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advocacy13 January 202027 January 2020

Ennos Bennos – النص بالنص

Ennos Bennos is an advocacy campaign (included under the Women on the Frontline’s regional program) for the implementation of gender parity on the electoral lists of political parties for the municipal elections.
A collective of associations are behind this campaign: their common goal is to implement the principles of equality and parity on the municipal electoral lists for 2017.
The collective wrote a Charter to be ratified by all Tunisian political parties. Its ratification would ensure women have access to decision-making positions within their respective parties, and would ensure that electoral lists are made in complete transparency.
A policy brief has been elaborated to organize this advocacy campaign which is geared towards the political parties and public opinion.

Writing the Charter

Meeting of the Commission to write the Charter “For an Equal Implementation of Gender Parity within the Electoral Lists for the Municipal Elections”.

Meetings with Political Parties

A major aspect of this advocacy campaign required the collaboration between the political parties and the collective. For three months, the collective met with many actors of the Tunisian political stage who were mostly in favor of the objectives of the Charter. Meetings were held with the leader of the Afek party, the spokesperson of Al Joumhouri, the coordinator of the Women’s Commissions of the Al Machrou3 party, members of the General Secretory of the Al Masar party, the coordinator of the Moussawat organization within the Worker’s Party, the president of the Women’s Department of the Ennahdha party and the leader of the Central Direction of Structures and Mobilization of the Nidaa Tounes party.

The Press Conference

On December 23rd 2016, a press conference was organized for the political actors to sign the Campaign Charter in front of an audience of media, civil society members and political parties. The 23rd of December remains a historical day for Tunisian women thanks to the eight parties that signed the Charter:

Mr Junaidi Abdeljawed and his party Al Masar
Mrs Amina Rekik and her party Al Machrou3
Mrs Tej El Molk Aouicha and her party Al Joumhouri
Mrs Ons Hattab and her party Nidaa Tounes
Mrs Wassila Zoghlami and her party Ennahdha
Mr Mouhamed Dheif and his party Afek Tounes
Mrs Thouraya Krichene and his party Al Watad
Mrs Radhia Amdouni and the Worker’s Party

political academy13 January 201919 February 2020

Women’s Political Academy 2019

Aswat Nissa launched the 8th edition of its Women’s Political Academy on March 29th 2019. This edition wished to accompany female politicians running in the next legislative elections. For six months, these twenty female politicians from different regions and political parties will follow different trainings on various themes, notably political communication, gender mainstreaming, gender-sensitive budgeting and electoral campaigning. The political academy’s goal is to help these future MPs become actors of change and advocates for gender equality within their political party and their region.

Leadership and Self-Confidence
Political Communication
Gender and the Integration of the Gender Approach within Public Policy
Legislative Gender Analysis and Political Plea
Gender-sensitive Budgeting
Electoral Campaigning

Leadership et confiance en soi

Cette formation sur le leadership et la confiance en soi, qui a eu lieu du 30 au 31 mars 2019, a été assurée par une psychologue. Cette première activité de l’Académie Politique des Femmes 2019 visait à encourager les participantes à développer un esprit d’équipe et une vision commune de la Tunisie (malgré leurs idéologies et affiliations politiques différentes). Cette activité visait aussi à favoriser la confiance en soi et l’esprit de leadership des participantes, notamment en les aidant à identifier des stéréotypes qui peuvent nuire à l’implication des femmes en politique. L’activité visait finalement à ce que les participantes établissent des objectifs politiques réalistes, puis des plans d’action qui leur permettront d’atteindre ces objectifs.

Communication politique

Les 13 et 14 avril 2019, une formation sur le thème de la communication politique a été organisée. Les candidates ont pu renforcer leurs connaissances du pouvoir législatif et des responsabilités des membres du Parlement. Elles ont aussi développé leurs habilités de communication dans un contexte politique notamment grâce à une meilleure connaissance des différents acteurs médiatiques et des spécificités de chacun. Les participantes ont finalement appris l’importance de développer un programme électoral ciblé à l’électorat visé, et ensuite, de bien le communiquer à travers le média approprié.

