CDI's 2009 Women in Politics Course | Canberra | December 7-11
Pacific leaders have committed to enhance women’s political representation through a range of international and regional commitments including those outlined in the Pacific Plan, the Platform for Action (2005-2015) and CEDAW. However, despite the work of Pacific governments and many regional, international and in-country organizations and individuals over many years, including CDI, the fact remains that relatively high levels of female engagement and leadership in governance at the community level in the Pacific is not reflected in the national parliamentary arena. Indeed, CDI's focus region of Southeast Asia and the South Pacific has one of the world's lowest levels of female representation in parliament. CDI's Women in Politics course is designed to help improve this situation.
Inaugurated in 2008, the WiP course aims to build the capacity of women and men from the Pacific region who are working toward the goal of improving the representation of women at all levels of public office and politics. A core focus is women who are intending to enter national politics in the Pacific Islands, whether as a candidate for elected office, a political party organiser, or similar role in the democratic process. CDI particularly encourages nominations from young and upcoming female leaders in our focus countries of Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, Fiji and Timor-Leste.
The course consists of a mixture of lectures, external site visits, and participatory forums, and will cover key issues for women in politics, including:
- Challenges and obstacles to women’s participation in Pacific politics
- political parties’ role in promoting gender equality in politics,
- temporary special measures (eg. party quotas and reserved seats),
- electoral and political reforms to maximise women’s representation,
- influencing, lobbying and networking,
- candidate training (eg. election campaign, resource mobilization, fund raising etc), and
- the role of other actors (including government, parliament, civil society, and academia.
The Australian Parliament, individual Members and Senators, and the major Australian political parties will again be directly involved in presenting/facilitating course sessions in 2009.
The single most important longer-term outcome of this course would be the advent of more women elected to office in our focus countries. In the short-term, we believe that CDI can best contribute to helping make this a sustainable reality by giving Pacific women this opportunity to gain new learning, skills and strategies with the aim of better equipping them to engage in national politics and leadership at the highest level. Crucially, this course also builds connections and networks between the participants and their Australian counterparts, be they female MPs, political party members and staff, journalists, senior public servants etc.
In 2009 this course will be convened by gender and development expert Monica Costa. Monica’s convening duties will include consultation with relevant regional colleagues, organizations, and programs so as to ensure this course remains coordinated with, and complementary to, the work of others supporting gender-based political governance initiatives in the region.
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