Organisation : Pacific Women in Politics
Facility Name : How to Join Pacific Women in Politics
Country : Fiji
Website : https://www.pacwip.org/for-candidates/how-to-join/
How to Join Pacific Women in Politics?
** The PacWIP website has been established as an information-sharing tool on Pacific women in politics, but also as a portal to showcase women candidates running for election to their national parliaments. Under the “current elections” section of the website, PacWIP will endeavor to collect information on women candidates who are participating in national elections in Pacific countries.
Related / Similar Election : National Federation Party Donations & Join NFP Fiji
** A brief summary of information will be collected on each woman on the national country page, and a link to “read more” will send readers to a specific page where each woman candidate can maintain their own home page with information about themselves, their policies and their campaign activities.
** We are hopeful that this information will then be picked up by voters, as well as by the media.
** PacWIP is keen to encourage women candidates to be proactively involved with the website. We believe that it is important that women candidates choose to be involved with the website, and are supported to use the website to highlight their own policy ideas and perspectives to voters.
** The following information on “how to join PacWIP” is intended for women candidates who are interested in having their information showcased on the PacWIP website.
Application Form :
Fill out the Application Form, which has been designed to collect basic information from candidates which will be used to initially fill out each candidates personal page.
Candidates Pledge :
Fill out the Candidates Pledge. PacWIP is a site specifically designed to showcase the fact that women in politics have a significant and important role to play in national policy making. This Pledge will assure visitors to the PacWIP site that every candidate who is included on the website is committed to common values and goals, including respect for the law.
Where to Send?
Return the Application Form and the Candidates Pledge to the PacWIP team by emailing the documents to pacwip[AT]gmail.com or faxing them to +679 3301 976. In PNG, candidates can fax their information to +675 321 1224.
Women candidates who wish to update the information on their personal home page can simply email the PacWIP team at pacwip[AT]gmail.com to send us the information, which we will upload within 24 hours. For example, women candidates may want to upload news articles, press releases, policy statements and speeches. We look forward to hearing from you.
FAQ on Pacific Women in Politics
The PacWIP site was launched in April 2012. It is a new site which aims share information on efforts to support women in politics in the Pacific. On this page, we seek to provide answers to some of the Frequently Asked Questions about PacWIP. If you have any questions about the site, please do not hesitate to contact us at pacwip[AT]gmail.com.
Where did the idea for the PacWIP website come from?
UNDP and the Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat have partnered together to promote women in politics for many years. Following a number of consultations, UNDP and PIFS discussed ideas around how to facilitate better information-sharing. To this end, it was agreed that UNDP, as an institutional partner with global expertise in developing knowledge-sharing platforms, would take the lead in developing an initial pilot website to share information on Pacific Women in Politics initiatives.
Who supports the website?
The UNDP Pacific office in Suva, Fiji, has initiated this pilot website as part of its regional Effective Governance programme.
Can other organisations be involved?
The PacWIP website is very much designed as a resource for the entire Pacific. In that context, organisations working on women in politics are encouraged to share information about their WIP work through the websites news, events and publications pages. The “Who Works On WIP” page is also a place for organisations to share more general information on their WIP work.
What is Pacific Women in Politics?
At least in theory in the Pacific today, there are no formal obstacles to equal participation in national political and parliamentary processes. However, due to historical and ongoing social, cultural and economic barriers, in practice, there is still a noticeable imbalance in the representation of women and men in Pacific legislatures and sub-national decision-making bodies.
In recognition of this ongoing challenge, the Pacific Plan specifically prioritises the need to improve gender equality.
Initiative 12.6 calls on the Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat to assist with the development of strategies to support participative democracy and consultative decision-making and electoral processes, while Initiative 12.5 calls for support for the implementation of human rights treaties, such as the Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination Against Women, which itself supports temporary special measures.
The Revised Pacific Platform for Action for Women 2005-2015 also recommends that governments “take affirmative action in policies and practices that enhance gender parity in political representation”.
Across the region, many local and regional partners are working hard to ensure that women’s voices are increasingly heard in Pacific decision-making forums. A range of different activities are being pursued, but feedback from partners suggests that information-sharing across the region and between partners could still be strengthened. This website seeks to fill this gap.