Helping Burundi Prepare for 2010 Elections

Under a contract with the UN Development Programme’s Bureau for Crisis Prevention and Recovery, Inclusive Security traveled to Burundi in February 2010 to support a new national network of 714 women politicians elected at the communal level and to advocate for increased participation of women in the upcoming elections.

The creation of the Network a few months prior to communal elections is considered a milestone in the peace consolidation process in Burundi, wracked by two decades of violent political struggle. Burundi is planning five elections over the next several months, to be held at the communal, presidential, legislative, senatorial, and hill (subcommunal) levels. While some initiatives have attempted to promote women's candidacy and voting at the national level, relatively little has been done at the local level.

In 2008, elected officials at the local level across Burundi created an association called ABELO (the Association Burundais des Elus Locaux) to support decentralization and strengthen local government.

Presently, women account for only 22 percent of locally elected officials. A recent change in election law extended the mandate for 30 percent of elected representatives to be women from the national to the local level. To increase women's participation as both voters and candidates and to meet the specific needs of locally-elected women leaders, women members of ABELO created a separate network within the Association, Le Réseau des Femmes Elues Locales (the Network).

Inclusive Security facilitated a strategic planning workshop that included the Network’s executive committee (two members from each of Burundi’s 17 provinces) as well as representatives from civil society, the Senate, the National Independent Electoral Commission, the media, and others, including a number of male allies. Women Waging Peace Network member Honorable Athanasie Gahondogo (a former member of parliament and executive secretary of the women’s caucus in Rwanda’s national assembly) traveled from Kigali to assist, sharing her powerful personal story as well as strategies used by Rwandan women to strengthen the number and effectiveness of female elected officials.

Participants at the workshop, conducted in French, drafted a three-year strategic plan for the Network. Inclusive Security will continue to collaborate with the Network’s leadership to refine the plan and to identify support, including funding, to make it more sustainable.

Burundian media, including Burundian national television, covered the two-day workshop, broadcasting the opening and closing remarks on the nightly news.

Inclusive Security also met with Speaker of the Senate Gervais Rufyikiri, who stated that the Network has the full support of the Senate, and Minister of Decentralization and Community Development Pierre Mupira, who noted that he looks forward to working with the Network and welcomes suggestions for cooperation.

Inclusive Security also spent time advocating to numerous organizations in Burundi to include women more broadly in upcoming elections and to promote the Network. These organizations included:

• Burundi’s National Independent Electoral Commission
• Action Aid
• Concern Worldwide
• FONIC
• German Development Corporation (GTZ)
• International Rescue Committee (IRC)
• Swiss Development Corporation
• World Bank
• UN Integrated Office in Burundi (BINUB)
• UNIFEM Burundi Bureau

Representatives noted women’s critical contributions to governance, particularly at local levels, the importance of women’s full participation in elections as voters and candidates, and the urgent need for women to advocate within their political parties for top placement on party electoral lists.

For more information on this Inclusive Security consultation, please contact Jacqueline O’Neill.