Women lag behind men in access to opportunities and rights to participate because they have for long faced various forms of discrimination, deprivation and exclusion in development affairs at all levels. The concept of participation is part of the culture of democracy. The rights of women to participation is hinged on the premise that, like other human beings, they have the right to share in the making of decisions which affect their lives and the community of which they are part. Decisions affecting women continue to be made largely by men. Women have a right to participate on equal terms with men in issues affecting them. Women are part and parcel of development, but they are practically outside of the decision making process. Prior to 1999, there was need to develop the potentials of women towards effective engagement and participation in politics and governance. The British Council and other key stakeholders ran series of workshop for women encouraging them to participate in the political process not just as followers, but as leaders with aspirations for political leadership. In the 2007 election, some gains were made as female representation in the Senate and House of Representatives increased to 9 and 26 respectively. Although women were well mobilised and turned out massively to vote in the 2011 elections, the number of women candidates was only 885 out of 10,000. Despite fierce opposition from their male counterparts, about 400 emerged as winners of their election. Thus the outcome of the 2011 election was a setback for women, with just about 7% members of parliament. The election recorded lots of violence against women, many women cajoled, harassed, and intimidated to step down for their male opponents. The President helped improve women in governance through affirmative action by appointing about 30% women into the Federal Executive Council and other civil institutions. The new political dispensation calls for strategic actions that will enable Nigerian women attain goals/milestones set for better political participation and accomplishments. Picking up from the outcome of 2011 elections, and the need to reposition women in preparation for the 2015 election, an inner caucus meeting was held in the secretariat (Change Managers International Network office) on Saturday 27th September 2014. It aimed to review the landscape, set out goals and objectives and design a framework for the activities of the group.
