Women and public life - Focus on Europe - Media training
24-26 November 2006 - Sofia, Bulgaria
Expanding the key knowledge and skills of key importance to Bulgarian women politicians as successful parliamentarians and decision-makers was at the core of the training seminar co-organized by NDI discussing "Women Women and public life - Focus on Europe - Media training". The achieved results will benefit participants - women MPs, party activists and NGO representatives - in contributing to informed and effective participation by women in Bulgarian politics, including at the upcoming elections for Bulgarian Members of the European Parliament (MEPs).
This includes fluent collaboration between the media and women candidates, their team and organizations working toward better representation of women in political life. It is considered essential that the collaboration is further developed and continues after the election of Bulgarian MEPs. Participants, some of whom representatives of the media and media specialists, discussed the opportunities that journalists have in positively contributing toward adequate coverage of activities by women MEP candidates and women politicians in general, and to create a clearer picture of women participation in Bulgarian politics.
Furthermore, the seminar provided a forum for enhancing good communication among women in politics and civil society to strengthen their efforts and contribute to the efficient coordination of decision making and action among the various state institutions, party structures and NGOs which they represent.
Facilitators - Ms Gemma Hussey, Dr Francis Gardiner and Ms Audrey Conlon from the European Women's Foundation (EWF) which initiated the seminar - presented the experience of Ireland as one of the Member States whose national economy has significantly benefited from EU membership. Ms Hussey, three times minister from the Irish government and former Member of both Chambers of the Irish Parliament, gave examples of her own professional career as a woman politician occupying leading positions in the rule of her country and shared knowledge of good practices and important skills that will aid her Bulgarian colleagues to meet similar challenges and be successful.
The discussion on the promotion of Bulgarian women MEP candidates enjoyed an intervention by the Head of the newly established Information Office of the European Parliament in Bulgaria. Mr Toon Streppel, spoke of women participation in the EP and declared readiness to start joint initiatives aiming at adequate participation at the forthcoming EP elections in the country.
Parliamentarians, Government Officials and NGOs Address Local Issues in Kavarna
10-13 August 2006, Kavarna
At the request of members of parliament (MPs) participating in NDI's program, NDI organized a summer school in Kavarna to bring together women MPs from across the political spectrum, local government officials and representatives from non-governmental organizations. The training sessions focused on the role of elected women as key actors in addressing local issues and facilitators of cooperation among NGOs, local government, and state institutions.
In addition to this training, the MPs and local women activists used the forum of the summer school to discuss ways to improve their cooperation. The women reaffirmed the importance of ongoing dialogue and the sharing of experiences and agreed that cross-party issue-based efforts are the most efficient strategy to building citizens' confidence in institutions and politics in general. The women MPs also took the opportunity to discuss strategies for recruiting a wider range of women candidates in preparation for the local elections next year with local government and NGO representatives.
During the school, the MPs made a series of visits in Kavarna to hear citizens' concerns and obtain first-hand feedback on new and current legislation. Women representatives visited one of the biggest private agricultural farms in the Dobrudja region, met with medical doctors, nurses, and patients in the municipal hospital, visited the city police office, a kindergarten, the municipal citizen service information center, and the Roma integration center. They also walked through the Roma residential district of Kavarna, where they discussed specific Roma-related issues with community members.
Following the summer school on August 11, the Mayor of Kavarna, Mr. Tsonko Tsonev, and MPs Asia Mihailova (UDF), Iva Stankova (BSP), Mima Vasileva (NMS), Nigiar Djafer (MRF), Snezhana Grozdilova (NMS) and Valentina Bogdanova (BSP) held a joint press conference to show their multi-partisan approach to addressing important local issues, recognize innovative approaches of the local government and identify areas for legislative initiatives. The press conference was well attended by national, regional and local media.
"The exchange of experience between us is at all levels: national, local, personal, including the business as well. We already provide an example of such collaborative approach with the objective of providing equal opportunities and reaching the full potential of all citizens."
