Final Workshop on Representation of Women’s Interests in Constituency Work.
The training of female members of the Somali Federal Member State Legislative Assemblies under the German Federal Foreign Office funded project ‘Capacity Building and Legal Advice for the Federal Member State Legislative Assemblies in Somalia’ concluded with a final workshop on the topic of Representation of Women’s Interests in Constituency Work.
The presentation first focused on elucidating the concept of constituency engagement and its significance for members of parliament and examined diverse tools and strategies available to parliamentarians for effective outreach within their constituencies. Comparative examples for specific engagement policies and strategies of female members of parliament were then presented from countries such as Ethiopia, Germany, Indonesia, South Africa, and the USA, focusing on indicators like engagement modalities, subject matters, methods, reporting requirements and accountability, funding, and other pertinent issues. Subsequently, the focus turned specifically to the representation of women’s interests in constituency affairs, including outreach to women’s groups, advocacy for women’s rights, policy development and implementation, capacity building, provision of constituent services, constituency development projects, and addressing intersecting issues. In the ensuing working group discussion, participants were given the opportunity to explore potential actions that a member of parliament could undertake and tools to be applied to address specific interests of women’s groups, utilising a hypothetical case scenario.
The workshop was held for members of the Legislative Assemblies of South-West State, Jubaland, and Puntland on 20, 24 and 28 July respectively. Workshops on the topic in Galmudug and Hirshabelle did not take place as the local project partners had opted for alternative topics to be prioritised.
In all three locations where the workshops were held, participants engaged in interesting discussions on how women’s rights could be better represented in public outreach and particularly appreciated the workshop as a platform for such discussions. It became clear, that the participants had rarely considered applying specific methodologies and approaches for women’s rights, and therefore were very eager to learn also from the comparative examples offered from the case studies explored by the presentation and their theoretical application through the working group assignment.