Mr. Charles Cutshall, of United States Agency for International Development (USAID), said the five very important ones include to evolve strategies for increasing women’s participation in the next local government elections here, which, USAID hopes will take place in the near future.

Others are:
· to increase opportunity for project debate on issues that affect women;

· to increase the capacity to advocate for improvement in the status of women;

· to evolve strategies for increasing women’s political participation in general and

· to develop a network of women politicians in Guyana and around the
Region.

Cutshall was among the main speakers at the Tuesday opening of a three-day international women’s conference that gathered together 130 delegates from regional organisations, under the theme ‘50/50 Increasing Women’s Political Participation in the Caribbean’.

Participants include Ministers of Government from St Kitts/Nevis, St Vincent and the Grenadines, Senators from Barbados, Antigua, St Lucia and Dominica and representatives of non-governmental organisations (NGOs).

Organisers said the aim of the meeting, that opened at Le Meridien Pegasus Hotel in Georgetown, is to promote greater participation by women in the political process.

During their deliberations, the women will examine global, national and domestic perspectives on heightening their political socialisation, models of political involvement across the Region, collaboration, networking and caucusing, as well as barriers to their involvement in politics.

Workshop training sessions were scheduled on voter identification and outreach, advocacy, controlling image, media relations and public speaking.

The final day, today is dedicated to ‘Methods ad Solutions: Developing an Agenda for the 21st Century’.

Other speakers on the first day were Guyana’s Minister of Culture, Youth and Sport, Ms Gail Teixeira, Ms Annie Campbell, Political Activist and Founder Member of Northern Ireland’s Women’s Coalition and Mr. Michael Murphy, Director of National Democratic Institute (NDI) Office in this country.

Chairing the session was Ms Julie Lewis.

The forum is sponsored by National Democratic Institute for International Affairs (Guyana Office), in association with United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM) and Guyana Association of Women Lawyers (GAWL), with USAID funding.

Prime Minister Sam Hinds was among the special invitees as Cutshall remarked that the theme for the occasion echoes many of the sentiments expressed in Mexico City in 1975 and the resolutions adopted at the 1995 Women’s Millenium Caucus in Beijing, China.

Some of the delegates and invitees at the forum.
Cutshall said this forum is building upon much of the work in which many of the participants would have been involved for a long time and it is an opportunity to bring together experience and enthusiasm, thereby capitalising on the essential purpose that has motivated women for decades.

He said USAID shares the interests and concerns of the assembly and he reported that its ‘Democracy and Governance’ programmes worldwide have been working to increase the numbers of women in elected office and in the broader sense of democratic reform.

“Building democracy is not an easy task and, in Guyana, it is certainly not for the faint-hearted,” Cutshall observed.

He said:“USAID views women as the principal motivating force in all spheres of Guyanese social, economic and political development.”

Cutshall recalled that, from its inception in 2001, the USAID democracy programme began with the training, by its Guyana partner NDI, of women in a number of areas such as leadership skills, effective use of the media, understanding local government and campaign management.

He watched as the number of participants in those courses grew, from very small groups to a countrywide exercise and now this important international conference.

Cutshall said many of the persons in attendance have been active throughout and he commended them for participating in the USAID thrust.

He said, among other USAID sponsored projects with broader interests, is its HIV/AIDS drive, which could not happen were it not for the active participation of women.

Cutshall mentioned, too, Guyana Economic Opportunity Project, which is supportive of micro-economic enterprises, many of which are owned and operated by women.

He said the conference concluding today will achieve its aims through panel discussions, strategy sessions, clinics and plenaries and his agency is encouraged by the enthusiasm and commitment of women in the political parties represented in the National Assembly.

“The goals that are espoused by these women are not our goals, but, rather, are their own goals and they are merely attempting to build on the work which has already gone before us,” Cutshall asserted.

Minister Teixeira said Guyana is wholeheartedly behind the global initiative of increasing women’s participation in politics and has urged that Caribbean women set their own agenda and work to make their societies better.

She agreed, however, that the kind of political participation being sought after is not for the faint-hearted.

Teixeira commended those who organised the assemblage for their achievements thus far and demonstrated commitment and resilience towards achieving women’s rights and development at varying levels.

“I want to see more women participating in politics,” she admitted, expressing optimism that they can succeed in the quest, given the inherent strengths they possess.

Citing several areas of political endeavour involving Guyanese women, through the years, she said they excelled and recorded firsts in:

· the nomination of female Touchaos (Amerindian Village Captains);

· Mrs. Janet Jagan becoming the first Deputy Speaker of the Legislative Assembly in 1953 and the first female Head of State in Guyana in 1998;

· Ms Desiree Bernard being named the first woman Chief Justice and Chancellor and

· advocating legislation which makes it compulsory for one-third of the nominees on the National Candidates List for general elections to be female.

“We have to blow the trumpet of our women in our midst and not in the petty ways our men have taught us,”Teixeira declared.

She said women’s participation in politics should not be seen only in the traditional partisan way.

According to Teixeira, women must broaden their scope of political activities to include the reduction of domestic violence, HIV/AIDS and drug use in the Region.

She said women must constantly strive to keep windows of opportunity open in dealing with, among others, issues of divorce, sex crimes, poverty and out of wedlock children.

Teixeira noted, with pride, the high quality of female politicians operating, even at the community level, locally.