HIWAR Center for Youth and Women’s Empowerment in Ramallah, Palestine, implemented successfully a campaign on encouraging women participation in local politics. This campaign was held in partnership with the Center of Women’ s Studies and Policies (CWSP) based in bulgaria and it is part of the CSO WINS Project: "Capacity-building in the Southern Mediterranean to Open Policy Dialogue and Monitoring for Women in Society", financed by the European Union.

Trough vivid discussions on the organized workshops for high school students and trough inspiring meetings with prominent women role models in Palestine, HIWAR reached many active women from different municipalities, who were interested and involved in the topic.

The campaign also launched television series on gender equality, human rights and political participation of women in Palestine, highlighting women’s problems and difficulties they face in the elections. It continued with specialized trainings for women potential candidates for local elections who were trained in communication skills, gender equality in politics, strategic planning, reporting and campaigning from start to finish, as well as electoral legislation.The campaign culminated in a graduation ceremony in August 2017.

The most important outcome of the trainings was also the networking between trained women and municipal and rural councils, so that a supportive and volunteer group will be established to help women who want to run for the elections in the targeted municipal and village councils. The campaign already has succeeded to rehabilitate the feminist network in these areas, and to identify some of the most acute needs of women, living in the area.

All activities of the campaign are summarized in the attached file.