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63rd Commonwealth Parliamentary Conference1-8 November 2017, Dhaka, Bangladesh

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05 November 2017ISSUE 04

63rd COMMONWEALTH PARLIAMENTARY CONFERENCE (CPC)DHAKA, BANGLADESH1-8 NOVEMBER 2017

PROGRAMME: DAY 6

Official OpeningToday

DAY 6: MONDAY, 6 November

Workshops, Meeting and Parallel Session0800 – 1045 CWP Business Meeting and Session including the Session on the role of male Parliamentarians in championing gender equality Venue: Carnival, Ground Floor, BICC

1045 – 1100 Morning Tea/Co�ee, Venue: Inside the meeting rooms

1100 – 1330 Workshop A: Democracy Must Deliver: Role of Parliament in Addressing the Challenges (Host Branch Topic) Venue: Room Carnival, BICC

Workshop B: The role of Parliamentarians in building stronger ties within the Commonwealth: including new trade issues, visa issues, travel restrictions, non-tari� restrictions, etc. Venue: Windy Town, BICC

Workshop C: The Climate Change Debate: A challenge for the Commonwealth? Venue: Media Bazar, BICC

Youth Roundtable, Venue: Room Green View 1

Workshop D: Sustainable Development Goals (SDG’s): How can CPA Members work with their own governments in ensuring that the SDG goals have a proper gender lens to ensure success in the areas of alleviating poverty and women’s empowerment? (Gender-related topic), Venue: Executive Lounge, BICC

Meeting of Society of Clerks-at-the-Table, Venue: Room Harmony, BICC

1330 – 1430 BUFFET LUNCH, Venue: Celebrity Hall, BICC

1430 – 1700 Workshop E: Critical Mass: Small jurisdictions and big problems – Logistics and infrastructure challenges (Small Branches Topic) Venue: Room Carnival, BICC

Workshop F: CPA Benchmarks for Democratic Legislatures: Progress in the past 10 years Venue: Windy Town, BICC

Workshop G: Giving voice to the youth: Mechanisms for ensuring e�ective participation of youth in the governance process Venue: Media Bazar, BICC

Workshop H: What factors fuel the rise of di�erent kinds of nationalism? Venue: Executive Lounge, BICC

Meeting of Society of Clerks-at-the-Table Venue: Breakout Rooms: Legendary, Elegant & Eternity, BICC

1530 – 1545 Afternoon Tea/Co�ee, Venue: Foyer in front of Hall of Fame, BICC

1800 – 1900 CPA Lecture, Venue: Hall of Fame, BICC

Dinner at respective hotels

Continuing to Enhance the High Standards ofPerformance of ParliamentariansContinuing to Enhance the High Standards ofPerformance of Parliamentarians

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A Brief Talk with Hon. Dr Dato’ Noraini Ahmad, MPCWP ChairpersonHon. Dr Dato’ Noraini Ahmad, MP is the current Chairperson of the Commonwealth Women Parliamentarians (CWP), Member of the Federal Parliament of Malaysia and Chair of the Malaysia External Trade Development Corporation (MATRADE). She was elected for a three-year term at the CWP Business Meeting at the �fth triennial conference of the Commonwealth Women Parliamentarians in 2016. In this interview Dr Noraini Ahmad, MP talks about the aims and visions of this year’s CPC and how CPC can help increase women’s participation in parliaments and legislatures.

he 63rd Commonwealth Parliamentary Conference (CPC), being held from 1st November to 8th November 2017, aims to tackle climate change,

corruption, women representation, the voice of the youth and many other prevalent topics across the globe. The conference will contain a total of 8 workshop conferences and 4 plenary sessions, all of which will address alarming issues which are prominent in the Commonwealth nations. Among the notable inclusions of this year’s CPC are the Small Branches, the Commonwealth Women Parliamentarians (CWP) and a youth roundtable. The o�cial opening of the 63rd CPC will be held today, at the Parliament of Bangladesh, from 10 am to 12:30 am. Beginning at the 2nd day of the 63rd CPC and ending on the 3rd day, the Small Branches Conference saw a plethora of international delegates representing their respective jurisdictions. The representatives of the Small Branches, from more than 40 di�erent nations, brought forward their common issues of climate change and the natural disasters that they face frequently.The CWP Steering Committee had their meeting on the 2nd day as well, and it discussed the

