As the Union Parishad (UP) elections have started, the Local Governance Program SHARIQUE, being implemented by BIGD and Helvetas Swiss Intercooperation (HSI) considers this as an opportunity to capitalize on the event to advocate for one of the program’s advocacy issues, which is increasing women’s representation in local government.
In order to reach a broader audience locally and to engage local government representatives, politicians and local administration in increasing women contestants in both reserved and general seats in the UP elections, SHARIQUE and BIGD held an awareness-raising discussion on March 10, 2016 at Shaheed Abul Hossain Auditorium, Sunamganj.
The event proved to be an interactive platform where some research findings and field observations surrounding women’s participation in both reserved and general seats were presented by guest speaker Prof. Suchita Sharmin, Department of Development Studies, University of Dhaka.
Following the presentation, a discussion under the facilitation of BIGD Senior Researcher Ms. Syeda Salina Aziz was held, where participants gave their views and shared experiences on the issue. Dr. Shanawez Hossain, Research Fellow and Team Leader of SHARIQUE, BIGD; Mr. Rafiqul Islam Talukdar, Senior Programme Manager, BIGD, and Mr. Amir Uddin, Field Coordinator, HSI participated in the discussion, among others.
Concluding the discussion and urging local politicians to nominate women for both general and reserved seats, researchers and representatives of BIGD and SHARIQUE said that women can easily get access to the public. As elected representatives, they are the nearest to citizens and can share their joys and sorrows, hopes and dreams. Therefore, building women leadership locally can help political parties in getting closer to ordinary people and identifying the needs of their constituencies. Nominating women for the post of UP Chair and supporting them to contest general seats will also demonstrate party commitment to internal democracy.