FEMTALK BRIEF: WOMEN TRAINERS REAFFIRM THEIR ROLE IN ENSURING GENDER EQUITY IN DECISION MAKING

May 20, 2005 - (femTALK) Suva, Fiji Islands - Recently women in Fiji have launched a 10 year Women in Shared Decision Making (WISDM) Plan of Action, as well as contributed to the review of electoral processes and this morning 20 women in Fiji reaffirmed their role to assist women in Fiji claim their rightful place in decision making at all levels of society.

This was one clear outcome of this week's training of trainers programme for Voter Education organised by UNIFEM Pacific, as part of the organisation's commitment to assist regional governments and women's civil society groups, to realise the goal of the equal participation of women in decision making as highlighted in the Beijing Platform for Action, the revised Pacific Platform for Action, and the Pacific Leaders own commitment in Auckland 2004 to address the gaps that remain in ensuring gender equality in power and decision making structures.

According to UNIFEM Pacific's Regional Programme Director Amelia Siamomua, women and power still makes a lot of people nervous and this will also be a challenge for the trainers to address as they collectively work to enhance women's knowledge in their communities of electoral processes, as well as encourage women to also put greater value on the power of their vote!

The new trainers were also reminded this morning, to use their newly acquired skills to join the current women's lobby of Pacific Governments to gender sensitise the Pacific Plan: "We need to ask our leaders,"where are our women, where is women in politics going to be in the pacific plan?" said Siamomua.

This will ensure that women of the pacific region are part of the critical process of shaping the future of our region.

One distinct difference of this week's training, according to Shyam Khelawan of the National Council of Women, a long time voter education trainer for the NCWFiji was that this time she was seeing the topics and issues raised with her gender lens on!

And for Sainiana Rokovucago of the Soqosoqo Vakamrama, even though she has attended numerous gender (equality) training programmes, these past few days she has learn to recognise better the need for a more targeted approach when addressing issues in the community and also to put greater value on women's contribution to Fiji: "I have a lot of work to do in my constituency, province and nation, and it starts with
my family!" she shared.

For participant Luisa Sumasafu of the Rotuman Women's Association, the training has helped her dispel the inhibitions and inadequacies which
previously impaired her own participation in society,which she identified were perpetuated by negative stereotypes within society and culture: "I am ready to go out to my audience, to bridge the gender gaps, the culture and politics, so that there will be a visible decrease in the number of Rotuman invalid votes" she said.

The training sessions, led by facilitators Taunga Vulaono and Salote Qalo, covered topics such as understanding gender, gender equality, women's political empowerment, good governance, election process and procedures, electoral systems that are truly representatives, understanding the role of the media in election campaigns, voter strategy trial election, addressing culture and traditional practices and practical sessions designed to give the women participants a working knowledge of how to take their newly acquired information into their community.

The participants agreed that there was tremendous value in all of these sessions especially as they had the opportunity to hear from women who have previously risen to the challenges to participate in political processes.

The participants drawn from the networks of the National Council of Women Fiji and the Soqosoqo Vakamarama I Taukei, today also issued their workshop communiqu which highlights their collective concern regarding the imbalances within decision making processes, the high
number of invalid votes in the 2001 national elections, and noted discontent with the current voting system.

And so to address these concerns, they have founded the League for Women's Voters which will be a forum to identify and advise women's organisations, political parties on the utility values of international instruments and other instruments of government to advance political participation of women and therefore ensure shared decision making which is a commitment of government through the Beijing Platform for Action.

The National Council of Women and the Soqosoqo Vakamarama have also formulated their strategies to enhance voter education which will include the production of voter education kits in the Fijian, > Hindustani and Rotuman languages, voter training for the upcoming local and national election, a consultation with provincial council leadership and voter education within the 14 provinces of Fiji. The training initiatives are designed to improve voter education, reduce the number of invalid votes, increase the number of women candidates and to increase the awareness of voters of the importance of having equal representation of women and men in national and local government.

For more information
Contact:
UNIFEM Pacific office: 679 3301178
National Council of Women Fiji: 679 3311880
Soqosoqo Vakamarama Office: 679 3381408