1998-1999
Project Parity Bulgaria

"Project Parity Bulgaria" was a campaign for more women participating in the local elections in Bulgaria, which were held on 16 and 23 of October, 1999. The present representation of women at all levels of decision making is symbolic: Parliament -12%, local parliament- 23,5%, mayors - 9%.

The political parties do not use the of women's potential . Women are barely or not at all represented on the positions where important decisions are taken. More women in politics will ensure a better representation of women's needs during and after the transition process in Bulgaria.

"Project Parity Bulgaria" was funded by the Democracy Commission at the US Embassy in Sofia, Bulgaria.

What was our approach in the project?

• to build a broad coalition around the Women's Alliance and its local partner organizations and to create a significant number of pressure groups able to promote women's political participation;
• to raise public awareness about the significance of local elections in the context of gender trough close co-operation with the media;
• to work with political parties to address women's issues in their political platforms at local level, to set and stick to transparent selection procedures for the candidates lists and to remove internal barriers that prevent women from taking leadership positions within political parties;
• to initiate support networks for women active and potentially active in politics able to encourage women to stand for elections, to support individual women's campaigns, to promote media coverage, as well as to raise funds for individual selection campaigns.

What we did?

1. Working with the electorate

We elaborated and distributed a lot of materials for the public (1 500 sets), showing the need of active participation of more women on leadership positions at local level. The information sets included the following fact sheets:

• More Women - More Democracy" - under representation of women, potential benefits of including more women, men and women working in partnership for sustainable local development;
• "Women's (mainly not recognized) contribution to society and development and the consequences of the de facto inequality;
• "10 year of transition from the point of view of women" - reforms done without women, cheap labour force, dequalification and loss of competitiveness, deterioration of health care system, violence; - "Gender Differences" -the gap between "de jure" equality and "de facto" situation, traditional gender roles, different contribution and unfair evaluation of women's work);
• "Why are there so few women in politics"- stereotyping, party internal obstacles); charts/ statistics on women in local government in different regions/ by parties; chart on women's/ men's political participation/ employment & unemployment/ poverty/ unpaid family work/ economically active population;
• comparative graphs/diagrams - "Women in Parliaments in Sweden, Austria, Lithuania, Bulgaria";
• statistical data, graphics from the different regions on the representation of women in the local power;
• check-list for women voters- "Do candidates address my needs?"
• a campaign poster and slogan was designed, printed and distributed in 14 000 copies

A campaign poster was produced and disseminated throughout the country in six big regional centers (Blagoevgrad, Plovdiv, Varna, Burgas, Rousse, Sofia, where we organized meetings with representatives of local autorities, NGOs and other activists) and additionaly in seven big towns in Bulgaria. The overall interest and positive response of the people, living in regions not covered by Project Parity, was stronger than expected. This loaded the W.A.D. staff and resources additionally, but we managed to provide consultation, materials and requested information to all people, who came or called in the office.

Results:

• the project opened the floor of the first public discussion ever on gender and development issues;
• for the first time representatives of the local governments and NGOs discussed together the situation of women in the region.

2. Working with the political parties

For the political parties we elabborated a special information set (circulation 400 copies), which included:
- "If you want to win the elections.." -voters' behavior and expectations, how to motivate people to vote, what women want and why it is so important for them);
- "Women's Votes are Decisive!" !"-women are the biggest pool of "free" votes, how to build trust, women's view points and priorities);
- "Transition and how it affects women" -a more detailed version, growing open discrimination against women, CEDAW on Bulgaria.

In December 1999 we organized together with Gemma Hussey (European Women’s Foundation) a training for 25 women working in the newly elected local governments and women activists in local NGOs. The seminar focused on development of skills to promote women in politics, using the Irish experience.

