With the objective of exchanging knowledge, reflecting on the situation of women in local governments and proposing concrete actions for the empowerment of women politicians, UN-INSTRAW and the Regional Association PROCASUR organized the “Routes to Learning” between Costa Rica and El Salvador from 7 to 14 August 2008. The Routes include the participation of 15 women mayors, councilwomen and representatives of women’s/gender machinery from both countries.
The first Route initiated in San José, Costa Rica with a debate on the country’s experience in the approval and implementation of its quota law, as well as a look at the success stories and strategic alliances that have made Costa Rica one of the countries where quota law has been most effectively implemented (Costa Rica currently ranks eighth in the world with 36.8% of women representatives in its national parliament). Through the Routes, participants from Bolivia, Ecuador, El Salvador, Nicaragua and Guatemala meet to exchange experiences on these different processes in order to attain greater responsibility in their own countries with the help of their counterparts from Costa Rica.
Participants visited the municipalities of Belén, San Isidro de Heredia (Costa Rica), San Salvador, Santa Tecla y Suchitoto (El Salvador), which have been selected as outstanding cases as a result of their efforts in implementing public policies with a gender perspective in municipal administration. Participants will also have the opportunity to learn about the experiences of pioneering councilwomen such as Violeta Menjivar of San Salvador, as well as other outstanding women politicians who have been able to retain their elected offices over several mandates and have made the gender perspective a reality within and outside their municipalities. The challenges confronted and the success accomplished by these municipalities have become first-hand learning material and subject matter for analysis and reflection.
Taking into account the great gap that still exists between men and women in terms of their presence and role in decision-making within local governments, the Routes allow for the strengthening of women’s role as political actors through learning, acknowledgment of their work in municipalities, exchange of experiences and establishment of agreements.
The Route to Learning is a collective training methodology selected by UN- INSTRAW as the most appropriate means to respond to the needs of local political leaders, who have expressed their interest in participating in less traditional “training” processes. Such processes originate from real and personal knowledge acquired by women while exercising political power.
This initiative falls within the framework of the third phase of the Project Strengthening governance with a gender perspective and the political participation of women at the local level, being implemented by UN-INSTRAW (financed by AECID). As part of this project, several studies have been carried out that have made evident the need to develop capacity-building programmes based on women’s experiences and developed from a participatory perspective.
The second Route to Learning will be carried out in September 2008 in the Andean Region.
