Norway supports Women’s Political Leadership in India and South Asia

The total budget allocation is NOK 60 million over a period of three years. The proposed project aims at strengthening the capacities of elected women representatives; and creating a regional centre for excellence for capacity development of the elected women representatives. 

This project, in partnership with the Hunger Project (THP) and the National Institute for Rural Development (NIRD), addresses empowerment and capacity building of women to improve their participation in the political process and thereby making governance more gendered and equitable. The project will be implemented initially in India and will then scale up the learning to Bhutan, Nepal Bangladesh and Pakistan. As a sustainability measure, the programme will institutionalize the above functions in a South Asia Regional Centre of Excellence for Gender in Governance.

The Government of Norway has in the last 50 years achieved positive results in terms of mobilising and empowering women into politics and is highlighting women’s rights and gender equality as one of the main areas in development cooperation. Norway has also been at the forefront in successfully putting in place women friendly public policy measures at local and National levels, to ensure women’s participation in public and political spaces as equals of men. This programme initiative aims to build on Norway’s learning’s in this sphere.