Case study
INTER PARES

Since 2020 I have been the Senior Gender Advisor to the INTER PARES peer to peer parliamentary strengthening project

A panel discussion at a conference with five women and one man seated on stage, with the woman second from the left speaking into a microphone. Audience members are seated facing the stage, some using laptops. A large screen displays the name "Hannah Johnson" and the title "Senior Gender Advisor" among other information. The setting is a modern room with wooden ceiling beams and warm lighting.

Some highlights include:

  • Working with the Malaysian Dewan Rakyat’s women’s committee and local gender NGOsto improve the knowledge and skills of MPs and staff to advance gender equality through oversight and law-making. This included multiple workshops and practical sessions, an exchange visit to the Italian Chamber of Deputies, development of an action plan, creation of a gender impact assessment process for draft legislation, and piloting of the process on an agricultural Bill. Some of the participants in these activities are now working to conduct a gender audit in the parliament.

  • Producing two international research publications, Gender-Sensitive Scrutiny: A Guide to More Effective Oversight and Law-Making, and Beyond Numbers: Gender Equality In and Through Parliaments. The findings of these publications have been instrumental in guiding the INTER PARES approach to gender, and case studies collected are used to share ideas and learning between parliaments.

  • Supporting the National Congress of Chile to update their post-legislative scrutiny (law evaluation) methodology to include gender. This included exchanges with other parliaments and legal experts, and practical sessions with parliamentary staff to design appropriate methods.

  • Holding a large, international exchange on women’s caucuses with the National Assembly of Niger, and six other parliaments from across Africa and Europe.

  • Collaborating with the National Assembly of Bhutan and a local gender NGO to support the women’s caucus, holding two three-day workshops on gender-sensitive oversight and lawmaking, and production of a Bhutan-specific guidance.

  • Designing and delivering two workshops on gender-sensitive parliaments and gender-sensitive oversight and lawmaking for the parliaments of Botswana and Zambia.

INTER PARES shares learning between partner parliaments and EU Member State Parliaments (EUMSPs) on how to advance gender equality through parliamentary work. Since 2020, this has involved more than 20 partnership activities, two international publications, an e-course, two national-specific guides for partner parliaments, and two global, online events.

As the part-time Senior Gender Adviser, I’ve led the project’s strategic approach to gender equality, delivered most partnership activities, written and edited knowledge products, and represented the project externally.

The cover of a guide titled 'Gender-Sensitive Scrutiny: A Guide to More Effective Law-Making and Oversight' features an illustration of a divided cube with various scenes including a person at a school blackboard, a store, a farm field, and a person at a desk, with a large pig's head in the center. The background features a brown hexagonal pattern.
Cover page of a report titled 'Beyond Numbers: Stories of Gender Equality in and Through Parliaments', featuring logos of the European Union, WYDE Inter Parliaments, Inter PAREs, and International IDEA, with geometric shapes in shades of orange, pink, and maroon.
Six women standing in a hallway with wooden paneling and framed photographs of people on the wall behind them, all wearing masks.
Screenshot of a virtual meeting with multiple participants, each in their own video window. Participants include diverse men and women, some smiling, with the Zoom interface visible showing participant names and muted microphones.