The Speaker of Parliament Rebecca Kadaga has urged parliaments across the globe to provide funds as an incentive for minorities to compete for leadership positions.
Speaking during the 12th Summit of Women Speakers in San Benito, Bolivia in South America, Kadaga said Parliaments should make it a requirement for political parties to identify social minority cadres and finance their involvement in national leadership.
“Political Parties can better attract membership of diversity by including in their manifesto specific programs that would facilitate the recognition and placement of the populations including giving them leadership positions,” said Kadaga.
“This requires commitment and dedication; it might even involve supporting the candidates financially to enable them to vie for the offices. As leaders of the democratic institutions, it is important that we create an enabling environment for the funding of the political parties,” she added.
The summit is being held under the theme: ‘diagnosing women under-representation, inclusive societies and parliaments and finding solutions to political violence’.
Kadaga noted that parliaments should take steps to establish whether the indigenous populations are included in the development programmes, and commended the Bolivians upon achieving gender parity in their Parliament and across the political spectrum. She urged other member states to embrace the same.
Bolivian President Evo Morales said his country is racing towards universal equality despite isolation from the United States of America, with whom they currently have frosty diplomatic relations.
“…without the American Embassy, without the World Bank, without the International Monetary Fund, we are economically better off and likewise in terms of our democracy, and we have better results in our administration,” said Morales.
He further noted that their experience demonstrates that a country, once committed, can achieve equality without over reliance on other nations.
He urged world leaders to embrace the affirmative action policies similar to those applied in his country, which he said has yielded parity representation, with the Chamber of Deputies having 58 per cent women representation.
