UNDP Resident Representative Azusa Kubota's Statement at the Openining of the Bhutan Women Parliamentary Caucus (BWPC) Orientation Workshop on 5 November 2019.

Honorable Lyonpo Dechen Wangmo,

Honorable Chair of National Council,

Esteemed Members of Parliament and distinguished participants

I am very honored and privileged  for the opportunity to be with you this morning at the outset of a very significant milestone for the Bhutan Women Parliamentary Caucus. I would like to extend my heartiest congratulations to BNEW and NCWC for forging this significant partnership and venture in establishing the first ever women’s caucus, an achievement for the two organizations worth commending and allowing UNDP to make humble contributions for the orientation workshop today. Also my appreciation to the two resource persons, Mr. Charles Chauvel, Global lead, Inclusive Institutions and Processes,  UNDP Bangkok Regional Hub and Ms. Jyotsna Roy, Gender trainer and social scientist from India for taking time off from your busy schedule to provide your support to this important initiative.

From local to the global level women’s leadership and political participation has come a long way. Although significant progresses have been made, challenges still remain both here in Bhutan and elsewhere in the world to encourage women’s participation as well as representation in politics. Women face several structural and social barriers that limits women’s abilities to join politics. One of them being capacity gaps such as education, contacts and resources needed to become effective leaders especially in the political domain. During the 2011 UN general assembly, resolution on women’s political participation noted “Women in every part of the world continue to be largely marginalized from the political sphere, often as a result of discriminatory laws, practices, attitudes and gender stereotypes, low levels of education, access to health care and the disproportionate effects of poverty on women” .

However individual women, like many of you in the room today have overcome obstacles to reach this level of leadership to serve and benefit society at large. The BWPC will no doubt uphold its objectives of enhancing the voice and visibility of its members to encourage other women aspirants but more importantly we are hopeful it will become key agents for transformational economic, environment and social change.

Within the next few days, its encouraging to know that the orientation workshop will touch upon very important topics on gender concepts, feminism, role of parliamentarians in advancing gender equality and empowerment, to name a few, which are pertinent for the caucus to build its capacity and progress as an effective caucus. Practices and lessons learnt from other countries show that a more-gender balanced parliament delivers better on gender equality and is an effective institution.

The International Parliamentary Union, a leader in global research on women in parliament, shares that women parliaments have traditionally been the main drivers of legislative and policy change on gender equality. Its often women in parliament who have fought for prioritization of laws that protect against discrimination in all spheres of life and that empower women.

While women are by far the strongest advocates for gender equality, all members both women and men alike and parliaments as institution have a role to play. And its very heartening to see that there are men members here today who will be an equal partner as champions and agents of agent to promote the gender agenda forward. Your combined leadership, working culture, environment, infrastructure and specific mechanism dedicated to gender equality will facilitate the work of both men and women in parliament and its ability to deliver gender equality.

Further if Bhutan is to achieve the SDGs 5 (Gender Equality) and 12FYP NKRA 10 (Gender Equality Promoted and Women and Girls Empowered), the roles of the parliamentarians, especially the Bhutan Women Parliamentary Caucus will be pivotal and paramount.

Lastly, I would like to wish the BNEW, NCWC and all the participants gathered here today for a successful and fruitful orientation workshop. We in UNDP look forward to hearing your experience and the future workplan of the Caucus so that we can explore priority areas for assistance based on UNDP’s comparative advantage.

Kadrinche and Tashi Delek!