This weekend, I was fortunate to have the opportunity to attend the 11th Women Ministers and Parliamentarians Conference arranged by the Asian Forum of Parliamentarians on Population and Development (AFPPD) in Bangkok.
I was invited to speak as part of a session on Women's Economic Participation alongside Ann Sudmalis - MP Australia, Jane Sloane - The Asia Foundation, Karen Makishima - MP Japan, Lork Kheng - MP Cambodia and Farhad Hossain - MP, Bangladesh. My presentation focused in particular on TWF's Girls Go Tech/GirlSpark programmes, our Mentoring Programme, our research on women and entrepreneurship and our efforts to mobilise male champions of change through the 30% Club and Male Allies. The session was followed by a lively Q&A and it was terrific to see the interest on the part of the audience of regional MPs in our work!
Among the many outstanding female parliamentarians who spoke at and who attended the conference, I was particularly impressed by Tonga's only female MP - Akosita H. Lavulavu, who delivered an impassioned account of why there are so few women parliamentarians and what we can do to increase the participation of women in politics. Among the chief barriers she outlined were the mindset against women being in parliament, how women are not voting for women, the need for resolute political will for greater women's political participation especially to drive quotas or reserved seats for women, and women's lack of confidence to contest elections.
Her suggested solutions included mobilising the political will to support reserved seats for women, ensuring there is sufficient budget to support the implementation of legislation and policies, having mentors for female candidates, researching the impact that women have in politics and educating the public to better understand the world of an MP's work and the importance of supporting women in parliament. I highly recommend you read her whole speech which she was kind enough to share with me here. Enjoy!
A big thank you to the AFPPD for including TWF on this occasion!