International Knowledge Network of Women in Politics (iKNOW Politics) Project

iKNOW Politics uses a technology-enabled forum to provide users with the opportunity to:

• Access an online library containing over 400 reports, handbooks, campaign materials, and training guides in English, French, Spanish, and Arabic from international agencies, research institutions, academia, and civil society groups. Also offered on the site are resources such as case studies, data and specifics, guide/training material, legislation, news stories, international agreements and action plans, consolidated responses, and so on.
• Share a variety of resources and ideas on campaigns, elections and quotas, political parties, parliaments and representatives, advocacy and lobbying, skills-building, budgets and legislation, and post-conflict/transitional political contexts.
• Create new knowledge through a virtual forum for mediated discussion, information exchange, and consolidated expert responses to queries, as well as by initiating new discussion forums on relevant issues. Drawing on a database of over 100 experts on women in politics, iKNOW Politics allows users to directly ask questions, such as "Women's representation in Sri Lankan governance structures is less than 5% (women population is around 51%). Lobbying for a quota was not successful in the past. Is there any other strategy that had been used in other parts of the world that made an impact?" They may also initiate and/or engage in interactive discussion circles that are designed to engage users and members in active dialogue on topics of their choice, such as "social and cultural barriers to the participation of young women in politics."

That is, the iKNOW Politics website is a platform for: promoting gender-sensitive governance; equipping women politicians at the national, regional, and grassroots levels with the sources and expertise they need to make their political mark; inform efforts to increase the number of women in politics; and counter the isolation women face in public life by connecting parliamentarians, candidates, representatives, party leaders, party members, researchers, academics, and practitioners across borders, generations, and cultures.

Women, Democracy & Governance.

According to the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU), in 2006, less than 17% of parliamentarians worldwide were women. By 2006, women headed just 13 of the world's 194 national governments, as reported by the Worldwide Guide to Women in Leadership.