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Inclusive Membership Outreach
Only one party really focused on the need for increased participation of and outreach to women
and youth; participants in that party workshop were particularly outspoken on the topic, and
represented women and youth leaders.
In a separate interview with a leader from that same party, he noted with regard to women:
…parties succeed one another based upon how active their women members are,
because men cannot reach to the household level. So we plan to encourage
women to be candidates and take part in the decision making process of the
party…Yes, they are also better than men in terms of the financial, because they
can collect the fund from door-to-door and they contribute themselves as well.
They communicate one another and they give each other plenty of information.
This party, in its strategy workshop, prioritized party actions to empower women and youth
through strengthened women and youth wings (though the party did not discuss how to do so)
and appointing youth to national level positions. The party emphasized the challenge of having
a limited number of women and youth with the experience or knowledge necessary to take on
advanced positions.
Political Communication, Policy and Platform Development - Medium Priority
Of the medium priority categories, the development of policies, platforms, and political
communication processes was the highest ranked category between all three political parties.
However, within this category, there were few similarities between political parties as to which
of the subcategories were of highest priority.
Ideology, Policy, and Platform Development
Within the category of political communication, policy and platform development, political
party visions for change focused predominantly on elements of ideology and platform
development; for this reason, “ideology, policy and platform development” was the highest
ranked of these sub-categories (though it was not listed as a high priority item overall by all
parties; two ranked it as high, one as medium).
As noted by one participant during a workshop, “None of the parties have a strong party
ideology.” Both parties that ranked this subcategory as a high priority emphasized the need for
party members to consult in the platform development process. The third party, which ranked
this as a medium priority item, emphasized the need to review and renew party platforms
through internal party congresses. Challenges to achieving this included lack of knowledge on
the part of party members and leadership itself on how to develop a platform, lack of supporting
strategies to inform platform development, and lack of finances to convene party gatherings.
Effective Communication
One party ranked as a high priority and two parties ranked as a medium priority the need to
differentiate party platforms and ideology from those of other parties in the eyes of the public,
through effective political communication. Participants of this workshop identified the media
as an effective tool, but quickly added that they could not use domestic media to do so, as they
claimed the domestic media is biased towards the government; instead the party, according to
