The Parliament of Rwanda in Kigali has, along with South Africa, among the world’s highest levels of female representation.
Parliamentarian, Hon. Kerry Finch, MLC, whose jurisdiction currently meets the Commonwealth’s 30-per-cent goal. He writes here that the route into Parliament many Tasmanian women have taken historically has been through community activism, and not just women’s rights activism. Having a man write about women in Parliament serves to emphasize the points that gender is not only a female issue and that bringing more women into Parliament benefits both genders. Another man, Shri S.N. Sahu, a Joint Secretary in the Rajya Sabha Secretariat, traces the advancement of women and women’s rights in India’s upper House. Although he notes that legislation to reserve a third of seats in the country’s lower House, the Lok Sabha, does not cover the upper House, the Rajya Sabha has been in the forefront of measures to empower Indian women. The allocation of government funds to individual Parliamentarians to enable them to develop small but useful projects in their own constituencies is seen as a way of empowering them and of using their unparalleled local knowledge to help their
communities. But this is not always the case. A group of
Commonwealth Members representing jurisdictions which have constituency development funds met earlier this year in Jamaica with academics and others interested in this process. They produced a set of guidelines to ensure that constituency development funds are used properly in a process which is fully transparent and accountable. We publish the guidelines in this issue so all Members can consider whether constituency
development funds are a blessing or a curse, a way to apply an MP’s exceptional local knowledge for the good of the community or an unfair advantage for incumbents. The advancement of all sectors of every society is the ultimate aim of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), adopted by the United Nations and member governments as the world moved into the new millennium over a decade ago. With the deadline for the
achievement of the Goals now three years away, Mr Kevin Deveauxand Mr Cédric Jurgensen of the United Nations Development Programme’s Parliamentary Development programme examine in this issue the role that Parliaments and individual Members will need to
play if their countries are to achieve the 2015 target for all eight MDGs. One criticism that all
Parliamentarians face is that they do not know how things work in “the real world” – meaning they are sequestered in Parliament and therefore do not understand how modern businesses work. For more than three decades the Industry and Parliament Trust has been working in the United Kingdom to ensure that Parliaments and the business world understand each other. That project has now expanded into Enterprise and Parliamentary Dialogue
International to build links between Parliaments in other countries and their local business community. Mr Riki Hyde-Chambers, OBE, who ran the Industry and Parliament Trust and is now the Secretary General of the international organization of Dialogue Centres, describes how the process works and the principles which govern its activities around the world. The Fifth Conference of Speakers, Parliamentarians and parliamentary officials of the South Asian Association for Regional Co- operation met in New Delhi in July 2011 to discuss a wide variety of subjects focusing principally on strengthening democracy in a
region which has a mix of well- established and developing Parliaments. We publish here a summary of the discussions contributed by a senior officer of the Lok Sabha Secretariat, Shri Jayadev Sahu. The provision of information to
Parliamentarians is a key method of support for the development of democracy. An innovative idea has emerged in Sri Lanka where a new research journal has begun publication by Parliament. Assistant Secretary-General Mr Neil Iddawala explains this initiative, which he is leading. Finally, young people are now the majority in the Commonwealth so involving them in Parliament will help to deepen each member country’s commitment to democracy. The Commonwealth
Parliamentary Association therefore held its 4th Commonwealth Youth Parliament in September, this time meeting in the United Kingdom Parliament including a final debate in the House of Lords Chamber. Three of the youth MPs write
about the experience to conclude this issue in a gender-appropriate way: one of the three is a woman in a House where 47 per cent of the seats were held by women.