The Women’s Leadership and Political Participation Regional Conference will be hosted in Honiara, from the 2nd to the 4th of June at the FFA Conference centre.
This was confirmed by Calvin Ziru, the Registrar of the Political Parties Integrity Commission in a joint press conference with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the European Union (EU) on Wednesday.
Mr Ziru told the local media that the conference is an initiative by the Solomon Islands Government with special support from UNDP and the EU as part of the reform that was spearheaded by the Political Parties Commission together with the Democratic Coalition for Change Government (DCCG).
“It is a conference that is supported by UNDP and the EU supporting the Political parties’ commission primarily and indirectly with the Solomon Islands Electoral Commission.
“The conference is part and parcel of what makes up the reform of the Political Parties Integrity Act which is spearheaded by the Political Parties Commission and is consistent with the DCCG policy priority.
“The objectives of the conference falls within the review that is currently ongoing with the Political Parties Integrity Act,” He said.
He added that, the conference will be attended by representatives from countries in the region where they will contribute their countries experiences to help Solomon Islanders to learn from them.
“We have come together to organize this regional conference that will comprise of representatives from the region.
“Experts from outside of Solomon islands will be flown in from various countries including Fiji, PNG, Samoa, and even Bougainville.
“Each of them will be contributing in their own various sessions on their own experiences and hopefully what that would do is allow us to understand our own experiences in our context,” Mr Ziru added.
Meanwhile, UNDP and EU also announced that they are pleased to support this regional conference.
Akiko Sasuka, Deputy Resident of UNDP told the local media that they are happy in supporting such very important conference.
“UNDP is very pleased to be supporting this regional conference and electoral cycle in Solomon Islands more broadly through the ongoing strength in the electoral cycle in Solomon Islands projects.
“The conference is an opportunity for stake holders in Solomon islands and experts from other pacific island countries to engage in in-depth dialogue on how best to increase women’s participation and representation in leadership and politics,” the UNDP official said.
Mr Pavlos Evangelidis, the Head of Operations of the EU also raised similar sentiments.
“The EU is proud to support the government of Solomon Islands in this new direction that it is taking.
“The EU will continue to support women in parliament and in politics and support women in SI to make full use of their potential and the country to make full use of its resources.
“In the conference we will be looking to learn, to explore, to develop our strategies, and to reach the goal of a balanced and equitable development,” Mr Evangelidis told the local media.
By RONALD TOITO’ONA
