations are high for women. She feels that more
before they came into contact with PACER. was able to offer and to the womens training is needed, and that specific projects should be developed for
determination to bring about change women in office to allow them to demonstrate their abilities to the community.
Elected women believe that the in their communities. None of the eight
training equipped them with the skills candidates dropped out of the election
they needed to campaign effectively process. The two female independent
and prepared them for meeting with councillors elected in Kailahun and
resistance from male counterparts. It Koinadugu were the first women ever to
boosted their confidence, determination succeed as independents. Increasing womens involvement in the A large number of women trained by
public sphere PACER remain committed to womens
At the time of the 2004 elections, women leadership and participation. Even
generally had little information about the in Kailahun, the experience of the
Men and women join together to support womens representation role of the district councils and very little 2008 elections hasnt dampened their
interest in getting involved in the electoral enthusiasm. Many of the women who
process. Many women did not even failed to be nominated, or who contested
realise they had the right to vote. Just the elections and lost, are willing to stand
four years later, and two years into the again in future and have been involved
PACER project, women in both districts behind the scenes. Some have stood
are not only voting but also canvassing instead for ward committees and hope to
support for women candidates and use their new role to build support for the
showing enthusiasm to stand for election. next local council elections in 2012.
The PACER project directly trained 282 At the recent ward committee elections,
women aspirants for the council elections only five of the 53 wards in the two
110 in Kailahun and 172 in Koinadugu districts failed to meet the legal
- and carried out awareness raising at requirement of having women in half
grassroots level on the electoral process of all elected positions and several
and the importance of womens leadership. wards have more women than men on
A combination of these activities has greatly the committee. Having legislation in
increased womens awareness of their place has made this possible, but so
rights and brought many to believe that they too has the willingness of women to put
can play a role equal to men in public life. themselves forward for the positions, and
this is rooted in their belief that women meet with and talk to women, for example
should be involved in decision-making by going to the market place, and saw
and are capable of doing a good job. the results at the polls. One woman
councillor was supported by women
In Koinadugu, even women who didnt petty traders who stayed away from the
participate in the PACER training are market on election day to campaign on
being inspired by seeing women leaders her behalf.
in their community and are beginning to
aspire to leadership roles themselves. Many of the women who were trained
For example, the district has female court by the PACER project but did not put
members for the first time. themselves forward as candidates
have become strong gender equality
Grassroots women are gradually advocates. They showed real solidarity
beginning to change their attitude with those women who did contest
towards involvement in the public sphere. the elections and actively supported
When PACER began, it was difficult to them in their election campaigns. In
engage women in community meetings Koinadugu, women even succeeded
but seeing women leaders in their in joining together across party lines
communities and a growing awareness and supported each other with their
of their rights has had an effect. campaigning!