Effectiveness of Donor Support to Women in Formal Political Leadership – Narrative Review

Domestic and external pressures to increase the number of women in formal politics have started to bear fruit over the past 20 years. Overall, this has led to a greater presence of women in elected, appointed, and recruited positions in public bodies, and to their rise to senior positions in these settings, to a lesser extent. A significant amount of rigorous research has analysed women’s access to these positions, the constraints and enablers they experience once there, and their political action in office. Within this literature however, rigorous evidence is scarce and patchy when the focus turns to analysing support that external aid actors have provided women leaders in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). This narrative review synthesises a selection of key evidence based on a rapid literature review (it is therefore subject to limitations).