representation of women in politics and parliamentary positions. Currently, out of the 180 branches in the CPA, there are no women representatives in 12 branches. This is a matter the CWP is attempting to change by promoting equal representation of both men and women in the parliament, as well as encourage gender equality among the nations. The youth roundtable will be held tomorrow at Bangabandhu International Conference Center (BICC). This roundtable is a �rst-time inclusion that aims to bring out issues faced by the younger generation and provide a platform for the leaders of tomorrow to take a stand. Also tomorrow, the workshop conferences revolving around the theme of “Continuing to enhance the high standards of performance of Parliamentarians” will take place. These workshop conferences will include topics such as �nancial crisis, resource challenges, anti-corruption measures, lack of resources in the Small Branches, better enforcement of law and public trust, and the overall role of Parliaments in both addressing and tackling these international problems.

Welcome to Bangladesh! Please share your experience of visiting our country for the 63rd CPC.

The experience is very interesting this time. Being the Chairperson of the Commonwealth Women Parliamentarians (CWP), I am vising a country where the speaker is a woman. I am eagerly looking forward to the opening ceremony today. Another thing that I would like to mention is, I really envy your hospitality. I am grateful for the warmth and friendliness I am having here.

You are the Chairperson of the Commonwealth Women Parliamentarians. Could you please brie�y tell us about CWP and how CWP is working to increase participation of women in legislation?

CWP largely focuses on establishing gender equality. CWP was formally established in 2004 as a part of the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association Constitution. But before that, since 1989, we are talking about establishing gender equality in the Commonwealth countries. At the beginning of 2017, we prepared the CWP Strategic Plan, where we proposed to have at least 30% of women’s participation in legislative, parliamentary and decision-making processes. In addition to this, we also proposed to have a research strand which will be comprised of all the data gathered from di�erent women from di�erent regions. From this data, we got authentic information about di�erent regions’ levels of women’s participation in governance and parliamentary works.

Do you plan to involve former female Members of Parliament in any group who already left but are full of practical experience?

Yes, we do. We want to form the CWP Alumni Committee where we will have all the previous female Members of Parliament to help us with support and practical knowledge. This will also support the present and future leaders of Parliament to execute their works properly. Along with this we also have the thematic areas where we talk about crucial issues like violence against women. We make sure that the plans that we present in the Parliament are doable, achievable and easier to follow.

Do you have aims to incorporate women in the education sector through CWP?

Yes, we do. It is listed in the thematic. We believe that in order to educate the public, we need to start young. That’s why we have a programme from the CPA called the “CPA Roadshows” where the whole CPA team, led by our Secretary-General, goes to di�erent places to educate the young. Each parliament has their own respective programs to uphold female education. In Malaysia, we also arrange “CPA Roadshows” in order to promote education and communication in young children. We always encourage parliamentarians to talk about education and we believe that education is very important for girls.

Official Opening of the 63rd CPCto be held today

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63rd CPC Photo Gallery 63rd CPC Photo Gallery

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63rd COMMONWEALTH PARLIAMENTARY CONFERENCE Know BangladeshKnow Bangladesh

evelopment and education have always been complementary to each other in the process of

attaining global objectives. In the national budget for FY2016-17 in Bangladesh, the education sector has been granted with the highest budget of USD 6.7 billion. The net rate of primary school enrollment reached to 97.3 percent in 2014. The drop-out rate has reduced to 20.9 percent. The National Education Policy has been formulated after consulting with a number of education experts and thinkers of our country. This policy facilitates education which helps in building a poverty-free, secular, progressive and democratic society in the long term. It aims to turn children into educated, productive and skilled workforce, as well as instilling in them national cultures, traditions and ethical values.

