Strengthening the Role, Capacity and Competence of Women Parliamentarians for Period 2024 – 2029

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Women's representation in politics is critical to achieving gender equality. It has become one of the key determinants of measuring women's empowerment in the Gender Inequality Index (GII). Women's presence in politics is considered important because it has the ability to drive change in political processes, service delivery, and social audits. In addition, women's representation and political participation will ensure policies that support, empower and contribute to change are real and felt by women. Although there are challenges and women faced by women in political involvement such as; (1) discrimination and inconsistency of regulations related to the involvement of women in politics, (2) social and cultural factors of society that still discriminate against women, (3) political affirmation of women's representation is still considered a burden by political parties. So that there is a lack of regeneration, education, and continuous strengthening of political capacity, (4) women are considered less competitive than men, and (5) women still have difficulties in voting legally.

The presence of women's representation does not necessarily make progress on agendas that benefit women's interests. At the national level, there are still many agendas that are closely related to women's issues that remain obstacles such as the Law Against Sexual Violence and the Law on Domestic Workers. There are also many discriminatory local regulations that disadvantage women. To achieve substantive representation, women MPs must act for women, and most importantly, they must make a positive difference for women.

It is important for women MPs to champion women's interests effectively, as not all elected women MPs operate with the right substance and motivation. A large number of successful female politicians are part of political dynasties, which means voters choose candidates because of their association with male figures. And while they are willing to act for women, whether they are able to make change also lies in their capacity and competence to do the job. The reality is that there is currently a capacity gap.

From 2015 to 2023, KAS has collaborated with B_Trust to run a capacity building program for women parliamentarians. The program has been attended by more than 340 women DPRD members in 19 provinces: West Java, North Sumatra, East & North Kalimantan, West Sumatra, Bali, Central Java, East Java, Special Region of Yogyakarta, South Kalimantan, Banten, NTB, South Sumatra, West Kalimantan, Riau, South Sulawesi and North Sulawesi.

The election of legislative candidates for the 2024-2029 period has been held and elected women MPs must now prepare themselves to fight for the rights of the people in parliament. Women parliamentarians must be able to compete and be able to produce policies that are fought for the community/constituents. Therefore, Konrad Adenauer Stiftung and B_Trust developed a program, as well as developing and organizing training that answers the needs in terms of mental strengthening of elected women legislators to fight for the mandate of constituents in the 2024 - 2029 period.