BY JUNELYN KELLY
A greater diversity of voices is needed in Solomons politics, British High Commissioner HE Paul Turner has said.
Mr Turner uttered this in his keynote at an event organised by the Westminster Foundation for Democracy (WFD).
The WFD workshop debated the barriers to women participating in politics in Solomons.
Minister for Gender & Youth, Kathy Nori and Leader of the Opposition, Matthew Wale joined Turner on a high-level panel to discuss the financial and cultural barriers to women’s participation in politics.
Also on the panel were Chief Election Officer, Jasper Highwood and Dr Alice Pollard who gave a very personal account of her struggles standing as an electoral candidate and the disappointments that followed in losing elections.
Turner said that across the world, diverse voices strengthened democracies and in the case of Solomons this meant a far greater number of women needed to be elected in national and provincial assemblies.
He said that since independence in 1978, only eight women in total had ever been elected to the national parliament in Solomons, one of the lowest anywhere in the world.
Turner highlighted recent research by WFD which showed how financial constraints limit women candidates.
Campaigning required significant resources and women were less likely to have access to personal income, land and financial assets.
He said more targeted financial support needed to be provided to women candidates and called for greater transparency of campaign financing and more equitable allocation of resources to level the playing field.
Minister Nori outlined the challenges she had experienced in securing a Parliamentary seat.
She said that women needed to overcome local expectation that they should be family based and focused on being the providers rather than the leaders of their communities.
This shift in mindset had to happen across the Solomons for women to have a chance of reaching their political aspirations but many were put off by the struggle.
Opposition Leader Wale underlined the importance of woman using their local Kastom and cultural networks to garner support and build up local recognition.
He accepted this was more difficult for women and urged potential women candidates to join political parties so they could draw on the experience and resources that parties can offer.
He said the problem with parties having reserved quotas for women candidates is that many women did not want to join political parties and opted instead to be independent candidates.
The panel agreed that a greater number of women in national and provincial assemblies would mean greater focus on important sectors such as health, education as well as community stability.
Turner underlined his personal experience from working in Northern Ireland and the Balkans in the 1990s and 2000s.
He said it had been locally organised women’s groups that had been instrumental in reaching out across divided communities in Sarajevo and Belfast, organising political groupings to work for long term peace.