Question to the Department for International Development:

To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what steps her Department is taking to encourage female political participation in developing countries.

DFID is supporting increased women’s political representation and participation at national, local and community levels in a number of developing countries. This includes work on participation in elections and promoting women’s voice through the media and civil society programmes.

In the new international ‘post-2015’ framework, DFID is pushing for targets that will increase women’s leadership and participation in decision-making processes in terms of numerical representation as well as substantive representation and effective voice.