Sri Lanka was recently selected to hold the South Asia Regional meeting of Commonwealth Women in Local Government Network (ComWLG). They partnered with the Federation of Sri Lankan Local Government Authorities (FSLGA) for the meeting themed “Reinforcing Social Resilience Through Women’s Political Representation” from June 25-27 at the Centre of Excellence for Water and Sanitation (CEWAS) at Katubedda.
This event brought together women leaders, diplomats and delegates from India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, the Maldives, Bahamas, Saint Lucia and other Caribbean nations, Rwanda and many other African nations and Europe to Sri Lanka. The meeting also paved the way for the expansion of tourism, improvement of education, women entrepreneurships and many other opportunities.
An ardent supporter of women’s rights, Prime Minister Dinesh Gunawardena was the Chief Guest and the keynote speaker. He said that Sri Lanka has been a positive contributor in achieving Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in relation to gender and other related areas.
“Although we had to face an unexpected economic crisis two years ago, Sri Lanka has successfully and within a mere 20 months has risen from the dust, thanks to the hard work of our farmers which led to a balanced rural economy where we saw a surplus of food production soon afterwards.”
“The UN declared that food, clothing and shelter are essential rights of every human being. All over the world, many societies still struggle to reach this, but our country is in a good place and trying further to move upwards. Sri Lanka can take pride in its history of gender equality. Our women were granted the right to vote at the same time as men when universal adult franchise was introduced in 1931. Sri Lanka was the first nation to produce a female Prime Minister (Sirimavo Bandaranaike in 1960) and has long been a pioneer in offering women voting rights, leadership opportunities, and equal pay,” he said.
Four priority areas of ComWLG work is, working with elected women, working with political parties and Local Government (LG) bodies, working with perspective elected women and working at the Commonwealth and international level. The ComWLG was established in 2017 to promote women’s political inclusion, to support more women to get involved in Local Government as politicians and practitioners, and in partnership with Canada, it is co-funded by the European Union (EU).
The Prime Minister told the gathering how women in Sri Lanka faced significant challenges during the recent pandemic and subsequent economic downturns and that women bore the dual burdens of managing their careers and household responsibilities while contributing to local economies, and admired their strength and efforts.
“It is a matter of continuous agitation, continuous influence and continuous change, that all of us, especially, these organisations could deliver through all Governments across the world, the women to demand the right to share the responsibilities of political representation. Recognising the need to further increase women’s representation, the Parliamentary Special Committee on Electoral Reform which I chaired a few years ago, brought about the 25 percent reservation for women and also for youth in elected bodies. In 2018, we introduced this quota system which we believe needs further expansion.”
While enjoying their short stay in Sri Lanka, these Commonwealth and other delegates, who represented over 100 nations across the world, must have noticed that Sri Lanka offers absolute freedom for all women, including their own religious belief systems, free education till adulthood, free healthcare and also a nation that has almost 50 percent representation in the Government workforce, and more than 50 percent representation in health care, professions and also in the Judiciary where we now see a large number of women lawyers and judges. Premier Gunawardena said that Sri Lanka has made great strides in terms of women’s empowerment.
