Women in politics.
Tracking the gap.

The 2019 amended Electoral Code (Loi N° 2019-43) reserves 24 of 109 National Assembly seats exclusively for women, an institutional approach distinct from list-based quota systems used elsewhere in the region. The reserved-seats model produces a guaranteed floor; whether it produces a ceiling effect is the subject of continuing comparative analysis.

Togo adopted a new constitution (Loi N° 2024-005 du 6 mai 2024) establishing a parliamentary system and creating a new bicameral legislature with a Senate first seated in February 2025. Loi N° 2012-002 on gender parity on electoral lists remains in force. Anchored in Maputo Protocol Article 9 and ACDEG Article 8.

Côte d'Ivoire's Loi N° 2019-870 du 14 octobre 2019 imposes a minimum 30% quota for women on electoral lists, with parties achieving 50% women candidates receiving additional public funding. The 2024 amended Electoral Code (Loi N° 2024-238 du 24 avril 2024) maintains and refines these provisions in advance of the 2025 presidential election.

Ghana's Affirmative Action (Gender Equality) Act 2024 was signed into law in July 2024 after more than a decade of legislative campaigning by Ghanaian feminist civil society. The Act establishes progressive targets for women's representation across appointed and elected positions; implementation operationalisation is the focus of continuing advocacy under the 9th Parliament (January 2025–).

Nigeria sits at the bottom of the West African continental ranking on women's legislative representation despite being the region's largest democracy. The March 2022 rejection by the National Assembly of five gender-equality bills — including the 35% affirmative action provision — sustained through subsequent sessions, has produced sustained civil-society mobilisation. The VAPP Act of 2015 remains the principal gender-equality legislation, with state-level domestication continuing to expand.

Liberia twice elected a female president (Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, 2006–2018) and currently demonstrates the highest cabinet-level gender parity in the region (50%) under President Joseph Boakai's administration (January 2024–). Legislative representation remains structurally weak in the absence of a statutory quota law. The 2024 amendments to the Elections Law introduced new procedural reforms but did not establish quota provisions.

The Gambia has not enacted a statutory legislative quota; the Women's Act of 2010 calls on political parties to enact gender-equality measures but does not impose binding requirements. The combination of low representation and the 2024 attempt to repeal the FGM ban (ultimately defeated by parliamentary vote) has produced sustained continental advocacy on Gambian gender legislation.