Women leaders meet

WOMEN leaders from the Ugandan and Tanzanian parliaments are expected to join other Papua New Guinean leaders over the next two days at the Gateway Hotel in Port Moresby in discussions on the best possible options for PNG women representation in parliament.
The meet, to be attended by Prime Minister Sir Michael Somare and Opposition leader Sir Mekere Morauta, will also analyse the current situation of women’s parliamentary representation in PNG and the most promising practices and lessons learned to date at international and regional levels, and develop recommendations for increasing women’s political representation in PNG for the 2012 National Elections.
It will consider the persisting barriers to women’s entry into parliament in PNG examine ways of increasing women’s parliamentary representation by examining experiences and lessons learned from practical examples.
It will also examine the linkages between women’s presence in decision-making bodies at all levels and their impact on policy formulation and the conduct of political institutions.
Organisers United Nations Development Programme in an invite to The National, said participants are being drawn from a diverse range of backgrounds, including experts, Commonwealth Parliamentarians, the United Nations,r egional organisations and civil society.
Sir Michael, who has been advocating the move for an increase in women representation in parliament, will open the workshop today.
A number of other presentations have been scheduled for today, including the experiences of women Parliamentarians from Bangladesh and Uganda, where reserved seats are available.
Opposition leader Sir Mekere leads discussions tomorrow with his perspective of the  implementation of the 22 women’s seats for the 2012 National Election.