Snezhana Grozdilova
"The ever increasing women's political participation in Bulgaria is of common political interest to all, and it is in line with the broader European trends of mobilizing a variety of resources." Valya Bogdanova
The Agenda of the training seminar can be found here. - (Download) (99kB)
Women's luncheon to discuss legislation that positively affects women 19 June 2006 - Sofia, National Palace of Culture
The event brought together women MPs from Southeastern Europe to discuss legislation that positively affects women in such areas as electoral law reform and gender equality.
Bulgarian Members of Parliament and Win with Women Global Initiative signatories hosted the event sponsored by NDI.
The discussion brought forward common concerns for both parliamentarians and civil society activists, especially regarding election law reform to increase women participation, as well as long-term commitment to ensure efficient gender equality legislation and impact assessment of draft legislation that affects women, while seeking active collaboration with governmental bodies.
"Fora of this kind are vital to developing effective regional cooperation. We [women parliamentarians attending the meeting] are representatives of neighboring countries which have in the past often shared common experience and continue to do so, currently following a similar road to European membership"said Ms Snezhana Grozdilova, MP and moderator of the event.
"While in the general agenda of the World Conference [Second World Conference of Women Parliamentarians] we are discussing legislation positively affecting children, in this hall we stress out the role of parliaments to support women. These two topics make us, women parliamentarians, strongly aware of both the responsibility and the opportunity we possess to achieve change in these areas"said Ms Lyubcheva, Member of Parliament (MP) and panel speaker at the luncheon.
On 29 May 2006 within the framework of the Program for encouraging women participation in politics the National Democratic Institute organized in Sofia a training of first mandate women MPs Assistants.
The participants were introduced to the representative function of MPs: best practices of organization and functioning of constituency offices; different ways and types for direct and regular communication with constituents and citizens; using of new technologies; creating and maintaining of database; casework forms.
Bulgarian women discuss gender equality at a meeting with representative of European parliament
On 29 March 2006 Mrs. Assya Mihaylova (MP from ADF), Mrs. Maya Manolova (MP from BSP), Mrs. Pavlina Filipova (Women's Alliance for Development), Mrs. Teodora Koumova ("Amalipe" Center for Multiethnic Dialog and Tolerance, Veliko Tarnovo), Mrs. Maria Petkova (Cooperating Netherlands Foundations) and Mrs. Sevdalina Voynova (National Democratic Institute) had a meeting with Mrs. Els De Groen, MP from the Green party in the European parliament. The meeting was conducted in the context of the expected monitoring report on the preparedness of Bulgaria to join EU and its aim was to discuss the progress of the country regarding gender equality. During the discussions the attention was focused on women and labour market, traffic of women, domestic violence and specific problems of women from ethnic minorities. The event was organized by NDI as a part of the Program for development of women political skills and became a demonstration of the will of women in politics and women in non-governmental sector to consolidate their efforts to address these important for the whole society themes.
NDI/Bulgaria organized a study trip for women first-term members of the Bulgarian Parliament. Taking part in the multiparty delegation were Members of Parliament Valentina Bogdanova, Coalition for Bulgaria, Mima Vassileva (NMS), Nigyar Sahlim (MRF), Assya Mihaylova (UDF) and Antonella Poneva.
Using the opportunity for international collaboration and sharing of experience and good practice, the study trip aimed to assist recently elected women MPs participating in the program with opportunities in further advancing their political skills and competences.
The visit of the Bulgarian delegation took place in the context of the ratification of the Bulgarian accession treaty by the Second Chamber of the Dutch Parliament and the expected debates on its ratification in the Senate (First Chamber). The upcoming local elections in the Netherlands (March 7th, 2006) provided a dynamic setting to discuss contesting party strategies for gender equal and women's participation in elections as well as the development of those strategies.
