Call for Action – Women in decision-making: A key to sustainable development

There is one more week to go to show your support for improving women’s political representation in PNG’s parliament. UNIFEM is currently calling for statements of support for the proposed Reserve Seats for Women Bill, to be debated in parliament on July 20, 2010. This Bill, if passed will ensure greater women’s representation in PNG parliaments, by creating 22 reserved seats for women.

To support this action, please email your letter of support to jillbosro@hotmail.com.

Women continue to be dramatically underrepresented in decision-making positions in Papua New Guinea (PNG). It is necessary to ensure full and equal representation and participation of women in the decision-making processes to address social and economic issues in an integrated way. It is also imperative to have a State consistent program with a budgetary allocation for effective implementation and monitoring mechanisms on women’s political empowerment.

Women’s participation in political processes is crucial for reaching Millennium Development Goals (MDGs); States and donors must remember their commitments to gender equality. They must also remember the findings of the Global Monitoring Report of the World Bank and the Gender Gap Report of the World Economic Forum, which demonstrates that countries score high on competitiveness, also enjoy high levels of gender equality.

The PNG government committed itself in Beijing Platform of Action (BPFA),  under Article 190 “To establishing the goal of gender balance in governmental bodies and committees, as well as in public administrative entities, and in the judiciary, including, inter alia, setting specific targets and implementing measures to substantially increase the number of women with a view to achieving equal representation of women and men, if necessary through positive action, in all governmental and public administration positions”.

In May 2010, as a result of the tireless efforts of PNG women, the PNG government tabled the Bill as a Notice, once again proposing 22 seats reserved for women in the Parliament. This Bill will be put up for debate and voting in July 2010. The constitutional amendment will ensure close to 20% seats reserved for women.

Recognising positive steps of the PNG state towards the implementation of MDGs, BPFA and Convention on the Elimination of all kinds of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW); We the women from Asia Pacific region call upon the PNG State to implement international and national commitments made for women’s political empowerment through the following:

• Implement special measures to increase the level of women’s representation to at least 33% in parliaments, national and local governments, parliamentary standing committees and political parties.
• Implement gender budgeting initiatives and allocate adequate State finances for gender equality. 

Please email your statement of support to jillbosro@hotmail.com.

Please note, IWDA does not necessarily endorse all the information contained in the newsletter, it is provided as an intended source of reference.

International Women’s Development Agency (IWDA) is committed to collaborating with project partners and stakeholders to promote and support dialogue in relation to women, gender and development. As part of our ongoing strategy to advocate for best practice in the sector, we are pleased to bring you E-Gender – a mechanism for Australian and international readers to share information on their gender and development work, both nationally and internationally, as well as sharing international resources and items of interest.

Thank you for your feedback to date, and we encourage your ongoing input in this initiative. IWDA is keen to feature information about resources, events and opportunities in Australia and invites you to contribute. Please send information to be included to egender-items@iwda.org.au

#egender

Tags: Call for Action, Papua New Guinea

This entry was posted on Tuesday, July 13th, 2010 at 3:53 pm and is filed under E-gender. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.