Latin America is increasingly taking steps to promote confidence-building in defence matters. It is crucial that parliaments provide a critical contribution to these efforts. Moreover, the region faces important security challenges many of which are of a cross-border nature. Regional and bilateral arrangements, along with strong national action, are therefore crucial in developing effective responses, most notably in the fight against international organized crime. Parliamentary oversight is essential to ensure that the Government adequately equips and puts to use the security sector and to embed it in a democratic structure in the implementation of the tasks entrusted to it.

The Conference in Bogotá, which is organized by the National Congress of Colombia, the Inter-Parliamentary Union, and the Geneva Centre for the Democratic Control of Armed Forces, will provide an opportunity for participants to exchange experiences regarding effective responses to current defence and security challenges in the region and good practices of effective parliamentary oversight. The event is aimed at parliamentarians from Latin America, and particularly those who work on security issues (members of defence, budget or foreign affairs committees) and the parliamentary staff of such committees.

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It is an engagement and agenda-setting meeting between the three female members and other gender-sensitive male members of the Imo State House of Assembly (IMHA) and representatives of the women of Imo State to chart a course for the effective mainstreaming of gender into all the programmes and activities of the IMHA.

The meeting is aimed at taking advantage of the new atmosphere of legitimacy and freedom thrown up in Imo State in the wake of the recent gubernatorial elections, to bring the issue of women and children in the state into greater visibility at the legislative and policy levels. It is important to note that women played major roles in the political struggle that brought Imo state to where it is at the moment. It is therefore important that this momentum and renewed consciousness is sustained to enable women to remain a major part of the emerging effort to entrench the democratic gains and expand the frontiers of democracy in Imo State and the entire South East Nigeria.

It is therefore the thinking of the coordinating organization, Development Dynamics, Nigeria (DD) that the engagement and agenda setting meeting is strategic and will be a good step in the effort to make women active players in the emerging process in the state. This initial meeting is intended to be followed by quarterly review meetings, as may be agreed to by all stakeholders at the initial meeting. The review meetings will receive updates, monitor progress and plan future activities.

We are depending solely on the support of partners for the hosting of the meeting.

The three female members of the IMHA have declared their full commitment to the realization of the Imo State Gender Agenda Process.

DD is therefore requesting to partner with you in the organization of this all important meeting. For further information you can contact Development Dynamics at; Phone: +2348035927419, Email: devdynamics@yahoo.com

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