One of the pillars of the work of UN Women is women's political participation, a fundamental prerequisite for gender equality and genuine democracy.

Around the world, however, in times of peace and especially of war, women's participation continues to be extremely limited. As a result, laws, policies and government institutions fall short, neither reflecting the needs of all citizens nor supporting progress on women's rights.

While women's participation is critical to building democracy and fostering social progress, in virtually all countries women are under-represented in government and the private sector.  UN Women in its programming, promotes women's leadership in all sectors and across many different development processes.

UN Women Caribbean continues to promote Transformational Leadership, Justice and Human Rights to engender governance and increase women's participation in the decision-making process, to transform and engender governance and leadership in such a way to as to ensure the participation of women as agents of change towards a more equitable and gender sensitive society.

Activities include: Support gender mainstreaming within national and regional institutions and organisations; training gender advocates in specific skills and learning about specific issues; Advocacy for all Caribbean countries to sign and ratify CEDAW's Optional Protocol; and support participation of NWM's and NGO's in the CSW processes.

GO TO UN WOMEN PROGRAMMES FOR MORE INFORMATION