Participation of Marginalised Communities Participation of Women The National Strategic Plan for the Advancement of Women, 2013-2022 (NSPAW), published in 2013, called for the improvement of “systems, structures, and practices to ensure women’s equal participation in decision-making and leadership at all levels of society.” Measures to achieve this aim included the application of quotas “to ensure women’s participation in decision-making in legislative, judicial, and executive bodies.” However, this being a non-binding commitment, the government of 2011-15 took very little practical action to improve the gender equality of participation. 116 The 2015 elections, however, took a brighter turn resulting in the increase of female representation in state and region parliaments, with women taking 12.7 percent of elected seats, compared to just 3.8 percent in the 2010 elections. For the 2020 elections, there were 902 women candidates out of 5,641 total candidates, which represents 16% of the total number of candidates as per International IDEA. 117 . Therefore, which was higher than the 2015 elections which had fewer than 800 women candidates. Out of the approximately 38 million voters, among them 19 million are female voters. 118 Women voters in Kachin State checking the voter list during advance voting. In Myanmar, although there are no legal barriers to women’s participation in politics per se, there are still societal norms which confine women to their traditional roles. Key informants interviewed by ANFREL international observers opined that there are no such strategies to increase women’s participation in political parties. Further, some women candidates interviewed by electoral analysts 116 https://asiafoundation.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/Gender_in_Equality_in-the-Governance-ofMyanmar_ENG.pdf 117 http://stepdemocracy.eu/uploads/publications/election-sataglance-(A4).pdf?fbclid=IwAR0IcqQKUiCMq5QmO1j_4kux7vjS5rrJIj7V94iAYBM6cv-QYEXRs_YBJg 118http://stepdemocracy.eu/uploads/publications/election-sataglance-(A4).pdf?fbclid=IwAR0IcqQKUiCMq5QmO1j_4kux7vjS5rrJIj7V94iAYBM6cv-QYEXRs_YBJg 43