Commonwealth lauds Speaker Kadaga

By Vision Reporter

The Commonwealth Women Parliamentarians Steering Committee has praised Uganda’s Speaker of Parliament Rebecca  Kadaga for her role in ensuring women parliamentarians across the Commonwealth undertake activities which benefit not only grassroots women but also increase their number in leadership positions.

Kadaga is the chairperson of the CWP International.

This comes after a strong appeal by Kadaga to the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association to increase funding for activities for regional strengthening which will ensure that increasing numbers of women in political leadership equates to improved policy, service delivery and development outcomes, according to statement issued from Parliament.

There was a tele-conference meeting discussion between Kadaga and women representatives of nine regions of the Commonwealth : Africa , Australia, Canada, Caribbean, Atlantic and the Americas, British Islands and the Mediterranean and the Pacific on the survey distributed to all the regions.

During this discussion, women MPs  underlined that the most significant obstacle for women participation in Parliament other than funding of women programmes, is lack of political party support and the nature of electoral systems.

In addition, Commonwealth women legislators also unanimously agreed that there is an impending need to share and disseminate information and policy ideas on how women parliamentarians can achieve gender equality and contribute to development, democracy and peace.

They agreed that they should also participate in exchanging ideas on how to improve effective parliamentary practice and ensure that all legislatures of the Commonwealth are gender-sensitive as this will enable women to reconcile their personal responsibility.

The meeting recommended that political parties should focus on sensitization and research that would assist political parties recruit and support candidates.

The Speaker is currently attending Commonwealth Parliamentary Executive Committee and General Assembly meetings in London, United Kingdom.