Furthermore, Bulgarian MPs were informed about the development and implementation of policies and mechanisms in the Netherlands to ensure women's adequate participation in politics, including participation in parliament, national executive bodies, the European Parliament, and the role of women's organizations from the nongovernmental sector. Particularly important were issues such as the legalization of prostitution, women trafficking, domestic violence, child care and women's participation in the labor market with a focus on women in business.
With members of Dutch mainstream political parties, discussion focused on current priorities in the field of women participation and existing internal party mechanisms to improve women's participation addressing candidate selection, campaign management, participation quotas and participation target levels.
The study trip contributed to the exchange of opinion and shared recognition of further exchange of experience, vitally important in forthcoming collaboration with the European Union.
Programme working visit/study trip of 5 Bulgarian female MP's
Enhancing women's political participation - (Download) (53kB)
Bulgarian MPs visit their Macedonian colleagues to exchange good practices in women participation
Macedonia - Skopje, 30-31 January 2006
NDI/Bulgaria organized an inter-parliamentary exchange of experience and good practice between Bulgarian women MPs participating in the Program and women Members of the Macedonian Parliament. Talks focused on taking legislative action to ensure equal opportunities for women and men as well as further development of national and international mechanisms providing women with greater access to power. Commitment to inter-parliamentary collaboration regarding women participation was made in the context of regional cooperation and exchanging experience toward EU accession.
The Bulgarian delegation had representatives of four parliamentary groups MP Iva Stankova (Coalition for Bulgaria, BSP), MP Snezhana Grozdilova (National Movement Simeon the Second - NMS), MP and deputy chair of the parliamentary group Assya Mihaylova (ADF/Gergyovden), and MP Antonella Poneva (Democrats for Strong Bulgaria - DSB).
At the March and April trainings this year, women candidates identified the need for further discussion on key issues currently facing Bulgarian society. Based on their suggestions, NDI organizes a series of policy briefings moderated by experts in the fields of agriculture, tourism, defense and national security, and healthcare. Both organizers and participants agreed on the importance of further raising candidates' awareness on related policies and discussing them within a common women's agenda working across parties. The briefings also aim to develop networks between women politicians and experts in various fields to support efficient decision-making.
The Women Candidates Training - April 15-17th - organized by NDI is one of the scheduled activities underãtaken by NDI's Women's Program to ensure women's active involvement in Bulgarian politics. This is the second event, following the first training in March, which addresses the needs of women candidates and works to create conditions for meaningful female participation at the forthcoming parliamentary elections (June 25th 2005).
The training took place at the start of the election campaign and the announcement of party candidate lists for most of the parties. Members of five out of six political formation currently represented in parliament were offered the opportunity to meet and address common issues faced by women in ascertaining stable positions in Bulgarian political life. The organizers undertook to support the sharing of experience and development of skills by the participants through discussion, presentations, public speaking, providing and handling feedback from political opponents or the party team.
The trainers - Sonja Lokar, Chair of the Stability Pact Gender Task Force, and Hege Hero from the Norwegian Conservative Party and Secretary General of its Women's Association - presented and discussed with participants the major aspects of election campaigning, female representation and power building. Within the focus of their presentations came the relationship between the candidate and her party, the structure and organization of the election campaign, voter communication and outreach, message development and delivery, election day performance. The trainers provided advice to all participants regarding the further developing of personal skills in public speaking and offered support to campaign strategy development through individual party consultations.
The cocktail organized in the first day of the training brought together the participants, as representatives of the governmental sector, and representatives of major women's NGOs active in Bulgaria. The presentation of organization activities was accompanied by the exchange of contact information and expressed readiness for future cooperation.
Participants have pointed out the contribution of the training to achieving greater understanding of how to deal with political challenges commonly faced by women across the political spectrum, to their successful political performance as well as to the opportunity for less formal cross-party communication. In addition, this has motivated support for NDI's Win With Women Global Plan as well as future engagement in the circulation of information and materials to the achievement of the initiative's goals. The positive response will benefit as a good starting point the forthcoming policy briefings targeting a larger female audience and scheduled to take place at the beginning of May.
