CLGF is launching the Month of Mentoring on 1st August and it will run throughout the month.  

This is part of the extensive work undertaken by CLGF’s Commonwealth Women in Local Government Network (ComWLG), launched in 2017, as part of the organisation's efforts to achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls - in line with UN Sustainable Development Goal 5. ComWLG is specifically seeking to increase the number of women who actively participate in the way our communities are shaped and managed with in-country chapters being established all the time.  

Positive impact of gender diversity 

Over the last year, the COVID-19 pandemic has placed local government across the Commonwealth on the front line and it has been clear that countries with more women in decision-making positions have fared better than those with less diversity. Unfortunately, the number of women in local government is far short of the Commonwealth commitment of 30% of women in decision-making processes in public life. 

The challenges facing women on entering politics and, even when they succeed, in executing their duties and advancing within parties are enormous. While there are numerous programmes in place to support the development of technical skills in local government, there is significantly less on offer supporting the building of soft leadership skills that are essential to advance in a political environment.

Value of mentoring 

Mentoring is a useful and versatile tool and could be an important way to increase the number of women in local government leadership. CLGF therefore commissioned a paper to look at various mentoring programmes from across the Commonwealth and beyond, to better understand what the key elements of a successful programme are and how best these can be fostered. The report Mentoring for Women’s Political Advancement and Leadership - will be published during the Month of Mentoring, and examines seven different mentoring programmes from Canada, India, Dominica, Fiji, Uganda, Spain and the UK, and draws out principles, lessons and insights.

As a prelude to the Month of Mentoring, CLGF's ComWLG Network is organising two webinars on Women in Local Government – Can mentoring make a difference. This will provide an opportunity to share lessons and hear from organisers and participants in these programmes on what the key elements are that can foster success both individually and institutionally.

Get behind the campaign and become actively involved 

As well as making the recordings of the webinars available on the dedicated Month of Mentoring web page and publishing the paper, CLGF is asking everyone involved in local government to get behind the campaign and raise awareness of the role of mentoring in making communities more inclusive by:

1. getting involved in the Month of Mentoring social media campaign on an individual and organisational level (Resources link);
2. holding your own dialogue on mentoring - what does it mean in your region (Resources link);
3. sharing your experiences of mentoring with CLGF and use the resources obtained from your peers that are making a difference.

Links to the resources are now available!

For more information, access the Month of Mentoring webpage and get behind #ComWLG !