Young women of Grenada take the floor in Parliament
Young women from across Grenada took part in two historic mock, all-women parliamentary debates in the Houses of Parliament of Grenada. The simulated parliamentary sittings marked the culmination of the Young Women in Leadership (YWiL) – Grenada program, organized by ParlAmericas, Caribbean Women in Leadership (CIWiL), the CIWiL Grenada National Chapter, and the Houses of Parliament of Grenada.
The YWiL parliamentary sittings were the first-ever all-women sittings in the Parliament of Grenada, in both the House of Representatives and the Senate, albeit pretend. Each program participant served as a parliamentarian and debated a fictional motion to develop a national action plan on gender equality and women’s economic empowerment, with crosscutting attention to infrastructure and emerging industries, the care work sector, and climate resilience. During the sittings, participants responded to the motion in line with their assigned parliamentary role by drawing on their skills, knowledge and research.
The YWiL program is designed to support young women in preparing for leadership roles by providing training and education on political leadership and service, encouraging personal development from a transformational perspective, and creating spaces for networking and building supportive communities of women and allies for gender equality.
YWiL Grenada began in May and consisted of a series of virtual and in-person training sessions focused on the program’s core components of transformational leadership, gender equality and parliamentary procedure in preparation for the day’s parliamentary sittings. All the program’s sessions drew on the expertise of women leaders in various fields, including government and international organization representatives, parliamentarians and former parliamentarians, and civil society and private sector leaders from Grenada and across the region.
With the program’s conclusion, the young women participants were encouraged to share the learnings and skills gained within their communities.
YWiL Grenada is supported by the Government of Canada through Global Affairs Canada. Previous editions of YWiL have been hosted in Antigua and Barbuda, Jamaica, Saint Lucia, and Trinidad and Tobago.
For further details and to watch the YWiL Grenada parliamentary sittings, visit the @ParlAmericas, @_CIWiL and @CIWiLgnd social media pages.
