GAP strengthens women’s political participation in Palestine through local leadership and social innovation

The initiative promoted the training of 150 transformation agents, support networks, community spaces and commitments in 16 municipalities in the West Bank.

The visit of a Palestinian delegation to València connected this experience with Valencian institutions, local councils, social organisations and citizens.

After two years of work in 16 municipalities in the West Bank, Palestine, GAP, Gender Accountability Promotion, closes a cycle of cooperation aimed at strengthening Palestinian women’s political participation from the local level. The initiative has promoted training, support networks among elected women, community dialogue spaces, municipal equality tools and institutional exchange, combining participation, social innovation and international cooperation. The visit of a Palestinian delegation to València marked the close of this stage through an agenda of political, institutional and citizen exchange.

This meeting made it possible to share part of the work carried out in Palestine with Valencian institutions, social organisations and citizens, while also opening a broader dialogue on the challenges women continue to face in political participation. Although the contexts of Palestine and Spain are different, the conversations held in València showed that many barriers linked to representation, decision-making and the recognition of women’s leadership remain shared challenges.

From this perspective, GAP has worked to ensure that women’s political participation does not remain merely symbolic, but translates into their own voice, collective leadership and real capacity to influence the decisions that affect their communities.

Capacities, networks and leadership from the local level

One of GAP’s main results has been the training of 150 Social Transformation Agents in municipalities in the West Bank, with balanced participation of 75 women and 75 men. The training was not conceived only as a transfer of knowledge, but as a process to activate local capacities to identify gender barriers, promote equality and accompany change in communities. It also reinforced the idea that women’s political participation cannot move forward without involving society as a whole and questioning existing power relations.

Alongside this training process, GAP supported the articulation of 22 women elected at municipal level in Palestine through spaces for mutual support, exchange of experiences and political reflection. Through 13 reflection forums, they were able to share common obstacles, strengthen their leadership and reinforce collective strategies. One of these strategies has been the formal creation of the Palestinian Elected Women’s Network, a network led by the women politicians themselves, which now aims to continue growing, strengthening capacities and, above all, passing on its legacy and supporting new generations of elected women during their mandates.

In contexts where many women hold public responsibilities while facing social, political and institutional resistance, these spaces have been, and will continue to be, key to sustaining leadership collectively rather than in isolation.

From community dialogue to municipal commitments

In addition to training and support for elected women, GAP opened community accountability spaces, called Accountability Souks, to bring dialogue on equality and participation closer to the everyday life of municipalities. “Souk” means “market” in Arabic. The Souks refer to the importance of creating informal and accessible spaces where people can talk, exchange views and build collective awareness.

These meetings functioned as a social innovation tool, because they opened participatory spaces where citizens, elected women and municipal representatives could identify concrete problems and seek responses from the local level.These spaces took place in Palestinian localities such as Attara, Beit Ur, Qaffin, Bruqeen, Kafr Al-Dik, Beit Foreek, Tamoun and Farkha, and made it possible to bring community demands to more specific meetings with municipal actors. The aim was not only to listen to needs, but to open pathways for these concerns to become proposals, practical solutions and concrete commitments.

Puedes acceder a más vídeos de”Accountability Souks” en este enlace.

This work was complemented by an analysis of the equality situation in 16 municipalities, aimed at identifying gaps and needs. Based on this diagnosis, two tools were implemented: an electronic citizen consultation platform on municipal websites, to facilitate proposals, comments, suggestions or complaints remotely; and a municipal database on persons with disabilities, designed to improve service planning.

Both initiatives incorporate a gender perspective, as they facilitate the participation of groups that face greater difficulties attending in person and take into account that many care responsibilities fall mainly on women, limiting their social, economic and political participation.

Communication also played a central role in this social innovation approach. GAP promoted a participatory campaign built with the voices of elected women and Social Transformation Agents, based on a participatory methodology. The campaign made it possible to work on messages about political rights, women’s leadership, equality and municipal participation, combining audiovisual materials, posters, digital pieces and awareness-raising resources.Within this framework, virtual reality was incorporated as a technological tool to bring people closer, in an experiential way, to the inequalities, care burdens and barriers that limit many women’s participation in public life.

València as the closing space for political and citizen exchange

In València, the Palestinian delegation took part in an agenda of political, institutional and citizen exchange. The Palestinian delegation held a meeting with Pedro Carceller Icardo, Director General for Inclusion and Development Cooperation, and participated in dialogue spaces with women politicians, mayors, local councils, social organisations and Valencian citizens.

One of the highlights was the international political colloquium “Women leading from the local level between Palestine and the Valencian Community”, a space to share experiences on political participation, leadership and decision-making. The conversations made it possible to recognise that, although the contexts of Palestine and Spain are very different, many barriers linked to representation and women’s leadership remain shared.

The agenda also included visits and exchanges with municipalities such as Quart de Poblet, Alaquàs, Picanya and Serra, where experiences were shared on local equality policies, public services, citizen participation and community support.

The event “Voices and Power. Palestinian women: between political participation, social innovation and new technologies” opened the dialogue to Valencian citizens through testimonies, conversation and technology. Virtual reality made it possible to bring people closer, in an experiential way, to some of the barriers faced by many Palestinian women in local public life.

After this event, the delegation visited the School of Citizenship, as a space for training, democratic participation and social leadership, strengthening the link between the Palestinian experience and participation processes promoted by Valencian civil society.

The initiative thus closes a cycle that leaves behind local capacities, support networks among elected women, community dialogue spaces, municipal commitments, practical tools and social innovation at the service of more equal local governance.

Faced with an image of Palestine marked by occupation, war and humanitarian emergency, these spaces made it possible to highlight another reality: that of women who lead, organise, sustain communities and work to open spaces for participation and build democracy in their municipalities.

GAP – Gender Accountability Promotion has been promoted by Asamblea de Cooperación por la Paz (ACPP-PV), REFORM and Jovesólides Spain, with funding from the Generalitat Valenciana, through the First Vice-Presidency and Regional Ministry of Social Services, Family and Childhood, and Cooperación Valenciana.

Follow the latest updates on this initiative on social media with the hashtags #WomenDecide #EllasDeciden #EllesTrien