MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Falklands will host a Commonwealth Women Parliamentarians Conference next month

The Conference will include workshops, a day at Fitzroy Farm and evening functions. The theme is ‘Combating Stereotypes in Small Communities’.

The Falkland Islands Branch of the CPA British Islands and Mediterranean Region will be hosting the Regional Commonwealth Women Parliamentarians (CWP) Conference February 17-21 2020. The announcement was done by Gilbert House, Office of the elected Legislative Assembly.

The CWP, as an integral part of the CPA (Commonwealth Parliamentary Association), is to work for the better representation of women in legislatures and to improve gender equality across the Commonwealth. The key priorities of the CWP are:

• To increase the number of women in parliament and to support women parliamentarians to be effective and ambitious.

• To achieve a sustainable and inclusive network, working with all parliamentarians in the region.

• To educate and inform our members and increase our influence.

The Falkland Islands Conference will include workshops, a day at Fitzroy Farm and evening functions. The theme of the conference is ‘Combating Stereotypes in Small Communities’.

Workshops will be held on Tuesday 18th and Thursday 20th February, these will include both local and invited speakers. We wish to open the event up to women in the community to attend to listen and perhaps contribute.

The venue will be the Malvina House Hotel cinema. Due to the size of the venue if you should wish to attend please contact the Clerk of the Assembly at Gilbert House on 27451 or email@ assembly@sec.gov.fk by 31 January 2020 to reserve a seat.

The workshops are as follows:

Tuesday 18 February 10.30 Combating Stereotypes in Small Communities

11.30 Building Roles in Small communities

13.45 Creating opportunities for women in the future in small communities, encouraging women to stand for public office

Thursday 20 February

09.30 Mentoring of Women in Parliament

Wednesday 19 February The day at Fitzroy Farm, we would like to invite women from around the farming community, East, West and Islands to come along and meet our delegations.

The theme for this day will be ‘Camp Life: Farming and Diversification, our life, our culture, our history’. There will be a tour of the farm and opportunities for visitors to experience aspects of daily life in Camp.

We would also like to put on a display of stories and photos of life in Camp and would ask if ideas and contributions towards this could be sent to Gilbert House.

These could be used in the future by the Rural Business Association or farms at any future events. To include some additional diversification we would like to include a craft market so that the delegation will be able to purchase local crafts.

If you would be interested in putting a table in the market please contact us. The market will be held under a Marquee.

For catering purposes if you would like to be involved please let us know. We would also welcome some local “smoko” contributions for all to sample.

This will be the first Women' Conference hosted by the Falkland Islands and is an ideal opportunity to showcase the vital role that our strong, wonderful women have played in the growth, character and culture of our Islands throughout our history, as well as encouraging and supporting our girls and women into the future.