ECLAC presented a report on women’s participation in local governments during the Regional Dialogue: Building democratic societies

Karen García Rojas, a statistician from ECLAC’s Gender Affairs Division, participated in the session entitled “Latin America and the Caribbean. 30 years of equal democracy and participation”, where she presented “Notes for Equality No. 33: Women in local governments in Latin America and the Caribbean, 2023”, prepared by ECLAC’s Gender Equality Observatory for Latin America and the Caribbean in partnership with UN Women.

The paper analyses recent regional trends in women’s representation in local government deliberative bodies using data from SDG indicator 5.5.1b. The data analysis shows that women’s representation in these bodies is lower in the region than in the rest of the world, such that “At the current rate of progress, it is unlikely that the SDG gender parity target will be achieved by 2030.” In this regard, the Note highlights that laws that promote parity measures at the level of local elected officials have significant impacts on women’s participation.

The data presented by the professional are collected by the ECLAC Gender Equality Observatory in conjunction with UN Women, through forms sent to national statistics offices in coordination with electoral bodies and mechanisms for the advancement of women in each country. García Rojas noted that “Only 2 of 21 countries with data in Latin America and the Caribbean have achieved 50% or more women’s participation in deliberative bodies of local government, while the majority of countries (14 of 21) have a participation of women between 20% and 49.9%; 5 countries do not exceed 20% women’s representation and 6 countries with local government elections do not report the data.”

On the other hand, “More than half of countries with elected local governments use quotas established by law to accelerate women’s participation, specifically 15 out of 27 with elected local governments.” Karen stressed that, at the regional level, countries with robust quota parity measures have a higher participation of women than those without such measures: “In countries with robust quota parity laws, women represent on average 45% of elected local seats, compared to 32% in countries without these laws” said the United Nations official.

At the end of her speech, García Rojas mentioned some of the recommendations based on the publication, such as incorporating parity into electoral legislation and ensuring its application through classification/placement rules and effective sanctions for non-compliance with legal provisions; strengthening the articulation between statistical and electoral systems to produce and use accurate data on women’s participation in political and public life comparable on a global scale, broken down by sex, age and other characteristics; investing in the development of women’s political skills throughout their lives, among others.

The meeting, which was organized by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in Latin America and the Caribbean and the Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation (AECID), with the support of the Canadian Cooperation and the United Nations Department of Political Affairs and Peacebuilding, aimed to establish strategic recommendations for action by different political and social actors, renewing commitments to democracy, equality and non-discrimination. Its results are intended to be part of the inputs that will feed the discussions to be held within the framework of the XVI Regional Conference on Women in Latin America and the Caribbean, which will be held in Mexico in 2025.

In addition to Karen García from ECLAC, the session “Latin America and the Caribbean. 30 years of equal democracy and participation” included interventions by Diana Atamaint, President of the National Electoral Council of Ecuador; Wendy González, Magistrate of the Supreme Electoral Tribunal of Costa Rica; María Cristina Escudero, Counselor of the National Electoral Service of Chile; Diana Espinoza from UN Women, Pilar Tello from IDEA International; and Isabel Torres García from UNDP, and was moderated by Isabel Alba, Executive Secretary of the Equality Policy Commission, Central Electoral Board of the Dominican Republic.