Opinions of some politicians and participants in our meetings:

“ Women in Bulgaria are marginalized, even if they occupy high level positions. The researches have proven that the women’s vote was always underestimated till the present elections.”(said Mira Janova, Director of MBMD, in her presentation during the Project Parity meeting in Sofia)

“ I supposed that I am very well informed, but I had to confess that I am quite impressed by things W.A.D. presented about the situation of women in the country. After today,s meeting I will add to the six main points to my pre- election platform a seventh point – women’s problems.” ( Nikolay Kamov – Euroleft candidate for mayor of Sofia)

Results:

• politicians learned more about how to win women’s votes, about the main problems of women in their region and in the whole country; how to use women’s potential and to create a women friendly environment within the parties;
• women, who are already in politics received strong moral support, shared experience with each other and raised their awareness;
• some politicians used our materials in their campaigns and included additional topics in their platforms, concerning women's problems;
• four women from the Parliament supported our campaign.

3. Working with media

W.A.D. organized:

• 12 life interviews (Radio and TV stations), two pre-recorded participation in special radio programs, one life TV program;
• 15 announcements/ articles concerning the campaign in local newpapers and 4 in the national;
• information published in ZHARAVA (monthly magazine, which provoked additional interest from regions not covered by the project (altogether 15 full pages articles, comments, statistics, analysis, information);
• information published in Fair Play magazine – digest in English, distributed all over the world to international organizations, donors, institutions and women activists.

4. Connections with other organizations and building coalitions/ pressure groups:

In Bulgaria:

• As a result of the regional meeting in Burgas a coalition of women’s groups and NGOs was built and came up with a platform, which includes the main problems of women in this region. The platform was distributed among political parties, local authorities and civic organizations.
• In Russe 26 participants signed a memorandum to all political parties informing them about the results of the meeting and the main problems, concerning women’s unemployment, prostitution, social insecurity, training and employment; education and cross-sector cooperation.
• In Plovdiv a coalition “Women and Development” (including NGOs and political leaders)was founded. They supported the women-candidates in the local elections. Three out of four candidates for elected mayors of municipalities in Plovdiv are women!
• We received a definite support by the National Association of Municipalities, Local Government Reform Foundation, Bulgarian Association for Free Elections and Human Rights, MBMD and ASA.

Abroad:

• Regular information sharing with international organizations, networks, institutions: KARAT Coalition (13 countries in CEE); Women, Law and Development Int.; Open Society New York; NEWW; Peace Corps Bulgaria; Open Society Bulgaria; group of Albanian local community activists (Fier region); British Council; UNDP Bulgaria; Gender and Development Training Center (Netherlands); “Woman today”-Moldova; Association for Emancipation, Solidarity and Equality of Women (Macedonia), ESEM (Macedonia); TALDI Agency for Local Development (Bosnia); YMCA (Armenia); Albanian Human Rights Group; CSDF(Romania); Project Parity/ Shevolution – UK etc.
• The team, involved in Project Parity Bulgaria implementation received an additional special training in Ireland. The work-study visit was organized by the European Women’s Foundation and sponsored by the Irish Department of Foreign Affairs and Leventis Foundation. We developed skills, which were extremely necessary for the effective work within Project Parity, thus contributed to the current results.

5. Positive Changes - Summary

• the Project Parity campaign succeeded in attracting the politicians’ attention (not only women’s) to specific problems women face in all areas of the political, economical and everyday life in the country;
• the project opened the floor of the first ever public discussion on gender and development issues;
• for the first time representatives of local government and NGOs discussed together the situation of women in the region;
• politicians learned more about how to win women’s votes, about the main problems of women in their region and in the whole country; how to use the women’s potential and to create a women friendly environment within the parties;
• women, who are already in politics, received strong moral support, shared experience with each other and raised their awareness;
• voters got information on how to talk to candidates and how to check who is going to tackle their problems;

The main impact so far is a general sensitizing of women-activists, journalists and parties (individual party leaders) for the specific gender impact of transition in Bulgaria, which can be regarded as a certain degree of gender awareness. This is a definite break-through in comparison with the previous four years of working in this direction.

"Project Parity Bulgaria" was funded by the Democracy Commission at the US Embassy in Sofia, Bulgaria.

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