Under the guidance of the current establishment, Bangladesh has made signi�cant progress in achieving the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) 2: Achieving universal primary education. These schools have been provided with all the necessary resources, i.e. infrastructure, human resources and technical assistance. In order to run these educational institutions more e�ectively, training and educating teachers have been made mandatory. There has been adoption of projects to build schools in the areas which did not have schools previously. In addition to this, 10 schools have been built with hostel facilities in remote mountainous areas to ensure education for the indigenous people. Distribution of free textbooks and incentives for the teachers have also facilitated the overall development process. For the last seven years, our

government has been distributing new textbooks to class 1-9 students at the very beginning of the year. This is being done with a view to create equal opportunity of education for all and to prevent the number of dropouts. In the beginning of the 2014 academic year, more than 23.3 million primary school goers received 115.9 million textbooks. Strategies have been adopted and denounced in terms of making the books more attractive in content, size and color. Soon after 2009, the current government brought 1624 private schools under the provisions of “Monthly Payment Order (MPO)”. This has resulted in �nancial security for many faculty and sta� members of these private institutions which in turn bene�ted a large number of students. Not only this, in order to make “Digital Bangladesh”, internet facilities have been introduced in �eld-level o�ces related to primary education including 55 Primary Training Institutes (PTI) having a computer lab. Laptop, multimedia, internet modem and sound systems have been supplied to 5 thousand and 430 primary schools. National Curriculum and Textbooks Board (NCTB)’s website has also been made more active. All primary and secondary textbooks can be downloaded in their e-book formats from this platform. To have a more improved education system, educational lessons on English, Mathematics and Science from the best performing public schools are being broadcast on the national television channel Bangladesh Television (BTV). Currently, the frequency of the broadcast is three mornings a week for one hour.Even though Bangladesh is a small country, substantial and e�ective measures are being taken to make it enriched and self-su�cient. Gradually, we are being able to achieve sustainable progress confronting national and international challenges through education and empowerment. We hope to spread these facilities in every corner of this country. After all, education is the backbone of a nation, and proper education should be established all over a country to ensure success among the people in all varieties of professions and �elds. The steady growth of education is surely making Bangladesh a prosperous country on the rise.

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A Chat with Hon. Alexandra Mendès, MPMember of Parliament from CanadaHon. Alexandra Mendès is a Member of Parliament for Brossard—Saint-Lambert in Québec, Canada. She had served the House of Commons prior to this, and is an advocate of diversity, multilateralism and peace. As a member of the CPA Executive Committee, she discusses the bene�ts of the CPC, as well as how the committee is looking to improve and modernize the annual conferences.

Ma’am, the badge that you are wearing is quite interest-ing. Would you please tell us something about it?

I’m glad you asked! So, I am originally from Portugal, and I came to Canada when I was 15 years old. When I was �rst elected in 2008, a couple of my friends who were in Portugal at that time found this in a jewelry shop and got it for me. This is essentially Portuguese Filigree, but it also represents the Maple Leaf, which is the Canadian symbol in our �ag. It became the marriage of my two countries, Portugal and Canada. I always wear it now, and I am never without it.

Do you have any particular hopes for this iteration of the CPC?

What we have been trying to do, at least since I’ve become a member of the CPA Executive Committee, is to ensure that we are an organization that properly re�ects the aspirations of its members in the 21st century. We are trying to modern-ize a lot of the way we do things, and I hope that this conference will be a con�rmation of the process that we started last year in London.

You mentioned about modernizing the parliaments through the CPA. How exactly do you plan to do that?

Well, we are looking at many aspects that include looking at all sorts of models of governance. We are trying to look at all our information technology aspects as well, because we are frankly very lacking in that and it is not a very user-friendly kind of system at the moment and we de�nitely need an upgrade there. We are examining a lot of things and will recommend changes to the Secretary-General once we are done evaluating.

Would you say it is more di�cult for a woman to become a politician?

I would say that there are challenges. It depends on which society and country you are from as well. We have obviously made a lot of progress during the last few decades, but a few obstacles still remain. For example, women are still more vulnerable to attacks on social media. Sometimes, women are called names that they would not otherwise have been called, had they been men. However, I have never personally been targeted to such attacks, but many of my colleagues have.

Do you have any message for the participants of the CPC this year?

I think that we should put our faith in multilateralism. Organizations like the Commonwealth are a wonderful opportunity to try to make multilateral organizations work. We cannot always be looking at wars to solve issues, we need to �nd more humane ways to solve our di�erences. We just have to open a vein to see that all our blood is red.

Photographs collected from Celebrating Life

Equity through Education