The Way Forward: Promoting Womens Political Leadership and Governance in India and South Asia Mid-Term Review

The UN Women South Asia Regional Office (SARO) Programme “Promoting Women’s Political Leadership and Governance in South Asia” under review is a programme that was established in 2009 to be implemented in India, Bhutan, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Nepal. The overarching goals of the programme as originally designed were to empower elected women representatives (EWR) to make public policy and resource allocation patterns responsive to women’s human rights. The Norwegian Embassy in New Delhi has supported the programme with the amount of  approx. 10 mill USD in the period 2009-2012.

The review report is critical to the management of the programme and suggests several structural changes to the programme design. These include reformulating the programme document, moving away from a regionally managed programme and introducing changes to the governance structure of the programme. The report also finds the rationale for the programme highly relevant and well received at the local level. It also showcases positive initiatives and cases from the field that can provide lessons learned for future activities.