PROVINCIAL women leaders from the respective provinces of Western, Malaita and Guadalcanal had previously gathered for 2-day dialogue training workshop at the Mendana Hotel in Honiara.
The purpose of the dialogue training was to establish a Provincial Women Caucus (PWC) that would representatives from the three major provinces in Solomon Islands.
The United Nations (UN) Women and United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) funded the training in partnership with the Ministry of Youth, Women, Children and Family Affairs (MYWCFA) and the Ministry of National Unity, Reconciliation and Peace (MNURP) under the Women Peace Building Fund Project.
National UN Women Program Coordinator, Mrs Audrey Manu told the provincial women leaders that there is no link between women and the provincial government and so they want to bridge that gap by introducing the PWC in the provincial level.
“The aim of the PWC is to advise the respective Provincial Council in the implementation of the National Dialogue resolutions and the National Action Plan on Women’s Equality and similarly to promote political participation of women in decision-making and conflict resolution and to report and conduct regular consultations with the Provincial Premiers’ Office.
“And also to communicate regularly consult and advise UN Women and the MYWCFA on the effective and implementation of the National Action Plan (NAP),” she said.
Women Caucus could also contribute to increase women’s engagement in the national election process and to monitoring conflict situation to prevent violence and increase the security of women at community and provincial levels.
Manu added that the PWC is to represent different groups of women to work closely with their Provincial Governments on women issues concerning gender and peace-building and to monitor the security situation at provincial community levels and alert the relevant authorities when conflicts emerge/turn violent.
“The idea is a pilot which we want to introduce to these women so we can see how it works during the duration of the Peace-building Fund Project,” she said.
