From Women’s Leadership Training programme held in February 2020

 

UNDP Maldives is committed to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals by 2030, and Goal 5 on Gender Equality remains a key focus of our work. We work with our partners to shape a future of equal participation for women in decision making bodies and the political process in Maldives. This is a necessary foundation for achieving inclusive, equitable and sustainable development for the country.

UNDP Maldives has been working with political parties to strengthen their women’s wings and create avenues for increased engagement of women in the political sphere and provide support to strengthen the voice and impact of women and young people within political parties. Under this initiative, stakeholder consultations were held in 2020 with women’s wings and youth wings of political parties, government institutions, and women and youth focused civil society organizations. Participants of these consultations identified the need for ongoing capacity development and training programs targeted at young women and men who are members of political parties. Within political parties, capacities varied considerably amongst young members, but there was strong agreement across all stakeholders that young people were critical to the success of the Maldives’ future democracy. Additionally, while some women within parties were already highly skilled, many felt that there was still a substantial need to offer training for a wider group of female political party members as well.

Keeping this in mind, UNDP has designed two training sessions: one for Youth Wings and the other for Women’s wings and interested women in political parties.

The trainings have been designed in support of the mandates of existing Youth Wings and Women’s Wings, which most Maldivian political parties have already established. This initiative recognizes the importance of ensuring that the voices of both young people and women are more effectively heard and integrated into the decision-making in political parties, as a means of influencing national and local decision-making. To this end, this training aims to strengthen their understanding of key political processes, how they can better engage in these processes and how they can effectively advocate within political structures on issues of importance to youth and women.

UNDP opens the invitation to all political parties that are registered with the Elections Commission and individuals who are interested to be a part of this training. To express interest and for queries, send an email to junaina.faisal@undp.org

Find out more about our work on helping to strengthen the role of women within political parties here