In March 2016, the Local Authorities Election Act was amended to include a 25 percent quota for women at the local government elections. Abiding by this amendment, an amount of over 2000 women were to be elected into office at the conclusion of the next local government elections in 2018. The implementation of this policy proved to be a landmark in our political history, as this quota was expected to result in a dramatic increase in the number of women elected to local government i.e. from 2% to over 25% ( in actual numbers from around 90 to over 2000 elected women).

#Gen under the #WeGovernSL initiative, conducted a 2 day residential programme (10th-11th of March 2018) for 50 women candidates from across the country who were elected to local government bodies representing different political parties. The workshop was an interactive master-class covering basics of political communications, social media and advocacy for youth engagement and gender equality within LG bodies.

As a part of this initiative a survey was conducted (over the phone) with a database of 2000 women in Sri Lanka to understand political aspirations and social media use. Using this information, educational videos and posters were circulated via social media platforms to these women including those trained at the workshop to share with their communities.