K100m reserved for women, children

THE women in the Community Mine Continuation Agreement (CMCA), in the mine impacted region of Western province have reserved K100 million (10%) of the total CMCA package for women and children.
The money will be used for development projects at regional and village levels that will directly benefit women and children.
The scheme will target projects that will bring long-term benefits and also focus on short-term benefits that include capacity building programmes such as training for women leaders.
A team of women representatives from Ok Tedi CMCA women’s network presented these at a three-day women in mining conference at Divine Word University last week.
The team’s spokesperson and associate director for CMCA women’s network, Bala Tedumo said after learning from past experiences of women and children having been left out or benefiting less from the CMCA, they understood the plight of women and children.
“We have agreed to support them to reserve 10% for women and children at the negotiating table with PNGSDP, Go PNG and OTML.
Ms Tedumo said the current CMCA agreement accommodated the inclusion and participation of women at all levels of decision-making, unlike in the past.
“The agreement also created a platform on which the women action plan was formulated and launched in December 2008,” she said.
Ms Tedumo said the funds would be tied to the plan and would be used accordingly to avoid misuse and corruption.