Outcome TZA_D_1.1

Electoral Frameworks and arrangements promote gender balance in elections.

UN Women Tanzania continued to support the capacity building of key actors contributing to the implementation of the Political Parties Act (PPA) that integrates principles of Women's Leadership and Political Participation (WLPP), including prevention of VAWP. Also, UN Women continued to support advocacy on integration of more GEWE principles in the Act. In 2021, UN Women supported dialogues with the National Electoral Commission (NEC) on the development of its Gender Strategy. The Gender Strategy will provide guidance on how to effectively mainstream GEWE in NEC’s mandate. This initiative is being implemented in collaboration with the Department of Political Affairs and Public Administration of the University of Dar es Salaam (PSPA-UDSM).

Electoral Frameworks and arrangements promote gender balance in elections.

Result: Towards strengthening the capacity of the National Electoral Commission (NEC) of Tanzania to ensure promotion of gender balance in elections processes, a draft of the Gender Strategy for NEC was developed already in 2021, and further finalized in 2022. The NEC Gender Strategy recognizes the need to enhance women’s participation in political processes not only as voters but also as candidates as well as their strong presence in the management of elections as election administrators. It also looks at institutional arrangements of the NEC including staffing, as well as structures and tools that need to be improved to promote effective leadership and participation of women in the entire Commission. The strategy serves as a key pathway to strengthen women’s participation and leadership in electoral processes. During the previous years, UN Women has supported both Government of Tanzania mainland and Zanzibar to develop their own gender strategies. The gender strategy in the National Assembly in mainland has recently led to com mitments to establish a gender desk in the National Assembly. The Political Parties (Amendment) Act (PPA) 2019 incorporates principles of gender equality, youth, and social inclusion in leadership and political participation, including prevention of Violence Against Women in Politics (VAWP) in political processes. Despite of the significant progress, currently neither the PPA nor any law in Tanzania obligates political parties to increase the number of women leaders or, for example, set up a quota for women leaders inside the parties. Since political candidates are required to go through the political party system, this creates major obstacles for women Nonetheless, the ability of members of the Tanzania Women's Parliamentary Group (TWPG) - which is the women's caucus in the Parliament of Tanzania - to make submissions to the Law Reform Commission on the need for reforms of the Elections Act and Political Parti es Ac t, and having the institution consider them demonstrates that women leaders have adequate skills to promote gender balance in electoral processes. Evidence: National Electoral Commission (NEC) Gender Strategy. UN Women contribution : UN Women has a Gender Specialist based in Dodoma (the national capital of Tanzania) who is supporting National Electoral Commission (NEC), Tanzania Women's Parliamentary Group (TWPG) and other key UN Women partners to advance gender balance in elections.