Genre et intégration de l’approche genre dans les politiques publiques

Les 23 et 24 juin 2019, les candidates ont participé à une formation sur le concept de genre et l’intégration de l’approche genre dans les politiques publiques. Les défis qui s’opposent à la promotion d’une culture d’égalité dans le contexte politique actuel ainsi que la violence et la discrimination commises à l’encontre des femmes ont été abordés. La Loi 58 contre la violence faite aux femmes et les problématiques y étant associées ont ensuite été présentés. Après avoir identifié les besoins spécifiques des femmes tunisiennes, la formatrice a finalement encouragé les femmes à développer des stratégies pour intégrer le genre dans leur projet politique, notamment par une budgétisation sensible au genre et par des projets visant l’égalité homme-femme.

Analyse genre des lois et plaidoyer politique

L’objectif de cette formation est de permettre aux candidates de se familiariser avec les techniques de plaidoyer et d’acquérir les compétences requises pour mener une action de plaidoyer sur la scène politique tunisienne ainsi que au sein de leur parti surtout durant la période de la campagne électorale.

Campagne électorale

Pendant deux jours intensifs, les jeunes femmes se présentant aux élections législatives de 2019 se sont focalisées sur les différentes étapes pour mener à bien une campagne électorale. Les séances ont porté sur la communication politique, l’art de négocier mais aussi le ciblage et le travail sur le terrain.

political academy13 January 201819 February 2020

Women’s Political Academy 2018

Aswat Nissa, along with its partners Kvinna till Kvinna and Heinrich Böll Stiftung, launched on March 2018 its 7th Women’s Political Academy that gathered twenty young women aged between 18 and 35 years old from different regions and from ten different political parties. This program aimed to prepare these women for the first municipal elections in the country since the 2011 Revolution. The training provided them with the necessary tools to become active agents of change, and engaged activists for gender equality (by integrating this concept within local public policy) within their political party and their community.
The 2018 Women’s Political Academy revolves around nine different components that aim as a whole to transform these candidates into true spokespeople for women’s rights and struggles:
Leadership and Decision-Making
Local Governance and Decentralization
Political communication with a simulated televised debate
Gender and Gender Equality
Gendered analysis of legislation
Integration of Gender within Public Policy
Gender-sensitive Budgeting
Women’s Role in Fighting Corruption
Advocating for the integration of gender within public policy (gender mainstreaming)

Leadership and Decision-Making

To stimulate the women’s leadership is one of the pillars of the Women’s Political Academy. To reinforce their leadership skills, the training wished to help them identify the obstacles that might impede their self-confidence and help them envision their political goals. The training was given by Lilia Baccouche, a psychologist and coach, and took place on the 10th and 11th of March 2018.

Local Governance and Decentralization

The three-day training on « Local Governance and Decentralization » was given by Zied Boussen, a researcher on local governance. This training allowed the participants to understand the underlying mechanisms of local elections, as well as the importance and the challenges facing a municipal council. This training’s objective was to prepare candidates for their role as elected politicians at a local level, and to prepare them to face the electorate’s expectations.

Political communication

Candidates had the opportunity to work on their political speeches with a specialized training on political communication and public speaking. For three days, candidates worked on different communication strategies and learnt how to adapt them depending on the type of media (social media, print, electronic media, television, radio, etc.). Candidates also worked on articulating clear and convincing messages through different argumentative techniques. A simulated televised debate was organized to allow the candidates to practice structuring their political discourse and adapting it to their audience.

Gender Equality

The ‘Gender Equality’ workshop was certainly one of the most crucial training within the political Academy. For two days, the candidates deepened expanded their knowledge and were made aware of the concept of gender and of its link with the individual and society. They became capable of differentiating gender and sex, and were sensitized to female and male stereotypes. They also became able to analyze how politics, education and the economy can all entrench stereotypes and discrimination based on gender.

Gender and law analysis

Following the workshop on gender equality, candidates gathered once again to follow a training on law analysis and on the integration of gender within legislation. Under the guidance of Professor Khaled Mejeri, the candidates reviewed many Tunisian laws and legal institutions and explored how these laws impact Tunisian women’s lives. The participants also discussed the 1325 National Action Plan to implement the UNSCR1325 adopted by Tunisia along with the report by COLIBE on individual freedoms and equality.

