Advancing Women’s Political Representation through Cross-Party Caucuses in Nepal

Nepal's shift from a 240-year-old feudal monarchy to a federal democracy presents a unique opportunity to enhance political inclusion. Despite constitutional mandates reserving three of seven local seats for women, their representation in powerful open seats remains dismal, with less than 5% held by women in the 2022 local elections. Gender quotas alone have failed to sustain women's political advancement; women lost ground in the second federal democratic elections as parties learned to subvert quotas. Original data suggests that parties serve as gatekeepers to political office, with women having limited negotiation capacity within male-dominated party structures. To that extent, we ask how women's political networks can help female politicians navigate the male-dominated political structure and increase the quantity and status of leadership positions held by women in local governments. Supported by the National Association of Rural Municipalities in Nepal (NARMIN), an organization with substantial authority and legitimacy with politicians, our randomized controlled trial will build on a recent successful pilot to scale cross-party caucuses across localities to assess their impact on women’s political representation. Inspired by the inter-party women’s caucus established during Nepal’s 2008 constituent assembly, we will regularly convene local female elected representatives and candidates to build networks of women politicians. Women’s networks have shown to be powerful interventions to increase women citizens’ access to politics in South Asia. We expect these networks will enable women politicians’ political empowerment by (a) advocating for increased representation, (b) sharing strategies for engaging male-dominated political institutions (especially powerful party candidate selection committees), and (c) enhancing political skills through shared learning.