Guidance Note: Entry Points for Strengthening Gender and Social Inclusion Within Sub-National Democratisation

Over the years, Somalia Stability Fund has worked to advance one person one vote democratisation at the sub-national level. Throughout our work, there has been a commitment to advance gender and social inclusion (GESI), this has been no different within the democratisation arena.

Drawing upon our growing body of experience in this field, together with expertise from technical electoral specialists who have worked on electoral processes in both Somaliland and Puntland, this paper shares technical guidance on the spaces and opportunities for advancing GESI within sub-national democratisation programming. Specifically, it considers the different arenas where women and marginal groups can and should be represented, whether as voters, political candidates, political party members or members of electoral bodies and relevant institutions. The aim is to share ideas, approaches and tools that may be of practical benefit to peer agencies, policymakers and civil society working in this space, who share our commitment to GESI and seek ways to make this aspiration a reality.

This paper forms part of SSF’s wider body of work supporting sub-national democratisation and sits alongside research papers such as; Risks, Challenges and Opportunities of Subnational Democratisation; Sub-national Democratisation: Policy steps, processes and considerations; and Puntland’s Path to the Polls.