The Royal Norwegian Embassy in Indonesia has signed an agreement with The Asia Foundation, a non-profit organization devoted to Asia’s development since 1954, to implement a three-year, $1.2 million program aims to increase women’s political participation and strengthen good governance in the four provinces of Indonesia which are Nanggroe Aceh Darussalam, East Java, South Sulawesi and Jakarta.
The program will be carried out together with the Foundation’s partners including the People’s Voter Education Network (Jaringan Pendidikan Pemilih Rakyat, JPPR); the Jurnal Perempuan; the Indonesian Women’s Coalition; and the women’s wings of political parties and Islamic mass-based organizations Muhammadiyah and Nahdlatul Ulama.
“We believe that after three years this program will result in systemic change in Indonesia’s elections processes, making them more gender-equitable and fair, increasing the number of women running successful campaigns and becoming Indonesia’s future leaders,” said Douglas Ramage, Country Representative of The Asia Foundation in Indonesia.
Today, there is less than 12 percent of women as members of the National Parliament and more than half the country’s 440 district legislatures have no women members at all due to the way political parties recruit candidates and cultural prejudices against women as leaders.
