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African Women Parliamentarians attend virtual roundtables on gender sensitive Parliaments
This week, the CWP network shifted its focus to the Africa Region as it hosted the second of a series of virtual roundtable discussions for both female and male Parliamentarians and parliamentary staff on gender sensitive Parliaments.
The CPA Africa Region comprises over one third of the CPA’s 180 member Branches. The virtual roundtables provided participants with an intimate platform to share and learn from each other’s individual experiences and understand how gender sensitive practices can be implemented in their respective Parliaments.
CWP Vice-Chairperson and Steering Committee Member for the Africa Region, Hon. Zainab Gimba, MP (Nigeria) stated at the roundtable that “the CPA Africa Region is very excited to have benefited from the second set of regional discussions on the importance of gender sensitive Parliaments. It is crucial that Parliamentarians and parliamentary staff are able to share the successes and challenges they face in their respective gender sensitive journeys. It is only when this is done can we as a collective become more aware and better equipped to implement and achieve meaningful change.”
Professor Sarah Childs (Royal Holloway University of London), who produced the ‘Gender Sensitising Parliaments Guidelines’ on behalf of the CWP, emphasised at the roundtable the importance of meaningful leadership for women across Commonwealth Parliaments and said "not only are there often too few women in Parliament, they are often kept out of the leadership roles that can effect change."
During the roundtable, female and male Parliamentarians spoke about the important role that the Speaker, male champions and actors in civil society play in mobilising gender sensitising across Commonwealth Parliaments.
The following Branches from the CPA Africa Region were represented at the roundtable which took place virtually over two sessions: Cameroon; Edo; Gauteng; Kenya; KwaZulu-Natal; Mauritius; Mozambique; Mpumalanga; Nigeria; Seychelles; South Africa; Tanzania; Western Cape; and Zambia.
The CWP roundtable forms part of a series of virtual Regional discussions that will be delivered for all nine Regions of the CPA. The roundtables will seek to facilitate a united Commonwealth approach to increasing the number of gender sensitive Parliaments across the Commonwealth. The programme builds upon the recent CWP Gender Sensitising Parliaments Guidelines: Standards and a Checklist for Parliamentary Change that was successfully launched in October 2020. These guidelines provide an outline of gender sensitising standards which Commonwealth Parliaments can use as a benchmark to achieve.
For more information about how your Region can participate in a CWP Roundtable: Gender Sensitive Parliaments in the 21st century virtual roundtable discussion and for future dates, please contact CWP Network Coordinator, Ms Bénite Dibateza at benite.dibateza@cpahq.org.
Click here to view and download a copy of the CWP Gender Sensitising Parliaments Guidelines: Standards and a Checklist for Parliamentary Change or please visit www.cpahq.org/cpahq/cwpresources.
Please click here for more information about the Commonwealth Women Parliamentarians (CWP) network.