The Nationalist Party has launched a plan of action and consultation to encourage more women to pursue careers in politics.
The plan of action titled ‘Political Empowerment for the Inclusive Growth of a Nation’ was launched on Women’s Day on a special NET TV program titled ‘Indaqs’. The program was led by Nationalist Party leader Bernard Grech, the Leader of the Women’s Movement within the Nationalist Party Graziella Attard Previ and Spokesperson for Human Rights and Good Governance Therese Comodini Cachia.
The action plan, which was outlined by Cachia, aims to remove any obstacles that women who wish to enter a political career face.
The plan is made up of three pillars: support, train and promote. Consequently, twelve actions correspond to these pillars.
The first action of the ‘support’ pillar is the supporting the gender parity system for parliament. This means that everyone in parliament, regardless of their gender, will be treated as equal.
The second action is the carrying out of an equality check of the internal Party Structures and Procedures.
The third action is the performing of a gender audit of parliamentary structures and procedures through a proposal to the Speaker of the House of Representatives.
The fourth action is to reinforce policy against harassment and bullying by appointing two officers to implement an internal gender equality policy.
The fifth and final action for the ‘support’ pillar is the proposal to the government to amend the code of ethics for members of parliament and cabinet members.
The sixth action and the first in the ‘train’ pillar is the training of female participation. This involves a training programme for men and women who are interested in participating in politics focusing on gender issues within politics and policy development.
The seventh action is the commencement of placements to shadow party officials and Members of Parliament offered after completion of the training programme.
The eighth action is the providing of gender mainstreaming training to all party structures.
The ninth action is the invitation of holders of public office to provide shadowing placements and traineeships for persons interested in public life.
The tenth action, and the first in the ‘promote’ pillar is the promotion of women in politics on Party media.
The eleventh action is the strengthening of female candidates’ outreach with constituencies.
Lastly, the twelfth action in the plan is the gender stakeholder consultation itself. The consultation will focus on taking action that sees Malta reach the fifth sustainable development goal: gender equality. It will also identify and address gender specific issues which relate the other sustainable development goals.
Online submissions for the gender stakeholder consultation are open, as from today, on [email protected]. NGOs, civil society, social partners, experts and members of the public are encouraged to send in their submissions.
Once submissions have been received, discussion meetings will be held with the identified stakeholders.
Submissions and proposals will also be compiled and presented to the Party’s internal structures.
The deadline for submissions is 30th April 2021. Discussions with stakeholders will take place between 15th March and 10th May 2021.