Win with Women: Third Conference Held to Encourage Women in to Politics
The third women’s conference Win with Women gathered together local government female representatives to present their annual report and share future plans with their partners. The main issue of the discussion was parliamentary quotas for women for local governance and development of pre-school education.
Women councilors met central government, parliament, international community and NGO representatives. Former Mayor of Highland Park, New Jersey, Meryl Frank, visited Georgia specifically for the Forum. Frank is also a former Ambassador to the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women. The United Nations Development Program (UNDP) in Georgia financed the event during which Deputy Resident Representative Shombi Sharp once again emphasized women’s role at the local and national level and strongly urged more women to enter politics.
“While Georgia has made significant progress in establishing important gender equality laws and policies, a lot remains to be done to translate that into real change. Women still make up about 12 percent of representatives in Sakrebulos and Parliament. To empower women to realize their full potential for the betterment of political, social and economic life is an essential part of the new global Sustainable Development Goals through 2030,” Shombi Sharp said at the conference.
Laura Thornton, Senor Director of the National Democratic Institute in Georgia, called women a driving force of change at the local level.
“Local government is the first point of contact for citizens with their elected officials dealing with the issues most important to people’s daily lives. The more women there are in these offices, the better they respond to people’s needs, Thornton said at the opening of the Forum.
The Forum was been held for the third time on February 9th by the National Democratic Institute, Municipal Service Providers Association and the UNDP in conjunction with the Government of Sweden, Swiss Cooperation Office for the South Caucasus and Austrian Development Cooperation. It is supported by the UN Joint Program for Gender Equality in Georgia financed by the Swedish Government.
Meri Taliashvili