Now in its eighth year, the Week of Women (WoW) is a critical venue for citizens to hold their representatives accountable, while simultaneously elevating and shining a spotlight on women’s leadership. During the week of March 22-26, USAID supported NDI in organizing a series of debates on policy issues affecting municipalities as part of WoW 2020/2021. As Kosovo looks toward municipal elections in the fall, a recurring theme in the panelists’ discussions was the need for increased women’s representation at local levels.
In her opening remarks, USAID Democratic and Governance Office Director Christina Davis highlighted to the participants that none of Kosovo’s 38 mayors are women, and that in the history of Kosovo, there has only been one female mayor. She urged, “As we approach municipal elections in 2021, it is important that the opportunities for representation and the challenges that women face in achieving them are addressed.”
Over the course of the five days, panelists expressed ideas on how to extend the success that women are achieving at the national level to representation at local levels. On the third day of discussions, panelists called for local municipalities to achieve the important milestone of having women candidates at the top of electoral lists. The Speaker of the Assembly for the Municipality of Skenderaj highlighted that nominations from political parties are still often dominated by men rather than women. He explained the importance of aligning the law on elections with the law on gender equality as a way to ensure female representation at the local level.
During the five days of policy debates, a total of 342 attendees joined the sessions. NDI also live streamed the event on both the WoW and NDI Facebook pages. The total number of views for all five days was over 12,500, reaching more than 35,000 people. The USAID-supported WoW 2020/2021 kicked off in December 2020. The policy debates are part of WoW programming that will run throughout the year.
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