Gender equality is a cornerstone of a democratic and just society, and International IDEA is committed to supporting democratic processes that empower women. The constitution-building process provides an extraordinary opportunity for women and gender-equality advocates to participate in the framing of democratic institutions. The Constitution Assessment for Women’s Equality helps users analyse a constitution or draft constitution from the perspective of the substantive equality of women. Using a series of questions, short explanations and example provisions from constitutions around the world, the Assessment guides you through an examination of the most critical constitutional issues that affect women’s rights and gender equality. This Assessment is designed for gender-equality advocates as well as those who are engaging in the topic of women’s constitutional rights for the first time, whether as members of a constituent assembly, constitutional drafters, civil society members or concerned individuals. Since gender equality affects the quality of democracy and society as a whole, the Assessment is a resource for both men and women.

Decentralization reforms, in which central government agencies transfer rights and responsibilities to local institutions, are high on the agenda in many countries in the Europe and CIS region. Decentralized, streamlined and empowered local governments are better equipped to meet citizen’s expectations for public services and better livelihoods, and to ensure transparent, effective and accountable government actions.To exchange experiences, review lessons learned and discuss challenges faced while effecting governance reforms at the subnational and local levels, the International Conference “Making Decentralization Reform Work: Opportunities and Innovations for Local Governance and Service Delivery” took place on 2-3 December 2015 in Kyiv, Ukraine. 

Social Media as a communication platform represents a novel and growing space for individuals and groups as well as state and non-state actors. The value of digital data to political parties has resulted in the proliferation of digital products which are revolutionising political campaigning. Academic analysis has tended to focus on institutional reactions to social media and its use in political campaigning. However at the individual level political representatives have increasingly been using social media in innovative and creative ways. This paper seeks to capture and explore this innovation through an appraisal of the use of social media by local councillors. Twitter offers councillors a new political space within which to interact with citizens. This paper is based upon a digital audit of the actions and interactions of councillors of Bristol City Council on twitter. The paper seeks to profile not only who is engaging in this online environment but also through a content analysis suggests a framework to appraise the ways in which they are using twitter. In appraising the ways in which councillors are communicating the paper offers critical insights into the balance between individual, institutional, geographic and party political content and analyses the direction of content in terms of reporting or consulting. Analysis contrasts the potential reach and levels of dialogue being delivered through the use of micro-blogging with those offered by traditional mechanisms. The paper concludes with an assessment of the value of social media as a tool to facilitate and assure accountability, representation and engagement.  

Background discussion for Commonwealth Local Government Conference 2015.  CLGF commissioned two “thinkpieces” Local government 2030 achieving the vision – the role of local democracy and good governance and Local government 2030 achieving the vision – the importance of local government in economic development and cities as engines of economic growth. 

This paper provides an overview of key trends and developments impacting on local democracy and is intended to be a broad-ranging background paper to assist in discussions at a workshop organised by the International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (International IDEA), in partnership with the Commonwealth Local Government Forum (CLGF), to be held in Stockholm in early November 2014, which will bring together academics and practitioners to explore current trends and developments in local democracy.