Comelec, UNDP ink MOU to boost women’s political participation through digitalization

The Commission on Elections and United Nations Development Program (UNDP) on Tuesday inked a memorandum that would strengthen the poll body’s digitalization capacity to promote women’s political participation.

Comelec chairperson George Garcia and UNDP Philippines’ resident representative Dr. Selva Ramachandran, together with some key officials, signed the memorandum of understanding (MOU) for Electoral Assistance Project to establish a cooperative relationship.

Under the MOU, the UNDP will assist in strengthening the poll body’s data analytical abilities including data needs assessment, training in data science tools and applications, and development of infrastructure with an analytical dashboard with gender disaggregated datasets.

The Comelec and UNDP also aim to come up an “evidence-based policy advocacy for gender equality, such as the formulation of a multi-stakeholder joint policy agenda on empowerment that would promote inclusivity, development of public data portal for gender-disaggregated data, and development of advocacy of gender equality policies.”

The poll body said the women leaders will be trained to increase their political participation, adding that these trainings will involve inclusive training needs assessment, development of leadership curriculum, training leaders via digital platform, and development of sustainability plan of the digital platform training program.

Garcia said they have put importance on the role of women in nation-building through active political participation.

“As the COMELEC endeavors to adapt to an ever-changing technological landscape, this project affirms our commitment to continuously seek innovative solutions in helping empower women leaders," Garcia said.

For his part, Ramachandran said they will support the Comelec by furthering its development activities in digitalization and capacity building, with the specific goal of supporting gender equality and inclusivity in the country through the said project.

The Comelec assured that it will protect the data privacy of all individuals who may be involved in all its activities and implementation of the project.—LDF, GMA News