Women delegates at the 60th Commonwealth Conference holding in Yaoundé Cameroon, will today October 8, 2014, meet in their general assembly to chart the way forward for gender equality in all spheres of life.
Gender equality is one of the hall marks of the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association and that is why within this association there exists an organ called the Commonwealth Parliamentary Women (CPW). One of the major objectives of the CPW’s creation was to take into account the Beijing platform during which the United Nations stipulated the 30 per cent quota for women in parliament.According to the current chair of the CWP, the Rt Hon. Rebecca kadaga, speaker of the Uganda parliament, the focus of today’s meeting “will be on how to improve the representation of women throughout the Commonwealth. Some countries are doing well but others are not, so we are going to be laying down strategies on how to deal with governments, political parties, how to organize our women and help them to train for political office.”With the CWP being there to make sure that the Commonwealth factors in the promotion of women in all spheres of life, the lady MPs hold that when equal opportunities are given to women and girls, they contribute enormously to the development of their society and the country at large. The CWP’s interest in the attainment of the Millennium development goals by 2015 is the reason why on its agenda will be evaluating their actions since the last sitting, considering that time is running out. It has been said that none can clamour for women’s right better than the women themselves and this explains why the women will in a workshop during this conference deliberate on the theme “joining hands for women’s rights, the role of parliamentarians in gender empowerment”.Parliamentarians from Cameroon will this year attend the conference with a lot of pride, having moved up the ladder as far as women representation in parliament is concerned. According to Senator Eno Emma Lafon, president of CWP, “I am sure the Commonwealth will be very happy with Cameroon because in parliament Cameroon attained the 30 per cent quota prescribed by the CPA. We have 56 out of 130 members in the National Assembly, and 20 senators out of 100 at the Senate.” In the CPA, some of the regions are doing fine notwithstanding the fact that the fight still continues. The CWP chairperson Hon. Rebecca holds that “in east Africa we have the highest percentage of representation in the world, Rwanda is at 64, while Uganda is at 35, Tanzania 36, South Africa is 39, and Mozambique is above 39. So this part is doing well. We also have the worst in Africa, Nigeria is about 4 per cent, and Botswana is probably under 1 per cent. In the Pacific Islands there are parliaments with no women at all so not everything is good.”Cameroon’s remarkable stride according to Senator Lafon was the outcome of “lobbying from all angles, the Ministry of Women’s Empowerment, political parties especially the Cpdm, Ngos not forgetting the political will of President Paul Biya. The Head of State gave a directive that women must be taken into account in lists.” Honorable Sagufta Yasmine from India is hopeful that after the Yaounde deliberations, more women will sit around decision making tables. Senator Lafon is worried about women representation in our local councils, that have only 31 out of the over 300 mayors, that is why they are fine tuning strategies to turn the tides for more women in the coming years.
Claudette Chin
