The Road to Good Governance Day 2 Aruba Symposium 12-14 September 2017 Saxion University of Applied Sciences Willeke Slingerland

It takes a community to realize Good Governance

Women empowerment and good governance

Corruption scandals NL, EU and elsewhere Often men in power, exchanging favors between them Variations in e.g.: risk aversion short term/long term thinking reciprocal behavior serving the specific or general interests

Gender and Corruption Comparing UN Human Development Report with the World Bank Control of Corruption Indicator (Worldwide Governance Indicators, both for 2013) The correlation shows that higher gender inequality is observed together with higher levels of corruption.

Glass Ceiling

How to understand this correlation? Does greater gender equality (or more women in positions of authority) result in less corruption because women are more honest than men? Or does less corruption improve gender equality, since lower levels of corruption may ensure better access to legal remedies against discrimination, sexual harassment etc. and therefore facilitate women’s access to positions of authority?

Agreement amongst experts Ultimately, even if there is no final evidence that women are intrinsically less corrupt than men, increasing women’s participation is still a desirable policy choice.

UN Women’s Empowerment Principles Empowering women to participate fully in economic life across all sectors is essential > build stronger economies > achieve internationally agreed goals for development and sustainability > improve the quality of life for women, men, families and communities.

Saxion: examples of women and good government

Capacity development in higher legal education in Palestine Among the four universities we work with, Hebron University is the youngest and has the highest number of female students (75% of total students) pursuing legal studies. These women both outnumber and outperform their male colleagues in law school.

Capacity development in higher legal education in Palestine Despite large number of female students in the Palestinian Universities, only few female graduates enter the labor market. Gender Strategy, that will engage both male and female staff and students and utilize already available expertise and resources, to develop a bottom up approach that fits well in the Palestinian context.

Supporting Good Governance in Yemen Youth Leadership Development Foundation (YLDF) non-governmental non-profit organization, located in Sana’a. YLDF was founded to support youth in voicing their opinions and needs, and participating in Yemen’s development, especially underprivileged and female youth.

Women Engagement Raising the awareness of women about political processes and opportunities in their communities has been shown to lead to building and ensuring democracy and rule of law. But if women lack information on how community political processes work and they do not cooperate, they are poorly equipped to be able to participate in the development of good governance.

Crabs in the bucket

Metaphor Individually, the crabs in the story could easily escape from the bucket, but instead they are described as grabbing at each other in a useless competition which prevents any from escaping and ensures their collective demise.

How the community gains from women engagement Mobilize women as political actors, creating both horizontal and vertical links between civil society, activist groups, and various local, national, and international organizations. The empowerment and autonomy of women and the improvement of their social, economic and political status are essential factors in the achievement of both transparent and accountable government and administration.

Women engagement Contributes to : redefining political priorities placing new items on the political agenda which reflect and address women’s gender-specific concerns, values and experience new perspectives on mainstream political issues.

Questions What strategies can be adopted to initiate action to build capacity for good governance, transparency and accountability among women? How can women be assisted to utilize existing opportunities to prepare them for community leadership ? ƒWhat strategies, mechanisms, and models can be used to build and link women leaders with a critical mass of informed women at grassroots and broad-based level at the community level ?

Thank you for your attention! THE END Remarks or questions? Thank you for your attention!