Today, NIMD celebrates International Women’s Day, held each year in honour of the social, economic, cultural and political achievements of women.

This year’s theme, “Be Bold for Change”, is a call to forge a better working world, a more equal world which is truly inclusive. In particular, it calls for groundbreaking action that drives real change for women.

Through our programmes, NIMD places a focus on inclusivity and aims to ensure that women have equal access to political representation, participation and leadership.

For us at NIMD, an inclusive democracy means that all citizens should feel represented and be heard. Within that, true equality means that all citizens should have access to an equal playing field, and should be able to access power structures on an equal footing.

And, unfortunately, we still have a long way to go. According to UN Women, only 22.8% of all representatives in national parliaments were women as of June 2016. What’s more, in the developed world, only 30% of ministries are headed by women, and women make up only 16.5% of the Ministers of Economy, Defense, Treasury, Foreign Affairs and Home Office.

That’s why, in our experience, it is not enough to promote a seat at the table for women and other marginalized groups. That’s why we aim to achieve inclusiveness by helping politicians to work on national legislation, working with political parties on their internal party regulations and fostering an open political culture.

Find out more about our work here.

“We can each be a leader within our own spheres of influence by taking bold pragmatic action to accelerate gender parity. Through purposeful collaboration, we can help women advance and unleash the limitless potential offered to economies the world over.” International Women’s Day 2017.