Breakfast with the young female municipal representatives

To celebrate the 62th anniversary of the Code of Personal Status, Aswat Nissa (in collaboration with Heinrich Böll Stiftung North Africa) organized a breakfast with the young municipal representatives of different editions of the Women’s Political Academy to discuss their role in the integration of the gender approach for the management of local affairs. The young elected representatives, that all lead different municipal commissions, shed light on the numerous obstacles they face, such as the lack of financing and corruption, and underlined the importance of local affairs for Tunisian women. According to these local representatives, it is mostly women that demand better municipal services (such as lighting, infrastructure, security, cleanliness, leisure spaces…). Having sat on the commission responsible for drafting the Local Authorities Code, MP Lilia Ksibi underlined the fact that integrating the gender approach could be an opportunity for localities to receive additional funding.

Integrating the Gender Approach Within Public Policy

The young women resumed their training in September (after a well-deserved break in August) with a course on the integration of the gender approach within public policy. This training allowed them to reinforce their knowledge on gender sensitive public policy by getting familiar with international instruments used for guidance on gender equality.

Gender-Sensitive Budgeting

The training on gender and gender-sensitive budgeting allowed the attendees to familiarize themselves with budgetary instruments integrating the gender dimension. The objective of this training was to give attendees the skills necessary for the preparation of a budget sensitive to gender and to emphasize its importance for their future projects and future municipalities. This workshop attracted broad interest considering most of the attendees are municipal representatives already involved in budget preparation.

Transparency and Women’s Role in Fighting Corruption

Aswat Nissa in collaboration with I watch (a reference on the fight against corruption) organized a course entitled “Transparency and Women’s Role in the Fight Against Corruption”. For two days, the candidates learnt about the devastating effects of corruption on economic and social development, and about the role they can play in preventing this nuisance.

A Plea for the Integration of Gender within Public Policy

The ultimate training given within the 7th Women’s Political Academy was a plea for the integration of gender within public policy. The candidates became familiar with different advocacy tools and acquired the skills necessary to lead a plea on the Tunisian political stage and within their own party. The objective was to help them become true activists for the integration of gender.

Closing ceremony of the Women’s Political Academy

After almost a year of work and training, Aswat Nissa ended the 7th Women’s Political Academy with a graduation ceremony. This event celebrated the success of the cohort that had gathered twenty young women politicians aged between twenty and thirty-five years old from different regions and from ten political parties. Seven of these women became municipal representatives. Aswat Nissa wishes them great success within their municipalities and their political parties, and wishes them to continue to be actors of change.

Good Practices for the Integration of Gender within Political Parties

On the 18th of December 2018, Aswat Nissa presented its study entitled “Good Practices for the Integration of Gender within Political Parties” prepared through a documentary research and a gathering of quantitative and qualitative data from forty politically-involved women aged between 20 and 43 years old.

The study provided a portrait of women’s political participation in Tunisia. In fact, this study proved that patriarchy, family responsibilities and insecurity in public transport, especially during the night, are the main impediments to female success in politics. The study also presents long and short-term recommendations.

You may consult the study by clicking on this link:

académie politique femme tunisienne 2018

political academy13 January 201719 February 2020

Women’s Political Academy 2017

Building on five years of a strong collaboration with Tunisian political parties, Aswat Nissa, along with its partners Kvinna till Kvinna and Heinrich Böll Stiftung, launched the 2017 edition of the Women’s Political Academy in January. This program aims to support and guide young female politicians aged between 18 and 35 years old – who play an active role within their political party and who will be running in the 2018 municipal elections. The training shall reinforce their leadership skills; those abilities will provide them the necessary tools to become active agents of change and engaged activists for gender equality within their political party and their community.
The 2017 Women’s Political Academy revolves around 7 different components, namely:
Leadership and Decision-Making
Electoral Campaigning
Communication and Public Speaking
Gender Equality
Local Governance and Decentralization
Gender Mainstreaming in Public Policies
The Status of the Tunisian Woman

Leadership and Decision-Making

The first training session of the Women’s Political Academy aimed to stimulate the women’s leadership. To reinforce their leadership skills, the training helped them identify the obstacles that might impede their self-confidence and helped them envision their political goals.

