By Awa Touray
The West Africa Network for Peace Building (WANEP), organized a two day training session for women in Leadership on the 29th May at Metzy Hotel.
The participants include members of political parties, National Assembly Members and civil society organisations. The Network comprises of over twenty civil society organizations.
The women from different organisations will be trained on increasing women’s participation in decision making processes and as agents of the community on conflict prevention.
Fatou Kinteh, the Minister of Women’s Affairs said when women are given positions, they are committed and dedicated and will always want to achieve result. She advised women participants to put aside their political differences during elections.
Minister Kinteh said it is time women are empowered to contest elections; that the training session will create awareness among participants and the important role they can play. She said the training will further build women’s capacities to a higher level.
Salama Njie, National Coordinator of WANEP, said the world needs great leaders in every sector. “The world is in desperate need of great leaders, whether in business or politics,’’ she said; that with all desperation, many leadership opportunities are withheld from half the nation’s work force.
She said women are severely underrepresented in all spheres of decision making. Njie said since women generate most of the country’s wealth, it makes sense to empower them with additional skills so that the impact of their efforts will be more effective and targeted for the country’s needs. She urged the women to effectively perform in their deliberations during the training.
Kunle Adenyi, the Country Representative of UNFPA, encouraged the women to take the training seriously in order to benefit from it. On behalf of UNFPA, he assured them of their continued collaboration and said women must support each other irrespective of their political differences. He encouraged women to set up a women’s group inter-party committee. “Politics is about interest,” he emphasised.
