A World Affairs Briefing with Kristin Haffert, NDI Director for Women's Political Participation Programs and Raissa Tatad-Hazell, NDI Senior Program Manager for Asia. On Friday, Sept. 18, from 12:30 to 1:30 p.m. at the National Democratic Institute, 2030 M St., NW, Washington, DC. If you are planning to attend, please R.S.V.P. by Tuesdsay, Sept. 15 to Cecilia Lero [2] at 202.728.6339.

The August 20, 2009 presidential and provincial council elections saw an historic increase in the numbers of women engaged in the political process. More than 300 women ran as candidates -- many of whom did so in spite of enormous barriers and at great personal risk, facing harassment and threats of violence against themselves and their supporters.

On Election Day, domestic and international observers reported that in the northern and central regions in the country, women came out to vote in significant numbers. However, in the south and southeast, and in provinces that were less secure, the turnout of women was notably low. In addition, there were shortfalls in the recruitment of female poll station workers and body searchers.

In the lead up to the August elections, together with a number of programs to support the electoral process, NDI trained two-thirds of the 326 women who ran for provincial council seats throughout Afghanistan. NDI selected 18 of these women, from nine provinces across the country, to be interviewed during the course of their campaigns and after Election Day. The interviews revealed how key factors, and the security environment in particular, affected the participation of women as candidates and voters.

NDI will share findings from these interviews as well as information on its work with women and elections in Afghanistan. Please join us for this briefing and a discussion on recommendations to strengthen women's political participation in Afghanistan.

• Kristin Haffert is the director of women's political participation programs at the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs. She spent five weeks in Afghanistan for the recent elections. Her previous campaign and public outreach experience focused on encouraging women's participation in politics. Before joining NDI, Kristin worked as an associate at The Lew Edwards Group, a political consulting firm specializing in grassroots organizing based in Oakland, CA, where, among other responsibilities, she managed field campaigns throughout the state for several successful women candidates. In 1998, Kristin was a fundraiser for the successful statewide re-election campaign of State Superintendent of Public Instruction Delaine Eastin. Kristin has also conducted research on women's voter outreach in the U.S., founded a local chapter of the National Women's Political Caucus and won an award from the Center for American Women and Politics for her work to increase women's political participation.
  
  Kristin earned her B.A. in Political Science and a minor in Women's Studies from Douglass College, Rutgers University; where she was also an undergraduate associate at the Eagleton Institute of Politics. Kristin also spent a semester at the University of Natal in South Africa, during which time she contributed to a publication that educated women about their constitutional rights. She has lived and traveled extensively in South America.
  
  
• Raissa Tatad-Hazell is NDI's Washington, DC-based Senior Program Manager for Afghanistan. Since 2001, Raissa has managed and supported several of the Institute's programs in Asia, including assistance efforts for elections in Afghanistan, Cambodia, Indonesia, Mongolia and Timor-Leste. She has also participated in country assessments that led to NDI's initiation of prgrams in Thailand and the southern Philippines and has supported the Institute's regional programs to assist women political activists in Muslim South and Southeast Asia. In addition to Afghanistan, Raissa is currently responsible for the Institute's programs in Cambodia, Mongolia and Nepal.
  
  Before joining NDI, she worked for the Senate of the Republic of the Philippines as executive liaison ot the majority leader and legislative staff on the Committee on Foreign Relations. She has worked on electoral campaigns in the Philippes and taken part in program exchanges across Southeast Asia focused on political participation among women and youth. Raissa earned her Bachelor's degree from the School of Economics of the University of the Philippines and her Masters degree from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy.
  
  

Pictured above: An Afghan woman observes the polls.