Communication and Public Speaking

Following the first training during which women candidates sharpened their leadership skills, they had the opportunity to work on their public speaking skills in a political context through a three-day specialized training on political communication and public speaking. During this training, the young women analyzed different types of political discourse (including verbal and non-verbal communication) in order to gain insight on how to communicate effectively during the municipal elections.

Electoral Campaigning

During this training, women candidates explored different key elements to an electoral campaign, such as specific voter targeting, fundraising, volunteer management and coordination, while learning about all legal rules and principles surrounding electoral campaigns that must be respected. Those new tools enabled women candidates to better manage their campaign and to efficiently target their audience.

Local Governance and Decentralization

During the training on local governance and decentralization, women participants came to understand local electoral mechanisms, as well as the importance of a municipal council. They were also informed of the challenges facing local governance. The goal was to prepare the women candidates to exercise their power in the specific context of local political instances.

Gender Equality

During this session, women candidates learned more on the topic of gender and how it interacts with people and society. Women became aware of the distinction between gender and sex, and of the many stereotypes surrounding the social conceptions of men and women. They also learned to reflect on how politics, education and the economy can reinforce these stereotypes and gender discrimination.

Integration of the Gender Approach within Public Policy

Now familiar with the concept of gender, women candidates were then introduced to gender mainstreaming in public policy. The candidates learnt the importance of using gender-sensitive indicators to evaluate their political projects and initiatives. Accordingly, they became aware of the importance of a substantive integration of gender within the political sphere to foster greater gender equality in Tunisia.

The Status of the Tunisian Woman

At the end of this two-day training, women candidates had a strong theoretical and practical knowledge of the status of Tunisian Women as defined per the Tunisian Constitution and international law. They became familiar with the various international conventions concerning women’s rights signed and ratified by Tunisia. Moreover, women discussed the Comprehensive law on violence committed against women and the necessity to actively pursue gender integration to ensure women’s social and economic rights.

académie politique femme Tunisie- association féministe

political academy13 January 201619 February 2020

Women’s Political Academy 2016

The 2016 Edition of the Women’s Political Academy brought together 40 participants, divided into two groups. The candidates attended six training sessions throughout the year. The sessions aimed to strengthen women’s capacities and skills in order to prepare them for the 2017 municipal elections and to increase their awareness on daily struggles experienced by Tunisian women. Ultimately, women candidates should be capable of pleading for gender mainstreaming in their municipalities.

Six main topics were covered during the 2016 Women’s Political Academy:

Leadership;
Political Communication and Media Relations;
Local Governance and Decentralization;
Electoral Campaigning;
Gender and Gender-sensitive Budgeting;
Socioeconomic Rights and the Electoral Law; and
Advocacy techniques.

Leadership

The leadership training aimed to strengthen women candidates’ confidence to encourage them to speak publicly and to voice their opinions in and outside their party.

Political Communication and Media Relations

The training on political communication and media relations helped women candidates clarify their political message and better target their electorate. The training session also aimed to coach women to answer interview questions professionally during the course of their electoral campaign.

Local Governance and Decentralization

The training on local governance, decentralization, and territorial assessment allowed women candidates to understand the different mechanisms at play during municipal elections, as well as the importance of a municipal council and its associated challenges. The objective of the training was to help women include within their electoral proposals the principles entrenched in the Tunisian Constitution that relate to local power.

Electoral Campaigning

The training on electoral campaigning revolved around financing strategies, team management, and voter targeting. This knowledge will help women candidates better manage their electoral campaign and better target their audience.

Gender and Gender-Sensitive Budgeting

The training on gender and gender-sensitive budgeting allowed women candidates to become more familiar with the concept of gender. Women also explored the different gender-sensitive tools of measurement, assessment, and budgeting. The goal of the training was to equip women with the necessary skills for gender-sensitive budgeting and to highlight its importance.

Socioeconomic Rights and the Electoral Law

The training on socioeconomic rights and the Electoral law aimed to inform the attendees of women’s social, economic, and cultural rights to foster their ability to advocate for a broader pursuit of those rights within their political party and their community.

