Bogota 50/50: Route to gender parity in Bogota's open government (COBOG0006)

Commitment ID

COBOG0006

Commitment Title

Bogota 50/50: Route to gender parity in Bogota's open government

Problem

There are barriers that prevent women from accessing participation and representation scenarios on equal terms with men. Some are structural and limit the real options to achieve representation and others refer to the capacities and tools accessible to women, such as material and symbolic resources that allow them to develop their leadership. These obstacles limit their ability to influence in consultative and decision-making bodies, a circumstance that directly affects their living conditions in the different territories, reducing the possibility of seeing their agendas, needs and interests materialize and, the guarantee of their rights. The consequences of this deficit in democracy are as follows:

• Limited inclusion of women's interests, demands and needs in the public agenda.
• Cultural conditions that exclude women from the management of public affairs.
• Scarce supply of mechanisms or initiatives aimed at the development of women's advocacy, leadership, empowerment and political participation capacities.
• Multiple difficulties for women to start or continue with a political career.
• Deficient institutional articulation and regulatory development, which makes the inclusion of a gender perspective in various public initiatives enforceable.
• Excessive concentration of participatory budgets (or local investment budgets) on the acquisition of goods and public works to the detriment of other social, community and rights strengthening initiatives.

Status quo

The gaps between men and women in political and citizen participation in Bogotá are wide; only 26.6% of the seats on the Local Administrative Boards and 33% of the District Council are held by women. In the case of citizen participation, an important element is that there is no precise and updated information; however, the Secretariat for Women has obtained useful information that yields five conclusions:

• The most masculinized instances are the Local Councils of Sports, Recreation, Physical Activity, Parks and Recreational Sports Equipment -DRAFE-, the Local Bicycle Councils, the Local Committees of Religious Freedom and the Association of Boards.
• The instances that reproduce caregiver roles and the majority of their members (more than 60%) are women, are the Local Operative Committees of Family and the Operative Committees of Childhood and Adolescence.
• The instances where they are closer to parity and in more localities are the Local Councils of Horizontal Property, the Local Councils of Disability and the Local Councils of Social Policy.
• The least parity localities are Usaquén and Engativá.
• The most parity localities are Usme and Puente Aranda.
• Parity has not been adopted as a guiding principle in Bogota's citizen participation bodies, however, most of the bodies in the 20 localities are made up of a majority of women.

Action

Expected results:

• Systematize and publish statistical information on women's social and political participation in Bogota.
• Communication actions for the promotion of women's leadership and inclusion.
• Parity in participation instances
• Political training school for women, including training in argumentation, document production, digital and communication skills, citizen and electoral campaigns, political negotiation, among others.
• Dialogue between institutions, women's organizations and participation bodies to promote women's agendas.
• Women's benches in the Local Administrative Boards.
• Multi-party District Gender Roundtable
• Gender-sensitive participatory budgets
• Citizen oversight and social control for gender equity.
• Actions in educational institutions such as the promotion of parity in school governments

General Objective Design, implement and mobilize the Bogotá 50/50 strategy: Route for gender parity in the open government of Bogotá, advancing in the construction of parity democracy and the achievement of substantive equality between men and women, for the guarantee of rights and the establishment of a new social contract and form of social organization through which exclusion and discrimination, particularly towards women, are eradicated

How will the commitment contribute to solving the public problem described above?

• Advances towards conditions of equity in the instances of citizen participation.
• Overcomes restrictive cultural conditioning based on the subrogation of women's role to that of men in the management of public affairs.
• Increases the inclusion of women's interests, demands and needs in the public agenda.
• Implements a training strategy for the development of women's advocacy, leadership, empowerment and political participation capacities.
• Increases the supply of mechanisms or initiatives aimed at the development of women's advocacy, leadership, empowerment and political participation capacities.
• Increases the levels of renewal or replacement of women's leadership in district and local participation and representation scenarios.
• Strengthens the gender approach in the development of participatory budget mechanisms and strategies.
• Formulates institutional or regulatory guidelines that enforce the inclusion of a gender perspective in various public initiatives.

What long-term goal as identified in your Open Government Strategy does this commitment relate to?

This response is outlined in the Strategic Vision of the Action Plan.

Primary Policy Area

Civic Space, Digital Governance, Fiscal Openness, Inclusion, Open Contracting, Open Data, Right to Information, Safety Nets & Economic Inclusion, Stimulus and Economic Recovery

Primary Sector

Land & Spatial Planning

What OGP value is this commitment relevant to?