External Collaborator to Conduct Research and Draft a Report On Women’s Progress and Setbacks in Parliament

**Background**

The Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) is the global organization of parliaments. It was founded in 1889 as the first multilateral political organization in the world, encouraging cooperation and dialogue between all nations. Today, the IPU comprises 181 national Member Parliaments and 14 Associate Members. We promote democratic governance, institutions and values, working with parliaments and parliamentarians to articulate and respond to the needs and aspirations of the people. We work for peace, democracy, human rights, gender equality, youth empowerment, climate action and sustainable development through political dialogue, cooperation and parliamentary action.

The IPU recognizes gender equality as a key component of democracy and works to achieve the equal participation of men and women in politics. It monitors the participation of women in parliament at the global, regional and national levels, and makes data available.

The IPU produces an annual report on progress and setbacks for women’s participation in parliament (see the 2024 edition). The objective of the report is to analyse the results of elections held throughout the year, draw attention to developments, and highlight trends and lessons learned at the global, regional and national levels. The 2026 edition will mostly highlight good examples of progress achieved in enhancing women’s representation in parliament at elections run in 2025. This includes good practices in ensuring diversity among elected women and in combatting sexism and gender-based violence against women during elections held that year across the globe.

**Request for proposals**

The assignment will include a home-based desk review, analysis of IPU data on women in parliament, the drafting of the report, support to its production, and the development of communication materials to help disseminate its findings. The assignment is expected to be completed in a maximum of 40 working days, between 1 December 2025 and 30 April 2026.

No travel or daily subsistence allowances will be covered by the IPU for this assignment.

**Deliverables**

Carry out a desk review between 1 December 2025 and 9 January 2026 related to parliamentary elections/renewals held in 2025, including through your own research and an analysis of data provided by the IPU as follows:

- Results of elections and the numbers and percentages of women elected, using IPU data (drawing on information provided by parliaments and included in the IPU’s open data platform, Parline)
- A comparison of election results with previous results (drawing on IPU data)
- The political situation of the countries where elections held in 2025 resulted in great progress or a significant setback in the election of women
- The existence and types of electoral gender quotas used (drawing on existing data from the IPU’s Parline, the Quota Project database, and own research)
- Initiatives taken to boost the election of women
- Intersecting forms of discrimination and related challenges faced by women in elections and in office, and measures taken to address them
- Advancements in equal parliamentary leadership (women Speakers, women committee chairs, etc.)
- Diversity among elected women.

Carry out additional research during the drafting process on elections for which results were not yet available by 9 January 2026, and factor those results into the analysis and report.

Identify trends and lessons learned from successes achieved and challenges faced, and highlight interesting national, regional or international practices.

Draw main conclusions about the global, regional and national levels of both progress and setbacks for women’s participation in parliament based on elections and appointments in 2025, including in-depth analysis of specific countries that have encountered remarkable progress or setbacks since the previous election.

Connect research findings with IPU’s studies, guidance and data, including on gender and other types of quotas, as well as on sexism, harassment and violence against women in parliament.

Contribute to the development of graphics and tables, based on existing IPU templates as well as new ones to be defined, with a view to illustrating key data to be included in the report.

Draft and submit a 10-page report as follows:

- Share a preliminary draft with the IPU (12 January 2026)
- Incorporate comments received from the IPU (19-23 January 2026)
- Share a second draft with the IPU (26 January 2026)
- Incorporate comments received from the IPU (29-30 January 2026)
- Finalize and submit the final version of the report to the IPU (2 February 2026)

Support the production and dissemination of the report, in particular:

- Prepare key messages to support the launch of the report (3-13 February 2026)
- Comment on draft press releases and other materials (16-27 February 2026)
- Support proofreading of the report during layout (16-27 February 2026)
- Prepare presentations and speeches on the report’s cont