Caribbean women leaders from Parliament and civil society share leadership lessons at regional workshop
A three-day Workshop on Leadership for Good Governance and Social Transformation in the Caribbean was jointly convened by the Commonwealth Secretariat, Caribbean Women in Leadership (CIWiL), UN Women and the Australian Government from 25 – 27 April 2022 in Barbados.
The Workshop brought together nearly 60 experienced and aspirant leaders and Parliamentarians from across the Commonwealth Caribbean, the majority of whom were women.
Transformational leadership, gender equality and gender justice, good governance and partnership-building were the core themes of the conference, with key objectives being to improve the understanding of good governance, gender-sensitive and gender-responsive Parliaments and to identify opportunities to promote gender equality and women’s transformational leadership in good governance.
Hon. Valerie Woods MP, Speaker of the National Assembly of Belize and Vice-Chairperson of the Commonwealth Women Parliamentarians (CWP) network, chaired the opening discussion, speaking alongside fellow Commonwealth Parliamentarian, Hon. Keisal Peters, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade, St Vincent and the Grenadines.
Opening the session, Speaker Woods said:
“We start with a call to action – the clock is ticking. It is the value of both men and women to contribute to leadership and governance. It is not one against the other. It is not a competition. We all recognise that it is not us alone that will combat the crises ahead. We can be ‘historical’ when we join and shout together.”
The Commonwealth Secretary-General, Rt. Hon. Patricia Scotland QC added via video message:
“While Caribbean countries have made considerable progress in improving the representation of women at all levels of decision-making, we can all do more to ensure that the lives of women and girls are improved in a meaningful way. By combining our collective resources to create greater gender-responsive political participation, we are championing human rights and meeting the Sustainable Development Goals.”
The workshop also provided an opportunity for development of skills and capacities of women politicians to effectively drive gender equality through their participation in parliamentary processes and to share good practices and lessons learnt on advancing women’s Parliamentary leadership across the Commonwealth Caribbean.
Participants were able to reflect critically on gender sensitive parliamentary processes and structures and examine ways of championing gender-responsive legislation policies as well as strategies for engaging men as allies.
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The Commonwealth Women Parliamentarians (CWP) was founded in 1989 to increase the number of female elected representatives in 180 Parliaments and Legislatures across the Commonwealth and to ensure that women’s issues are brought to the fore in parliamentary debate and legislation. The network campaigns for gender equality in all spheres.
