ParlAmericas held the 3rd Meeting of the Parliamentary Staff Network for Gender Equality: “Allies inside and outside parliament: weaving networks to promote gender equality”
Members of the Parliamentary Staff Network on Gender Equality (PSNGE) participated today in a virtual meeting that brought together, for the first time, parliamentary staff from the Americas and the Caribbean. Focusing on technical work, the objective of the meeting was to examine strategies for mainstreaming the gender perspective into parliamentary work through partnerships with women’s organizations, experts, and activists for gender equality, and to learn about various experiences of successful collaboration in different countries.
The President of ParlAmericas’ Parliamentary Network for Gender Equality (PNGE), Senator Verónica Noemí Camino Farjat (Mexico), inaugurated the meeting and shared key insights, emphasizing: “Latin America and the Caribbean is the region of the world with the highest levels of inequality, discrimination and violence. This situation affects millions of women and girls. In order to eradicate inequalities and inequities, evaluate the gaps and their causes and think of innovative ways to reduce them, inter-parliamentary dialogue, coordination among women parliamentarians and parliamentary staff as well as spaces for exchange and networking at the regional level are essential.”
Lisane Thirsk, Deputy Director, Gender Equality and Communications of ParlAmericas, introduced the new project that structures the work the institution will carry out in support of parliaments in the Americas and the Caribbean, with the objective of strengthening political capacities for gender-responsive governance. She also shared the document What We Heard, which compiles the main lessons learned and will serve as a baseline for developing more and improved programming to virtuously link parliaments with women’s organizations.
The meeting included interventions by two special guests, who presented their experiences in working collaboratively with their national parliaments. On one hand was Natalia Gherardi, Executive Director of the Latin American Team for Justice and Gender (ELA), an Argentine women’s organization that works on various issues related to gender equality, such as the promotion of women’s political participation, gender budgeting, and the legislative agenda of care. On the other hand, Gabrielle Elie, Representative of the Young Women in Leadership – Saint Lucia (YWiL) program, an intensive training program on transformational leadership, inclusive decision-making, and parliamentary procedures organized by ParlAmericas, Caribbean Women in Leadership (CIWiL), and the Parliament of Saint Lucia.
Lastly, the meeting included a working space to facilitate the exchange of ideas that contribute to the care agenda, a topic that will be addressed by the parliamentarians of the Hemisphere on the occasion of the 19th Plenary Assembly and the 14th Gathering of the ParlAmericas’ Parliamentary Network for Gender Equality, to be held this November in Colombia.
