Workshops Series to train women to run to political office Organized by International Republican Institute and The Association of War affected Women

 

As it is becoming increasingly evident, the ethnic conflict in Sri Lanka has resulted in gross violations of human rights, decline in the democratic practices and enormous loss of human lives.  It is also destroying the society, economic growth, and human development.  As a direct impact thousands of women and children as well men have been affected.  In a situation where both parties have not withdrawn from the ceasefire but are engaging in open warfare, returning to the negotiating table in the near future has become a distant dream. In a rapidly growing hostile and uncertain political climate, norms of good governance and best practices are even more remote.

 

Even when the parties return to the table and a final solution is found the deterioration of the society in all aspects will pose a very big challenge in implementing the agreement. Taking this ground reality into consideration and the necessity of women in decision making levels if we are to envisage a country where the democratic practices are upheld and good governance is in place, AWAW together with IRI are currently conducting a series of workshops to train women to run to political office, specifically in the central province of Sri Lanka. Through this project we hope to train 90 women leaders from Central province to run to political office

 

The first three workshops in this series was successfully conducted in the districts of Kandy, Nuwara Eliya and Matale, first being on Advocacy and lobbying and the 2nd on Project proposal writing and budget preparation and the 3rd on Knowing your political and Administrative offices. International and Local experts were brought in as resource personnel and all the workshops were conducted very successfully.