The Report of Programme Centre of Democratic Institutions, Australian National University

Capacity building activities for WRI staff have been designed to boost their confidence as well as increase their competency in formulating, implementing, and monitoring an appropriate or workable strategy, and evaluate its effects within a certain time periode. As a research institute, WRI staff must obtain adequate experience to implement qualitative research as well as qualitative research. Also, acquaire competency in doing profound analyzes in order to contribute to the improvement of the quality of the condition and position of women in Indonesia.

 

The Objectives of Activities

This activities have many purposes:

1. To increase the knowledge about Women’s Political Representation in international level, especially in Asia Pasific by participating in the Training of Trainer Women in Politics

2. To provide the participants with context-specific and gender sensitive knowledge on women political representation. Special attention will be devoted to exploring how conceptual and theoretical frameworks, especially gender and socio-cultural theories, can be applied to policy and interventions.

3. To explore these perspectives, which can be applied to research, training, advocacy, policy formulation and evaluation to improve representation of women in political leadership.

4. Networks emerge with other participants of the course, which will expand WRI staff horizon and access to information sharing with them.

 

Centre for Democratic Institutions (CDI) Gender & Political

The Australian Government established CDI in 1998. It is funded primarily by the Australian Agency for International Development (AusAID). One of the primary ways in which CDI works to promote democracy is through strengthening parliamentary governance and political parties. The Centre focusses on parliamentary and political party development, and conducts flagship training courses and policy-relevant research on these subjects.

Improving the representation of women in political leadership is an issue that cuts across CDI’s entire work program. In particular, the South Pacific has the world’s lowest levels of female representation in parliament.

 

CDI places a high priority on gender equality in all our activities. The main goal of the CDI’s gender and political participation program is to work with focus countries to create an environment in which women can advocate on matters of policy, run for political office, be elected and govern effectively, and participate meaningfully in every facet of civic and political life. This requires a focus on gender relations: men’s and women’s roles, responsibilities and decision making in different areas of life, issues of power and control. Engaging men in this process is of utmost importance.

 

CDI’s Inaugural Women in Politics Course, November 10-14, 2008, in Canberra

Pacific Island countries strived to get more elected into parliaments for sometimes. While recognizing that dealing with the barriers to women’s political participation and decision making will take time, there is now a consensus that women’s lack of representation in the region needs to be tackled with a strong sense of urgency.

 

To this end, CDI inaugural Women in Politics “Train the Trainer” course was held on 10-14 2008 in Canberra. The course builds on previous capacity-building efforts in the region, and was designed to up-skill participant on key issues such as effective ways of dealing with culture and leadership issues, the impact of electoral systems and political reforms on women’s representation, pros and cons of party quotas and reserved seats, gender differences in voter behaviour, influencing; lobbying; resource mobilization, and networking.

 

There are 18 participants from eight nations (Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, Timor-Leste, Fiji, Indonesia, Kiribati, and Tonga) took part in the week long train- the-trainer course and developed action plan. It is anticipated that the action plans developed during the course will form the basis of national level training in the near future.

 

Mr. Bob McMullan, Australia’s Parliamentary Secretary for International Development Assistance, opened the course. The course was well supported by Australia’s main political parties, academia and the private sector. Australian federal parliamentarians took an active role in the course- Anna Burke (MP Deputy Speaker), Senator Christine Milne (Deputy Leader, the Australian Greens), Senator Claire Moore (ALP), and Senator Marise Payne (Liberal Party of Australia) were among the speakers.

 

All participants hold important positions in their national parliament, local level governments and assemblies, national government departments, NGOs or the private sector in their countries. Their participation will hope, they can helped in the goal of getting more women elected in the next cycle of elections.

 

This course was convened by CDI’s special adviser on gender issues, Dr. Sun-Hee Lee.

 

Output of Activities

1. Strengthening critical theoretical perspectives on gender and sexuality and understanding the socio-cultural, political and historical context of women in political leadership is an issues particular.

2. Ability to explore these perspectives, which can be applied to research, training, advocacy, policy formulation and evaluation to improve women political representation programs in the region.

3. Networks emerge with other participants of the course, which will expand WRI staff horizon and access to information sharing with them.

 

The Achievement of Programme

There are some achievements of this programme. First, WRI staff has increased the capacity in Women in Politics by participating in the Training of Trainer. WRI staff can also get the sencitiveness in analyzing the condition and position of women related to the issue of gender, representation of women in political leadership by using gender perspective. Besides, WRI staff gets more knowledges and experiences from other participants and another country in Asia Pasific by participating in the Training of Trainer Course women in Politics. Participating in that workshop has opened the mind of WRI staff in analyzing gender relations: men’s and women’s roles, responsibilities and decision making in different areas of life, issues of power and control.

 

Secondly, the WRI staff has built networking with the participants from other country. WRI staff has built the networking with Australian Nation University and also the Centre for Democratic Institutions as the organizer of the workshop and the conference. The Centre for Democratic Institutions (CDI) is a government-funded body that supports the efforts of new democracies in the Asia-Pacific region to strengthen their political systems. It provides training, technical assistance and peer support for parliamentarians and emerging leaders in Southeast Asia and the South Pacific, with a particular focus on Indonesia, Timor-Leste, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Vanuatu and Fiji.

 

By participating in these course, WRI staff will seek the opportunity to get acquaintance with other participants who most of them hold important positions in their national parliament, local level governments and assemblies, national government departments, NGOs or the private sector in their countries. Through this networking, WRI intends to build linkages that can produce better strategies on how to increase women’s ability to create access to resources especially in dealing with local authorities to demand their participation.

 

The other networking has built by WRI staff with the several participant from different country in Asia Pasific: Australia-Fiji Community Justice Program; Lautoko City Council in Fiji; Member of Parliament for Betio Constituency; National President PNG Women in Politics, Women’s Representative, Member of Moku Kolta Assembly in PNG; Parliamentary Official-Community Education Officer Solomon Islands National Parliament; Women in Leadership Desk Officer, Solomon Islands National Council of Women; Marie Stopes International Timor-Leste” NGO; Women’s Affair Division, Ministry of Education, Women’s Affairs & Culture; Journalist of The daily Post Newspaper, Vanuatu, Officer Distance Education/Gender, Ministry of Education Vanuatu; and Officer Ministry of Justice and Social Welfare Vanuatu.

 

These participant from different organizations has given some experiences in many issues related to the focus of that organizations. WRI staff gets some experiences in issues of women in politics. All of those achievements may give benefits for the organization. The increasing knowledge and capacity of WRI staff on effective ways of dealing with culture and leadership issues, the impact of electoral systems and political reforms on women’s representation, pros and cons of party quotas and reserved seats, gender differences in voter behaviour, influencing; lobbying; resource mobilization, and networking. ***

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