50/50 Campaign - Women in Solidarity project

‘50/50 Campaign - Women in Solidarity’ project

Project duration: 6 months (15.05.2023-15.11.2023)

Working together for a green, competitive and inclusive Europe.

The project ‘50/50 Campaign - Women in Solidarity’ is implemented by the Romanian Women's Lobby (RoWL) in partnership with Kvenréttindafélag Íslands/ The Icelandic Women's Rights Association (IWRA) and benefits from a 29.800 euros grant from Active Citizens Fund Romania, programme funded by Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway through the EEA Grants Grants 2014 -2021. The project aims to promote women's equality in political decision-making in Romania in relation to the four types of elections to be held in 2024.

The Romanian Women's Lobby believes that at present a deadlock has been reached in terms of women's access to leadership positions in local, and county councils, in the Romanian Parliament and Romanian representatives in the European Parliament and that the current models cannot lead to change if the working paradigm is not modified.

The project aims to promote women's equality in political decision-making in Romania concerning the upcoming four election types in 2024.

1. The preparation of a framework project of the future Iceland-Romania bilateral strategy for the participation of women in the 2024 elections – during a 3-day working visit and exchange of experience in Iceland - in which the Romanian Women Lobby executive will participate and contribute together with the team of the partner the Icelandic Women's Rights Association.

2. Develop, design and test a Romanian mentoring program based on Icelandic expertise to support women's NGOs and women leaders of different political parties in Romania to expand the number of women candidates in eligible places in the 2024 elections in Romania - by organizing in Romania in the summer of 2023 of a 3-day training of trainers with Icelandic trainers. You can read the press release here.

3. Increase the confidence and participation of women from different political parties at the elections in 2024 through the organization of 5 multiplication workshops for 75 women participants from at least 5 Romanian political parties where trainers are beneficiaries of the TOT summer program.

Direct beneficiaries of the project:

• 5 members of the ROWL executive participating in the working visit to Iceland;
• 15-20 women from ROWL member associations and women leaders from the main 5-6 political parties nominating women in the upcoming 2024 elections;
• 75 women from 5-6 political parties participating in the preparation workshops for the 2024 elections.

We consider it necessary to use good practices from Iceland to implement a functional system for the promotion of women on the electoral lists, Icelandic experts having experience in the Icelandic Labor Confederation (ASI), the Office of the Prime Minister of Iceland -as special advisers in gender equality and advice in the establishment of the Women's Equality Party, Great Britain. The proposed actions contribute to the organizational development of the promoter by preparing a framework project with the Icelandic Women's Rights Association for the participation of women in the 2024 elections in Romania and by connecting the ROWL executive with key persons and trainers in Iceland. By training trainers with Icelandic experts, the capacity of ROWL and its member organizations to organize local training sessions for female candidates increases and has a wider national impact.

Activities carried out within the project:

1. Working visit to Iceland, 18 - 20 May 2023

One of the action lines of the project aimed at preparing a framework project for the future Iceland-Romania bilateral strategy for women's participation in the 2024 elections through a 3-day working visit (18-20 May 2023) and exchange of experience in Iceland, attended by the Romanian Women's Lobby (RoWL) executive. Together with the partner team, the Icelandic Association for Women's Rights, the RoWL team contributed to the development of a mentoring programme to support Romanian women's NGOs and women leaders of different political parties to promote women's equality in political decision-making. By getting in touch with members of the partner association as well as key people in the Icelandic women's movement, the RoWL team had the opportunity to learn best practices about how Iceland has prepared women candidates to succeed in elections and techniques to promote the parity system in Iceland.

Among the activities carried out during the working visit we mention:

• Visit to project partner Kvenréttindafélag Íslands/ Icelandic Association for Women's Rights, 18 May 2023

• W.O.M.E.N. Conference on Combating Gender-Based Violence, 18 May 2023

• Visit to Alþingi, Parliament of Iceland, 19 May 2023

• Meeting with MPs from different political parties, Steinunn Þóra Árnadóttir, Þórunn Sveinbjarnardóttir, Berglind Ósk Guðmundsdóttir, Guðrún Hafsteinsdóttir

• Visit to the Prime Minister's Office, 19 May 2023

• European Women's Lobby, 19 May 2023 - Meeting with Brynhildur Heiðar - og Ómarsdóttir and Ellen Calmon
• Visit to U.N. Women Iceland, 19 May 2023 - Meeting with Ingibjörg Sólrún Gísladóttir, a pioneer of the feminist movement & the political party Women's List

• TOT preparation, 20 May 2023

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2. TOT - Training of trainers

Romanian Women's Lobby (ROWL) together with Kvenréttindafélag Íslands/ the Icelandic Women's Rights Association (IWRA) organized the activity Training of Trainers 50/50 on 17-19 August 2023 in Iași, at the Chamber of Commerce and Industry Iași.

