Stories from the Inside…
Analysis of Women Councillors’ Experiences & Lessons Learned
Dr Tess Newton Cain, PLP Knowledge Dissemination Adviser

KEY POINTS
 The impacts of introducing TSM for municipal councils in
Vanuatu differ between locations
 Political parties are important players & need to be
included in reform-focused activities
 ‘Training’ needs to focus on ‘doing’ politics as well as on
how to be a successful candidate
 Dynamic is slow to change from clientilism to policy-led
development
 Peer learning & support may overcome ‘critical mass’
deficiencies
Tess Newton Cain www.tncpac.com

Background to TSM
 Is TSM the best way to improve the level & quality of
women’s political participation in the Pacific (or
anywhere else)? - open to debate
 Evidence suggests that it can have an impact given an
appropriate enabling environment (Newton Cain, 2013)
 TSM effective in bringing about short-term change.
Where political parties are weak but there is some
political will, TSM likely to be the only fast track
solution (Waring, 2011)
Tess Newton Cain www.tncpac.com

TSM in Vanuatu
 3 jurisdictions in the Pacific have used TSM:
Bougainville (since 2005 at the ABG level)
Samoa (since 2014 for national elections)
 Designed to achieve a quota of 30-34% over a period of
16 years (4 election cycles)
 C.f. (National) TSM quotas introduced in 2003
Jordan: 5%
Rwanda: 35% (Krook, 2014)
Tess Newton Cain www.tncpac.com

Methodology
 November 2015: PLP
interviewed Luganville
women councillors
 March 2016: PLP
interviewed Port Vila
women councillors
 10 interviewees
 Additional material from
interviews with (male)
party reps
Tess Newton Cain www.tncpac.com

6 lessons learned…
 Political context can vary significantly within a country
 Political parties will make strategic use of critical junctures
 Clientilist nature of politics persists at local government level
 Political fracturing creates perception of political parties
being weak but this is too simplistic
 ‘Women-only’ training can have negative impacts
 Pre-election training needs to focus on ‘doing’ politics as well
as getting elected
Tess Newton Cain www.tncpac.com

Lesson 1: variable political
context
 Luganville:
“Getting into politics is like men’s
work, we have to wait for them to
approach us. 5 groups approached me
and I had to decide”
 Port Vila:
“I decided to approach the GJP leader
if his political party can accept me to
stand…in the coming municipality
[elections]
Tess Newton Cain www.tncpac.com

Lesson 2: political parties grab
opportunities
 Luganville – party machineries selected candidates to
contest reserved seats
 Luganville – party people – men - brought in from Port
Vila to do the women candidates’ campaigning
“…we adopted it as it will give balance on the council and
this year more women contested the elctions. We fielded
five in the reserve seats, our candidate is now the
Chairperson of the Finance Committee”
Tess Newton Cain www.tncpac.com

Lesson 3: the persistence of
clientilism
“Before being a councillor you help your family, and now
more people come and you start wondering whether you
wanted to be a councillor. I think we need to fund raise to
pay for what the people need”
“…people ask me for school fees, [to] pay for electricity
bill, water bill, even pay for the house rent. I pay
cemetery fees. For example last year I didn’t enjoy
Christmas because I pay [sic] for cemetery fees”
Tess Newton Cain www.tncpac.com

Lesson 4: ‘weak’ political parties?
Luganville:
Acknowledge that there are shared interests among
women but political reality = party interests come first
Port Vila:
“Yes we are working together, so if one of us finds an
opportunity [we] bring it to the council then all of us are
working on it…although we represent different political
parties”
Tess Newton Cain www.tncpac.com

Lesson 5: ‘sequestered’ training
may backfire
Port Vila:
“The training that we women attended, our male
councillors should also attend. That would help both of us
male and female councillors to understand our role and
work together. Now because only women councillors
attended, when we say something our male councillors
told us ‘where did I [sic] get that from?’ So it is important
for our male councillors to also attend this training so
that w can hold each other accountable”
Tess Newton Cain www.tncpac.com

Lesson 6: training requirements
 “The training was very
helpful but we recommend
that there be ongoing
training and also follow up
with those who were
trained and not wait for
election years”
Tess Newton Cain www.tncpac.com

Please…
 Ask questions
 Take copies of our Discussion Paper & Case Study for
more information & detail
Tess Newton Cain www.tncpac.com