Training program for meaningful participation of political party’s women representatives of Mahalaxmi Municipality in the upcoming local election

CWAD conducted a one-day “training program for meaningful participation in the upcoming local election with the women representatives” in Mahalaxmi Municipality on the 11th of Falgun 2078 (23rd of February 2022). A total of 31 political party women representatives participated in the training program. Deputy Mayor of Mahalaxmi Municipality Nirmala Thapa also actively participated and encouraged the participants to be interactive and learn about their rights which will support their political participation later in the local level election. 

In the first half of the session, CWAD’s Advisor Prof. Dr Shashi Adhikary presented about following topics (1) the constitutional provision on women’s rights (2) the state structure of Nepal as per the prevalent constitution (3) the reality of women’s representation in the state infrastructure with statistical evidence and necessary data (4) bringing women’s participation and dialogue in the core decision making/mainstream positions for their meaningful participation (5) the concept of advocacy and how to exercise it for political party women representatives, etc. 

Throughout the session, attendees discussed numerous difficulties they had met during their political experiences such as women being perceived as inept and incapable of holding top-level posts such as Mayor and being continuously discouraged from running for such positions. For fear of being replaced, some men feel intimidated and uneasy in their positions. Dr Adhikary also encouraged the attendees to nominate women’s representatives from political parties regardless of their political affiliation to ensure that their local representatives are competitive and motivated women leaders. Some participants also showed interest in running for the highest-ranking posts, such as Mayor and Deputy Mayor.

In the second half of the session, Dr Anita Shrestha presented about leadership, negotiation and presentation skills. Dr Shrestha conducted a leadership game session for the conceptual clarity of the participants on the leadership qualities of a woman through group sessions. Post-interactive activities, Dr Shrestha asked the participants to brainstorm about the lesson learned from the games and group sessions. The participants replied that they learned about various leadership qualities such as (1) Patience (2) Clarity (3) Confidence (4) Diligence (5) Problem-Solving (6) thoughtfulness (7) Proactive decision making. Dr Shrestha also encouraged them to brainstorm about their leadership vision. 

Deputy Mayor of Mahalaxmi Municipality Nirmala Thapa expressed her appreciation towards CWAD for a fantastic program that will be very useful for the political party’s women representatives in the upcoming and future elections for the meaningful participation of women in politics.