WHAT WAS THE 50/50 TRAINING OF TRAINERS

It was a 3-day course conducted exclusively in English from 17 to 19 of August 2023 in Iași. It was designed and coordinated based on Icelandic expertise to support women's NGOs and women leaders from different political parties in Romania to increase the number of women candidates for eligible seats in the 2024 elections in Romania.

The main focus was to build capacity among women in RoWL member NGOs and women's representatives in political parties to support more workshops in autumn-winter 2023, support campaigns for women candidates in 2024 and develop advocacy capacity for electoral law changes to lead to more women elected in future elections.

WHO PARTICIPATED

This event was open to 25 participants from member organisations RoWL and women leaders from the main parliamentary and/or who favour the zipper system on electoral lists as a priority for the upcoming elections. By organising these three days of training of trainers, we wanted to create the space for learning to promote women's equality in political decision-making in Romania, in the context of the four types of Romanian and European elections that will take place in 2024.

WHO ARE THE EXPERTS

• Halla Gunnarsdottir - Consultant and trainer, previous Head of Policy and Partnerships of the Women's Equality Party, UK, Political Adviser to the Home Secretary of Iceland, Women's Equality Party.
• María Rún Bjarnadottir - Director for Internet Safety at the National Commissioner of Police, Reykjavik, Vice-Chair of the Icelandic Media Commission, Member of the Expert Group for Action against Violence against Women and Domestic Violence (GREVIO).
• Tatjana Latinovic - President Kvenréttindafélag Íslands - Icelandic Women's Rights Association, Icelandic coordination of European Women’s Lobby, the first formal organization of Icelandic women to focus its efforts on the struggle for political equality between men and women.

THE TOPICS ADDRESSED: Surviving politics: resilience and humour, Creating your message, Finding your allies, Surviving politics: social media and hate speech, Delivering your message, Getting through the noise.

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3. Workshops to promote women's participation in politics

The TOT/training of trainers activity attended by 25 women from RoWL member NGOs and political parties aimed and resulted in building their capacity to support more workshops in the fall/winter of 2023, support campaigns for women candidates in 2024 and develop advocacy capacity for changes in the electoral law to lead to more women being elected in future elections.

A number of at least 1-2 women trainers from the political parties involved in the TOT activity in tandem with 1 RoWL women trainers benefiting from TOT organised at least 1 workshop of 1-2 days each to use the information gained in working directly with women candidates in the 2024 elections.

From October to 5 December, 5 physical workshops were held in 5 different cities, all delivered by trained participants during the 3-day TOT. Attendance at the workshops was high, totalling 164 potential women candidates for the 2024 elections:

• Workshop 50/50 Oradea, 21.10.2023. Speakers and Organisers: Dina Loghin (RoWL member) and Ildiko Szanto (party leader). Participants: members of the UDMR Women's Organisation.

• Workshop 50/50 Bucharest, 11.11.2023. Speakers and Organisers: Ana Maria Boghean (party leader), Anca Velicu (party leader) and Iulia Lung (RoWL member). Participants: members of the REPER Bucharest party.

• Workshop 50/50 Ialomița, 11.11.2023. Speakers and organisers: Dina Loghin (RoWL member) and Raluca Dumitrescu (party leader). Participants: PSD Ialomița party members.

• Workshop 50/50 Brașov, 25.11.2023. Speakers and Organisers: Iulia Lung (RoWL member) and Ana-Maria Haidu (party leader). Participants: REPER party members and PSD Brasov.

• Workshop 50/50 - village Țigănași, commune Țigănași, jud. Iași, 04-05.12.2023. Speakers and Organizers: Irina Sile (RoWL member) and Andreea Fedor. Participants: PSD party members.

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Video resources

María Rún BJARNADÓTTIR - Director of Internet Safety at National Commissioner of Police, Reykjavík, Vice Chair of the Icelandic Media Commission, Member of the Group of Experts on Action against Violence against Women and Domestic Violence (GREVIO) - for video click here

Tatjana LATINOVIC - President of Kvenréttindafélag Íslands – Icelandic Women’s Rights Association, Icelandic coordination of European Women’s Lobby, The first formal organization of Icelandic women to focus its efforts on the struggle for political equality between men and women, Founding member of W.O.M.E.N. in Iceland, an NGO for immigrant women - for video click here

Halla Gunnarsdóttir - Consultant and trainer, Previous Head of Policy and Partnerships of the Women's Equality Party, UK, Political Adviser to the Home Secretary of Iceland, Women's Equality Party - for video click here

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For more information about the project, contact person:

Irina Simiuc, Project Manager

E-mail: irina.simiuc@cmsc.ro

Project implemented by the Romanian Women's Lobby (RoWL) in partnership with Kvenréttindafélag Íslands/ The Icelandic Women's Rights Association (IWRA) and benefits from a 29.800 euros grant from Active Citizens Fund Romania, programme funded by Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway through the EEA Grants Grants 2014 -2021. The content of this website does not necessarily reflect the official position of the EEA and Norway Grants 2014-2021; for more information visit www.eeagrants.org. More details about Active Citizens Fund Romania are available at www.activecitizensfund.ro.