Advocacy techniques

The training on advocacy techniques reinforced the women’s skills to elaborate and implement an effective advocacy campaign. It enabled women to better understand the importance of advocacy. The training also led to the creation of a common advocacy campaign to fight violence perpetrated against women. Women became able to work collectively for common objectives, regardless of their respective political affiliation.

Graduation Ceremony

The graduation ceremony of the Women’s Political Academy 2016 edition celebrated the participants’ effort and engagement throughout the program. Many key political actors, as well as a representative from the Korean International Cooperation Agency (KOICA) and the NDI Tunisian program manager, Mr Daniel Dezainde, were present during the celebration. The event benefited from a broad media coverage from Al Wataniya, the national television, and from Nessma. After a long deliberation, Nawrez Ellafi, of the Al Watad Party, was designated valedictorian of the 2016 cohort.

political academy13 January 201519 February 2020

Women’s Political Academy 2015-2016

Women's Political Academy 2015 - 2016

Opening ceremony

The opening ceremony for the 2015-2016 Women’s Political Academy took place in Tunis on October 2nd 2015.

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académie politique femmes Tunisienne 2013

political academy13 January 201419 February 2020

Women’s Political Academy 2014-2015

The 2014-2015 Women’s Political Academy allowed 25 women from five different regions of Tunisia to acquire the necessary skills to play an active role within their political party. The political academy is tailored for potential female candidates at the next municipal elections. The goal is to give them the necessary tools to be elected. Politicians participated in fieldwork within their community and benefited from networking opportunities. This project was organized in collaboration with UN Women, Oxfam and the National Democratic Institute.

The mentoring offered by the Academy covered three aspects:
1) Capacity Building
2) Proximity and Data Collection
3) Networking and Exchanges

Capacity Building

To build the candidate’s capacities as politicians, the training sessions focused on:

Leadership and confidence-building
Local governance
Gender-sensitive budgeting
Territorial assessment
Media relations
Advocacy techniques
Political communication
Electoral campaigning
Training of trainers
Social responsibility of local governments

Proximity and Data Collection

This aspect of the Academy seeks to raise awareness amongst the participants about what are the priorities of their region’s women, and seeks to help them develop strong links with their community. To start, women had to investigate within their community to identify what are the population’s expectations towards the municipal council. Afterwards, they had to write a list of demands representing the priorities of the women of that region, and had to share these priorities with the political actors, the media and the inhabitants of their region during local assemblies. Assemblies and territorial assessments were led in five regions (Tozeur, Sfax, Bizerte, Tunis and Ariana).

Networking and Exchanges

The two “salons politiques” allowed the attendees to exchange in a non-partisan space with female actors of the political stage. Successful political figures from Europe and Africa shared their experience, their successes and their struggles. Important subjects such as youth engagement and work-family balance were addressed. These exchanges were quite inspiring for the Academy’s candidates and fears, such as the difficulty to conciliate a political and maternal role, were allayed.

political academy13 January 201319 February 2020

Women’s Political Academy 2012-2013

Objective

The long-term goal of the “School of Women Candidates” is to institutionalize women’s place on the political stage so as to have better advocates for women’s rights and conditions.

Goal

Reinforce the women’s skills to run for an elected position;
Instill in female politicians the need to defend and promote women’s rights at a legislative and political level

Means

The project wishes to reinforce the skills of 25 female candidates for the parliamentary elections. These political women intend to represent the totality of the political spectrum.

The reinforcement workshops covered:

The Electoral Code and electoral boundaries
Electoral campaigning
Creating an electoral campaign team
Mobilising volunteers
Researching the electoral district
Targeting voters and citizens
Budgeting and financing an electoral campaign (fundraising)
Time management
Building a coalition
Encouraging women to participate and vote for a female candidate
Promoting good governance and electoral transparency
Elaborating a program and an electoral message
Media Relation
Public Speaking
Raising awareness on gender and on the struggles facing Tunisian women
Exchanges and inspiration (meeting Parliamentarians)
Strategic planning: Aswat Nissa helped certain political parties strategically plan their Women’s Commission at the request of women participants.