On June 30th, the UN Women Training Centre held the Webinar Gender Parity in Costa Rica, in the context of the 2016 local elections. The Webinar aimed to present the experience of Nielsen Perez, who was a candidate for Mayor of Vázquez de Coronado, a canton of the city of San Jose in Costa Rica. Her testimony showed the participants of the Webinar the landscape of women´s political participation in the electoral process in the country.

According to the political participation map developed by UN Women, the average of women in parliament in Latin America is only at 25.9 %, far away from parity. Participation is still a key element to exercise democracy in electoral processes.

Mrs. Pérez is a specialist in Gender Equality policies, women empowerment and political participation with more than 25 years of working experience. She spent 15 of those years in the promotion and management of public policies for Gender Equality focused on the citizenship, leadership and political participation of women as well as on municipal policies for Gender Equality. In addition, she worked 10 years with NGOs specialized in the Human Rights of migrants. She has shown therefore in all these years an extensive experience in the field of policy, programme and project management in the public local, national and international level.

If you missed the Webinar and are interested in getting insight on how to become an agent of change, click below to access the recording.