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Contact:
Claudia Monlouis
Monday, July 2, 2007 – Saint Lucia recently capitalized on an
international opportunity which was aimed at giving countries of the
Commonwealth a comprehensive hearing at the 8th Commonwealth Heads of Government
Meeting and partners' Forum, on issues of gender.
Saint Lucia's representative was the Honourable Tessa Mangal in her former
capacity as Mnister in the Ministry of Social Transformation, Youth, Sports and
Gender Relations.
Ms. Mangal says the issues were not confined to the 11th to 14th June meeting in
Uganda but is relevant to the implementation process of the Commonwealth Plan of
Action (POA) for Gender Equality 2005 to 2015.
“This meeting was really a means of bringing together Women's Affairs ministers
as well as heads of national machineries within the countries of the
Commonwealth in order for us to be able to discuss issues of gender equality and
the attainment of gender equality in an effort to promote peace, democracy and
development within the Commonwealth.”
Minister Mangal said she made a submission on the Political Participation of
Women with other dignitaries, dealt with several other important factors
including maternal health, conflict and HIV and AIDS.
“The discussions centred mainly around the whole issue of gender responsive
budgeting, the need to ensure that there were methods and various criteria used
in order to determine whether or how effective our budgets were in meeting our
needs. The needs of women and the whole gender issue, also looking at aid, how
much of an impact aid was having on women and children.”
The meeting was coordinated by the Commonwealth Secretariat under the theme:
"Financing Gender Equality for Development and Democracy".
An official communique emanating from that meeting will be presented to the
Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting slated for November, 23rd to 25th,
2007in Kampala, Republic of Uganda.
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