A reserved seats quota for women was used for the first time in Samoa in the March 2016 elections. In the lead up to the election, the IPPWS program worked to build the capacity of women candidates and to educate voters about the introduction of reserved seats. Following the election, the program turned its attention to post election mentoring support.
Funded under the Australian aid program, the Pacific Women Shaping Pacific Development initiative is supporting IPPWS' work on awareness raising, education and capacity building for women participating in the electoral process, and training for political parties.
In the past year, activities focused on the national elections, with strong use of social media and multimedia communications.
IPPWS' initiatives included the first ever weekly talk back show on Samoan radio dedicated to women in politics Fa'asoa I Le Palota (Elections Talk) and a radio drama following the story of a woman running for office Fa'atino Lou Vala'auina (Follow Your Calling). IPPWS' radio and TV productions were received by over 80,000 people.
Journalism students at the National University of Samoa participated in a workshop on gender sensitive election reporting. Attitudes shifted significantly as a result of the IPPWS training. Before, 68 percent of students agreed that men were naturally better leaders than women; after, this dropped to 23 percent. Before the training, 68 percent of the students believed there was no such thing as sexist language; this fell to 40 percent afterwards.
Following the elections, the new women parliamentarians had the opportunity to attend a mentoring retreat with women parliamentarians from Australia, New Zealand, Fiji and Samoa. These discussions were held in a safe environment which facilitated knowledge sharing and lessons learned. The group tackled issues such as how women parliamentarians can be most effective in the parliament chamber and understanding how political and cultural hierarchies affect the work of MPs on a day-to-day basis.
Of the 164 candidates who stood for election, 24 were women. Four women candidates were elected outright, with a fifth being appointed to reach the 10 percent quota of women parliamentarians required by the reserved seat measure. This raises women's political representation in Samoa above the regional Pacific average of 6.7 percent (excluding Australia and New Zealand).
More information
- 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence 25 November – 10 December 2016
- Pacific Women Shaping Pacific Development
