Movement Provides Legislative Lobbying, Building Skills

Fiji Women's Rights Movement

PR04/2012

Thursday March 22, 2012

Movement Provides Legislative Lobbying, Building Skills In Governance And Leadership Training

Twenty participants today completed a three-day Legislative Lobbying, Building Skills in Governance and Leadership Training in Suva, with the Fiji Women’s Rights Movement.

Hailing from the Central/Eastern Division, the participants are a mixture of civil society and civil service representatives, as well as community leaders.

“After holding one of the trainings in the Northern Division in November last year, FWRM has conducted this much needed second training,” said Executive Director Virisila Buadromo.

“The training shares elements from our Legislative Lobbying Toolkit, which is a publication we co-produced with the Secretariat of the Pacific Community/Pacific Regional Rights Resource Team in 2010,” she said.

The training shares ‘tools’ which would assist both civil society as well as government partners on how legislature reform takes place and how to play a role in it.

Some of the tools that participants will take away from this training include: problem analysis; research/data analysis; working on campaign plans & identifying strategies to address issues; the importance of coalition building and devising communications strategies.

Present at the workshop are participants from the Catholic Women’s League, Drodrolagi Movement, Fiji Police, Fiji Women’s Crisis Centre, Pacific Islands AIDS Foundation, Rainbow Women’s Network, Reproductive and Family Health Association of Fiji, Rotuman Women’s Association Suva, Sanatan Dharm Pratinidhi Sabha Fiji - Nari Sabha, Soqosoqo Vakamarama and their Cakudrove division.

For Rainbow Women’s Network’s Administration Coordinator, Lorraine Foster, this training will enable her to start advocating for a change in laws for the better protection of marginalised women.

“As a member of the LGBTQI community, I believe that this training will provide our Association with the necessary information on how to start campaigning. I know it will take time for reforms to take place but we need to start acting now,” she said.

Creating awareness in the rural communities on the country’s laws is something that Malakai Raceva deals with every day. As the Manager of Community Policing - Northern Division, Mr Raceva always deals with questions relating to human rights, children’s rights in particular.

“This training has helped me understand how to identify problems and how to come up with solutions and this is something that will definitely help me in my work,” he said.

Similar sentiments were shared by the President of the Soqosoqo Vakamarama Cakaudrove, Siliva Leweniqila.

“This is my first workshop with a women’s NGO. The skills that I learnt here, I will take back to the women in the communities who need assistance,” she said.

A third training is being planned for participants in the Western Division with the date to be confirmed soon.

In partnership with the Secretariat of the Pacific Community/Pacific Regional Rights Resource Team, FWRM has also undertaken similar trainings in Kiribati, Solomon Islands and Tonga.

ENDS.

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