Valerie Woods Appointed New Regional Chairperson for Commonwealth Women Parliamentarians

Speaker of the House, Valerie Woods has been appointed the new regional Chairperson for Commonwealth Women Parliamentarians in the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association. The post is rotated every three years and Woods was selected for the Caribbean, Americas and Atlantic Region. The CWP works on a regional basis with the nine regions, coordinating programmes, conferences, and meetings among parliamentarians. The objective of the CWP is to build the capacity of female parliamentarians to be more effective in their roles and to help parliaments to become gender-sensitive. During a virtual roundtable on October fifth, Woods said, “as a region, we must strive to promote gender sensitive parliaments in the twenty-first century and adopt gender sensitive practices and policies.” In Belize, women parliamentarians account for twelve point nine percent of the elected members in the House of Representatives and thirty percent appointed women in the Senate.