CHRISTINE PINTAT is Officer-in-Charge of the Programme on the Status of Women at the Inter-Parliamentary Union in Geneva, Switzerland.

A recurring theme in this handbook for increasing women's effectiveness in parliament is the importance of networking on a local, regional, and global level. International inter-governmental organizations provide opportunities for such networking through their meetings, conferences, workshops, and publications. One organization, renowned for its extensive and pioneering work in advancing women's political participation and for providing networking opportunities for women parliamentarians around the world, is the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU). In this chapter, we focus on the IPU: what is its philosophy with respect to women's political participation and how has its thinking and work programme evolved in this area; what programmes and strategies does it offer to promote women's political participation; how does it view the partnership between men and women in politics; and what are its future plans and priorities in this field? We address these questions in an attempt to illustrate how one international organization is paving the way towards women's greater participation and effectiveness in politics.