Model Parliament capacitates women on political leadership
The status of women’s participation in politics in Botswana is currently a worrisome issue as depicted by the consistently low numbers of representation of women in Parliament, Cabinet and Councils.
This calls for improved measures to support women in political roles, Member of Parliament for Kgalagadi North Talita Monnakgotla, has said.
Monnakgotla was speaking at the first of its kind Model Parliament for Youth and Women held at University of Botswana (UB) in Gaborone.
Monnakgotla noted that as a politician and Member of Parliament, she is aware that some of the barriers that prevent women from taking part in politics are perpetuated by “our own culture and society.”
She said there are many sayings in Setswana that disqualify women as good leaders and many traditional practices and beliefs that undermine women.
“But one of the calls to action is to imagine a society where all those traditions or perceptions are rejected by our society. The truth is that Batswana women are just as capable politicians and leaders,” she said.
The Model Parliament is a prestigious and a first of its kind programme designed to increase women’s participation in political leadership.
It empowers young women to develop and cultivate their interest and knowledge in governance and politics through a simulation of Botswana’s Parliament.
This initiative was sponsored by the US Embassy in Gaborone and implemented by Young Minds Africa, Women Lead Africa Trust and MolayaKgosi organisations.
Monnakgotla told the young delegates who were given extensive training and skills that after fully understanding the issues surrounding lack of women’s political participation, they should move beyond this platform to become champions and advocates for the increased inclusion of women at all levels of decision making.
“This would be a great step towards achieving gender equality and gender balance in parliament,” she said.
UB representative, Kemotho Mabe said that it is a great honour for the institution to have supported the implementation of this
programme.
“It is a great time to promote the upskilling of young women to take leadership roles, not only in the space of academia, private sector and media, but also in the political space,” she said.
She said that despite having had free and fair elections for over 50 years, Botswana has still not been able to figure out how to increase women’s participation in political leadership with women currently representing only 11 percent of the national assembly.
“This shows just how far we have to go to create equality in our society, and we can all agree that women are capable leaders. The question is why there is no representation of women in different political capacities.
“We need to ensure that the next generation of women leaders, has the requisite skills, and experience required to increase the representation and participation of women in Parliament,” she said.