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Women compose half
of the citizens in the Asian countries. Opportunities for women to be
represented in the political bodies and to influence political matters
are an important parameter of democracy and thus as integral aspect of
political development and democratization process in Asia. Increasing
the active participation of women in politics and the representation
of women in positions of power remains a crucial step towards
obtaining a gender balance in politics.
Women and Politics
in Asia Forum (WPAF) is an outcome of the two previous conferences
held so far on this topic in 2003 at Halmstad, Sweden and in 2004 at
Colombo, Sri Lanka. Significant outcomes of both conferences have been
an email network/database of international scholars, academics and
practitioners and two upcoming book publications based on the papers
presented in 2003 and 2004. While the 2005 Women & Politics in Asia
Conference is multi and cross-disciplinary in approach and invites
contributors from social sciences and humanities from all parts of the
world by providing a one window knowledge exchange and documentation
platform focusing on the Asian region.
WPAF will be formally launched in 2005 Conference at Islamabad with
its website having an initial database of almost 100 academics and
practitioners working on the topics of the Forum along with the papers
presented in the last two conferences.
The aim of the
WPAF is to observe, research, document and disseminate dimensions of
Asian Women in Politics. It will examine the gender face of politics
and implication of representative presence of females in the political
scenario in Asian countries. The specific objectives of the WPAF are:
- Provide a
platform dialogue and exchange of best practices and lessons learnt
of the region on the subject with multi-stakeholders i.e. academics,
practitioners, politicians, CSOs, community, governments and donors.
- Research,
document, archive and disseminate the available knowledge.
- Initiate and
collaborate on and with researchers / practitioners and
institutional databases of the region and international on the
subject;
The WPAF
secretariat will be housed in Pakistan with The Researchers – a
research based NGO focusing on Governance, Gender and Human Rights.
Through its planned future institutionalized mechanisms, it is
intended to substantially contribute to the mainstreaming of women
politicians in their respective countries, in particular through:
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Identification of problems and challenges as well as recommendations
for resolution
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Establishment of a forum allowing women politicians from different
countries to learn from each others experiences thus facilitating a
much needed regional women’s politicians platform / caucus
strengthening their public voice creating synergetic effects.
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