Training for Party Headquarters: Effective Campaigning for Female Candidates
March 19-20th 2005
Sofia, Bulgaria
On March 19 - 20 NDI conducted the first training under this program, entitled Win with Women: Effective Campaigning for Female Candidates. The training was co-sponsored by the Dutch Liberal Party, which provided two trainers and a lot of training materials. The training was also attended by Caroline van Tassen, the international secretary of VVD. The two trainers were Adjiedj Bakas, an international consultant who trained at another NDI/VVD co-sponsored event in December, and Patrick Mikkelsen, political advisor to the Dutch minister of integration and immigration Rita Verdonk. As before, when we first established this cooperation with VVD, the training was very well designed and conducted. I once again recommend this sort of trainers because they bring different experience and broaden tremendously the perspective of pre-accession EU country participants.
The training was designed for members of election headquarters: to help them understand the challenges and spin of a female campaign, to provide examples of success stories and lessons learned from other parts of the world, and to direct them to develop guidelines for female candidates throughout their national campaigns. It was a multiparty training, attended by all six parliamentary parties: NMS, BSP, MRF, UDF, DSB, the New Time. The total number of participants was 25, out of whom 4 were men! A lot of the trainees are women candidates, and for sure at least 5 of them have good chances to be elected for MPs.
The training topics covered feminization trends in Europe and how Bulgarian women in politics can utilize them; female politician image building; specific advice for campaigning and working with the media. One of the most interesting and useful elements was the case study of the political career of Rita Verdonk, who started as a politician only a year and a half ago, who is currently minister of immigration and integration and is thought of eventually as the first female Dutch prime minister. On Sunday Genoveva Petrova with Alpha Research and Sevda presented and discussed with the participants the profile of Bulgarian women as voters. In brief, the politically active women are 41 and above, with middle income, living in mid-size to small localities, predominantly working in administration or education spheres. One of their specific traits is that they have high expectations of the party campaign related to transparency of coalition building and platform development. Another interesting differentiation between men and women voters is the number one priority: for men this is rule of law, for women - health care. We also discussed attitudes towards women in politics, the effect of eventual quotas and soft and hard issues. In summary, the biggest problem of women in politics in Bulgaria is to prove their competency and to learn to establish a balance between "feminine" features and toughness (interpreted as competency). It seems possible to challenge the gender stereotypes by committing to hard issues.
Facilitators - Ms Gemma Hussey, Dr Francis Gardiner and Ms Audrey Conlon from the European Women's Foundation (EWF) which initiated the seminar - presented the experience of Ireland as one of the Member States whose national economy has significantly benefited from EU membership. Ms Hussey, three times minister from the Irish government and former Member of both Chambers of the Irish Parliament, gave examples of her own professional career as a woman politician occupying leading positions in the rule of her country and shared knowledge of good practices and important skills that will aid her Bulgarian colleagues to meet similar challenges and be successful.
The discussion on the promotion of Bulgarian women MEP candidates enjoyed an intervention by the Head of the newly established Information Office of the European Parliament in Bulgaria. Mr Toon Streppel, spoke of women participation in the EP and declared readiness to start joint initiatives aiming at adequate participation at the forthcoming EP elections in the country.
"Fora of this kind are vital to developing effective regional cooperation. We [women parliamentarians attending the meeting] are representatives of neighboring countries which have in the past often shared common experience and continue to do so, currently following a similar road to European membership" said Ms Snezhana Grozdilova, MP and moderator of the event.
"While in the general agenda of the World Conference [Second World Conference of Women Parliamentarians] we are discussing legislation positively affecting children, in this hall we stress out the role of parliaments to support women. These two topics make us, women parliamentarians, strongly aware of both the responsibility and the opportunity we possess to achieve change in these areas" said Ms Lyubcheva, Member of Parliament (MP) and panel speaker at the luncheon.
On 29 May 2006 within the framework of the Program for encouraging women participation in politics the National Democratic Institute organized in Sofia a training of first mandate women MPs Assistants.
