The last decade has witnessed increased women political representation in different tiers of democratic governments in many African countries. Unfortunately, Nigeria falls in the category of countries with the lowest proportion of women political representation. In the first election following two decades of military rule held in 1999, women secured 3% representation of contested positions, in the 2003 elections, women secured 4% and in the 2007 elections, women secured 6%.

Women representation is low for several reasons, including:

• Lack of an affirmative action quota for women.
• Lack of free and fair elections.
• Lack of knowledge of the written and unwritten rules of the political process among women aspirants.
• Lack of coordination by NGOs
• Lack of continuity of NGO activities with individual organizations starting projects right before an election and ending right after; the lack of continuity weakens NGO ability to effectively support women politicians. 

In response to these challenges, 30 by 11 is:

• Building a coalition of NGOs and grassroots women’s associations that coordinate their support of and advocacy for women aspirants.
• Identifying and engaging relevant stakeholders such as Independent National Electoral Commission and political parties on introducing a quota
• Identifying aspirants & providing capacity building training.
• Identifying young women with political aspirations and pairing them with established women politicians in a mentoring relationship.
• Raising public awareness and support by providing information on the states; and parties’ performance on women representation and by running PR campaigns for women aspirants.
• Establishing a legal fund to enable women politicians challenge electoral malpractice.
• Making recommendations for reform to the electoral commission to ensure free and fair elections.