Neno, March 6: After successfully attaining 100 percent women representation in parliament in 2004, Neno district is now ready to start preparing civic educating women in the district to take part in the forthcoming tripartite elections.
The council, through the department of gender with funding from Scottish government has started identifying women who will be groomed to participate in portfolios of Member of Parliament and councilor in the forthcoming 2014 elections.
District Community Development Officer, Roselyn Bvulumende said her department has been entrusted with the responsibility to identify 50 women who will be equipped with various skills to help usher them into the top positions.
“Currently, we have already started capacity building trainings whereby all the women willing to participate in the elections are trained in areas of leadership, good governance, resource mobilization and public speaking skills just to mention a few,” said Bvulumende.
After opening one of the trainings, Neno District Commissioner, Macloud Kadam’manja said he is optimistic that once the participating women put to practice what they are trained in, they will scoop all seats in the district.
“I observed that the skills which are imparted to the few selected women could definitely empower the women to take a bold approach during their campaign period,” he said.
Asked about the significance of having more women participating in election positions Kadam’manja said; “In Neno, most top-decision-making positions are grabbed by men to the extent that most of development committees are male dominated which makes it difficult for most of the concerns expressed by women disregarded.”
“In our district, women and children are more vulnerable to various challenges, so if we let them be in decision making positions, they will be able to explain and suggest possible solutions to their challenges,” observed Kadam’manja.
Neno has two parliamentary constituencies both of them represented by women, namely Reen Kachere and Gladys Tembo and has four ward councilors.
