DEMOCRATIZATION Special Representative of the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office on Gender Issues June Zeitlin (l), and Pekka Haavisto, the Finnish Minister for International Development, address participants at the opening of the Gender Equality Review Conference, Vienna, 10 July. OSCE/Micky Kroell and supporting multi-party political landscapes. In 2014, the Office supported 40 national and regional initiatives on democratic governance and gender equality, facilitating knowledge sharing and co-operation among national parliaments, political parties, government bodies and independent human rights institutions with the participation of civil society. OSCE field operations remained key partners in the implementation of ODIHR’s democratic governance and gender equality activities. Increasing Women’s Participation in Politics Responding to an increasing demand for its expertise, ODIHR organized 21 events on women’s political participation in 2014, reaching out to more than 900 stakeholders from across the OSCE region. ODIHR promoted institutional strategies for governments and political stakeholders to advance women’s political participation, using its baseline study Gender Equality in Elected Office: A Six-Step Action Plan. The study was presented at a seminar on Women’s Participation in Politics on 3 October in Budapest, and at a conference on Women’s Political Participation in Malta on 3 November in Valletta, organized in co-operation with the House of Representatives, the Commissioner for the Promotion of Equality and the National Council of Women of Malta. ODIHR worked with political party leaders, women politicians and gender advocates to build capacity and develop systematic approaches to advance women’s participation in political parties. In 2014, ODIHR finalized its political party gender audit methodology, which assesses gaps and good practices in promoting gender equality and women’s participation in key internal party processes, structures and policies. ODIHR conducted gender audits of parliamentary political parties in Armenia, ­Georgia and Tajikistan, resulting in the development of gender reports for selected political parties, as a basis for future development of political party ­gender action plans. In 2014, ODIHR published the Handbook on Promoting Women’s Participation in Political Parties, highlighting the special role and responsibility of political parties in advancing women’s participation, integrating gender aspects into party ­decision-making and supporting women politicians in advancing their political careers. The handbook was launched on the margins of the OSCE Gender Equality Review Conference on 10 and 11 July in Vienna, which gathered 200 participants from across the OSCE region. The handbook’s recommendations were presented at the Women’s Power Breakfast on Women and Political Parties, held on the margins of the OSCE Human Dimension Implementation Meeting on 25 September in Warsaw, facilitating a discussion on improving women’s access to political parties. The handbook was also discussed at the Seminar on Gender Equality in Politics: the Role of Political Parties in Poland, on 17 December in Warsaw. ODIHR Annual Report 2014 33