Advocacy and Lobbying

A Solomon Islands politician says women in her country are fed up with not benefitting from any of the money that passes through the hands of her male counterparts.

Rhoda Sikilabu is a former deputy premier of Isabel province and now a provincial assembly member who is standing in next year’s general election.

She has just completed an exchange to Melbourne under the Pacific Women’s Parliamentary Partnerships scheme - something she says is proving vital in helping her to improve the lives of her constituents.

To eliminate gender discrimination, the political parties should ensure 33% of the positions allotted to women in their party hierarchical structure by 2015, and include this in their election manifesto ahead of the 2014 general elections.

The call came at a meet the press on Saturday organised by Bangladesh Alliance for Women Leadership (BDAWL) at the National Press Club.

The Election Commission has a vital role to play in ensuring women’s participation as well as achieve the target by 2015, they said.

In a bid to promote women in leadership positions, the Sierra Leone Social Aid Volunteers (SLSAV) has concluded a one-day confab on women's participation in leadership and decision-making at local governance level.

The event, which was held at the Western Rural District Council hall at Waterloo, attracted over fifty participants from four constituencies, with support from ENCISS - Enhancing Interface and Interaction between State and Non-State Actors to Improve Poor People's Lives.

Women aren't running for office because barriers to entry too high

Since the 1980s, more women have registered to vote than men. In the 2012 election, 7.8 million more women cast ballots than men. Women are more engaged in politics than their male counterparts in a lot of ways. But when it comes to actually making the laws, women are sitting on the sidelines, making up just 18 percent of Congress.

Thousands of Saudi women have been using social media, especially Twitter, to air their views and campaign for their rights, a senior Saudi journalist said, adding that their tweets were instrumental in mobilizing public and official support for their causes.
“Saudi women, especially university graduates, are using Twitter and other social media outlets to mobilize support for their rights. Many of them have been waiting for years to get employed. They have formed a group now on Twitter to make their voice heard by officials,” Khaled Aburas told Arab News.

If you knew nothing else about the Republican Party, two days at the Republican National Committee's Summer Meeting would convince you that it's a party taking its recovery seriously, having bottomed out with embarrassing polling and technological failures in the fall of 2012, along with major deficits in appeal to key demographic groups...

MORE than fifty years after independence, Tanzania is embarking on a Constitutional Review process that will transform the way its people relate and live with each other and also the way the country is governed.

It is also an opportunity for the most discriminated and oppressed segment to spearhead the movement of 'social justice' and 'equality'; an opportunity to right the wrongs of the current state of affairs and to 'raise' the flags of Equality and Equal Rights high.

A cross section of Nigerian women on Thursday in Abuja expressed optimism that the government would ensure increased women representation in  governance.

They spoke with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) at the women rally on Peace and National Development held at Eagle’s Square.

They said the present administration had shown that women are capable of meeting the aspirations of all Nigerians.

We invite you to read the full article published August 15, 2013