1. Background
The Committee to Promote Women's Political Participation consists of seven local NGOs, namely, CDRI, CWPD, COMFREL, GADC, NICFEC, SILAKA and WFP. It was established in August 2005 and in September, organized a successful second consultative forum on women's political participation and its effectiveness in commune/sangkat council. The overall goal of CPWP is to open up the space for dialogue among policy makers, political parties and civil societies organizations on the importance of women's political participation at commune/Sangkat while at the same time providing participants with opportunities to raise and identify entry points to increase women's participation in decision-making in local government in Cambodia .

2- Goals and Objectives
The goal of the CPWP is to empower women to increase their participation in decision making in public office. To achieve this, CPWP has the following objectives:

• To lobby the National Election Committee to require political parties to put women at the top of their candidates' lists
• To lobby the government, donors and political parties to identify affirmative actions in their party policies and national law to achieving gender balance
• To persuade political parties and government to implement CEDAW and CMDG provisions relating to women in decision-making
• To increase the number of female candidates within political parties
• To convince government that it is time to improve gender balance
• To advocate donors to prioritize gender issues, including funding priority.