The establishment of the Women’s Department within Yemen’s Supreme Commission for Elections and Referendum (SCER) in 2005 represented a major step in promoting women’s electoral participation in Yemen. The Department, the first of its kind in the region, was created to evaluate and enhance the SCER’s capacity to guarantee women equal access to all stages of the electoral process. IFES-Yemen is helping to strengthen the capacity of the SCER Women’s Department to achieve its mandate by providing training workshops in the areas of leadership and management, communication and networking, as well as proposal writing. The goal of the IFES-Yemen Program is to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of the Unit in carrying out its responsibilities. With the continued support of the donors, IFES will continue to provide professional development training for the Women's Department.