SUVA, (NCWF) – The National Council of Women Fiji (NCWF) launched its “Civic Education & Empowerment for more Women parliamentarians in Fiji” in September of last year.
The project is funded by the United Nations Democracy Fund (UNDEF) for a term of two years, and having its main objective to: “increase the representation of women in parliament & administrative boards & councils in Fiji, supported by increased participation of women within the broader Fijian community in political processes & civic leadership”.
As of Thursday next week (27th February 2014) it is envisaged that the NCWF will have completed over 40 workshops on Civic education & Gender and Democracy throughout Fiji.
Since the projects launching last year, the NCWF has already completed civic education in the different divisions covering Western, Northern and Central divisions – with average of participants ranging from below 18 years to over 70 years. Ethnicity for participants was also split with 62% being iTaukei, 38% Indian and Rotuman descent.
To date over 1000 women have undergone civic education , covering such topics as the 2013 Constitution, Definition of Gender, Gender & Democracy, Impact of International Legal Instruments, Human Rights, Temporary Special Measures, Women’s Suffrage, Women in Leadership, and many more topics relevant to their communities.
The NCWF trainers use the BRIDGE (Building Resources in Democracy, Governance & Elections) methodology & accordingly incorporate all modes of learning ; Visual, Audio and Kinetic, to ensure that the message is properly transmitted & ingested by participants.
The NCWFiji secretariat hopes to resume its civic education in the next couple of weeks and topics covered will range from women in leadership including women in Politics, dealing with the pressures of being a leader as well as on voter education.
