Power, Voice and Rights: South Asia Regional Conference on Women’s Political Leadership 2011

The report summarizes the key deliberations and outcomes of the said Conference organized in October 2011 by the Parliament of Bangladesh and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) under the framework of the “Improving Democracy through Parliamentary Development” (IPD) Project in cooperation with the UNDP Asia Pacific Regional Center.

 

The report provides information on the regional and global women’s situation in Parliaments. It describes important conference themes including challenges and opportunities of increasing the participation of women in public life, political empowerment of women and alternative pathways into the political sphere, and the promotion of greater gender responsive parliaments. Key Recommendations put forward on such themes are also described. The report also includes the Dhaka Regional Conference on Women’s Political Leadership Declaration which provides for a number of policy recommendations to enhance gender equality in political processes in the South Asian countries.

It is our hope that the Report and the conference Declaration recommendations support ongoing and future national and regional efforts to further advance the participation of women in political processes and in the effective integration of gender equality principles in the activities of Parliamentarians and Parliaments in South Asia.