Transcript
JULIE BUKIKUN: What we intend to do is create some awareness and also advocacy around the issue of women in leadership and also in politics. So the practice parliament we have run it in different countries as UNDP in the region and of course in Papua New Guinea in the last election as well, where we got a lot of positive feedback, mainly from intending women candidates and the general public, even political parties were interested to know how the women fared. So this activity, apart from giving some information and skills, understanding and knowledge to women who may be interested in politics, what we are saying now is it is not only for the upcoming election but it could also be for the local level elections that are to take place in 2018 and of the next one in 2022. This is about giving them some understanding about how parliament works, what happens if you become a member of parliament, the kinds of things that happen - for example procedures of law making in parliament and also it will give them some insight into how they could possibly be organising their campaign and strategies. So it is a little bit of a mix but I think on top of it we want to see it as an advocacy platform for the upcoming elections.
DW: I guess would have to say, on the evidence, that the impact has not been great and the critical thing there is the cultural opposition that exists to having women in parliament. So how do you overcome that?
JB: Well that really goes back to other work around this awareness advocacy that's been happening for a long time, because really it requires a change in mind-set. Of course culturally and traditionally here in Papua New Guinea leadership is mostly male dominated. Of course we have only three women in this House of Parliament, so it is a very challenging environment for women to go into politics. So really what has to happen over a long period of time, we have done it in the last five years and the last ten years and it must continue for a change in behaviour and mind-set, we will continue to bring out women and showcase the women leaders that they are capable of being leaders, they are capable of being parliamentarians, and good leaders for decision making and development. So that's been a continuing journey and at UNDP we have continued to support that, and as you said, we recognising that it is a country with very diverse culture, so it take quite some time for this mind-set or shift to happen, but we are positive, that as we do this every year, every other sort of year if there's an election, it will continue to increase or change the people, the general public towards that. We did notice before the 2012 election that when we ran it there was a whole lot of debate and discussion, and it was positive because people started to realise that, yes, we may come from a society tradition that is male dominated, but women can become leaders and very good leaders for that matter, and that's part of the reason why we continue to run this activity in the country.
DW: You had I think the meeting back in 2012. Before that election you had 50 people take p-art. How many women are you hoping for this time round? Is there a limit?
JB: Well based on our funding we are opening up the space for at least 50, and I also wanted to acknowledge the New Zealand government for supporting this initiative and
are very appreciative of them coming in and providing assistance, so with their support and including ours from UNDP we will be hosting this, so we are looking at about 50 women from around the country, subject to them responding and providing their applications, will be selected. We did see a huge interest in the last one. 2011 we had well over 100 possibly close to 200 applications come in. So really we are trying to make a decision where we bring in women that have clear aspirations to go into leadership and politics and help them through this exercise.
DW: I guess you need people who have been through the mill, women who have been through the mill in terms of having been politicians themselves. You haven't got many to call on have you so how do you get around that?
JB: You are correct in that. Yes there are very very few women, ah well the parliamentarians at the moment but indeed there are a lot of other women who have stood for election. In the last election we had over 100 women candidates. So what will be important will be those women sharing their experiences, apart from the three that are now in parliament. They have been successful, they won. There are others most of them have not been successful and indeed their experiences of what has happened, what they have learned, will be very important for those that are intending to go into elections, so yes, certainly there are very few women parliamentarians, at least for PNG, but there are many, many women candidates that have come and gone.
That is Julie Bukikun of the UNDP.
She says the training happens early next month in Port Moresby.
