 My name is Lisa Jawahir. I'm a senator in the government of St. Lucia, and I will be your moderator today. We are here to discuss how we can increase women's participation in politics. And you will hear a lot from our female parliamentarians, many of whom have been involved in politics for a very long time. This week, you saw in the lower house. Recording in progress. This week, you saw in the lower house and in the upper house the passing of the domestic violence bill. This was a piece of legislation that was first brought into St. Lucia's House of Parliament in 1994. And this year makes it 28 years. Now, the Beijing platform for action was in 1995. So according to the United Nations mandate, we have all been tasked with ensuring that we increase our women's participation in politics. We have a number of female parliamentarians who are joining us this morning. I want to welcome each and every one of you. And now I will open the floor to our resident British commissioner, Ms. Leslie Sonderson, who will share her opening remarks. Good morning, Lisa. Good morning, everyone. Orderable ministers and distinguished senators and other special guests who are on the panel and in our audience. The British High Commission is really honored to partner with the Parliament Office of St. Lucia in organizing this morning's discussion entitled Increasing Women's Political Participation, a Parliamentary Perspective. And why are we involved? Well, one of the UK government's key priorities, and therefore instructions to myself and officers like the High Commission, St. Lucia, is the promotion of gender equality internationally and the empowerment of women and girls. Obviously, we don't do this alone or in isolation. We talked to lots of people about it, about if, where, and how we can help. And that's why we're with you today. I just wanted to make a quick pause at this moment to say a huge thank you to the High Commission team who are really energetic and passionate about the gender equality focus of our work. And incidentally, all the High Commission team here on the island are women. We're lucky to have an equally committed number of men around us, including our High Commissioner, Scott Furstum-Wood, who's resident in Barbados and many other colleagues. This event grew from a common idea of St. Lucia parliamentarians and ourselves in the High Commission. And the timing is a double celebration of International Women's Day on Tuesday just past and Commonwealth Day, which is on Monday the 14th. That's women for you, always being efficient. But back to the topic of the day. It actually resonates with the themes of both these international days. The International Women's Day theme is break the bias and Commonwealth Day theme is delivering a common future. So the heart of both is the principle of inclusion and empowering women for the benefit of all. And increasing women's participation in all areas of society just has to happen. There are common challenges and different ones, whether it be in education and media, public services and in politics, where this share goal is so important. That's where policy is made. There are lots of people and organizations doing great things on this agenda. And I want to make a quick mention here of the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association of the UK, who recently collaborated with the parliament of St. Lucia and are on the line today, I believe. They're amongst the ones promoting opportunities and support for women parliamentarians. But individual contacts and networks count too. And our individual behaviors and attitudes. I heard a message on a call earlier this week celebrating International Women's Day about how we help each other. And one person said, we need to lift each other while we are growing. And I want to apologize to the person that I've stolen that from. But how do we do that? Well, part of advancing gender equality and increasing female participation, whether it's at the local, national or international level, is having more conversations like this one about the challenges, about creating opportunities and making more support available to attract women and to retain them in the political arena where they, or you, really, can advance real change in society. Just to finish, we are delighted and have really enjoyed working with the efficient and hugely enthusiastic team at the Parliament Office to put on this event. And I'm really looking forward to listening to our distinguished panel of St Lucian Parliamentarians and, importantly, from the Youth Parliament. And I really hope the women in the audience will take heart and confidence from what you hear today about your future goals, whatever they are. And if it's in politics or it could be in other areas, that you are the ones that we in the High Commission will be working with in the years to come. Whether it's us or our successors, we look forward to it. Thank you. And back to you, Lisa. Thank you so much, Commissioner Sonneson. That was very warm and a special welcome to CBA UK who is on the platform with us. And a special thank you to our team members at the Parliament of St Lucia. We could not have done this without you and we want to express our sincere gratitude for setting up this forum today. Today, you will be hearing from the female parliamentarians in St Lucia. And on the line, we have Honorable Dr. Virginia Albert-Poyotte, who is our Minister for Gender Affairs. We also have Sister Alvina Reynolds, Sister K. Janna Shallary. We have a number of other female parliamentarians who will soon join us. Also, Honorable Emma Hippolett, who is the Member of Parliament for Sufra Fosse-Jack. We hope that our opposition female parliamentarian will join us soon. But just to give you an idea of what we will be discussing today, each MP will start off for about three to five minutes to let us know and to share with us why they got involved in politics. So we will have a round table discussion, well, one at a time with every female MP, after which we will talk about the number one challenge that you have faced during your time in politics. Some of you, like myself, a few years old in the political arena, and some of you are veterans. So it will be a wonderful experience for all of us to hear from both sides of the spectrum. And finally, we will talk about how we can get more females involved in politics. Even at a younger age, children are very interested in what is going on in our country. And we want to ensure that we are educating our people, not wait till they're in adulthood so they could understand what goes on in St. Lucia. And finally, we will invite your questions from the platform. Feel free to type in your questions. Ms. Ayodeli Hippolit from our UK office in St. Lucia will be available to share your questions. So we will direct all questions to Ms. Ayodeli Hippolit on the Zoom platform and she will share with us to the end what your questions are. And hopefully we have enough time to go through everyone's questions. I will start off. My name is Lisa Jawa here. I was appointed in the Parliament of St. Lucia as an opposition senator in 2020. So it's about a year and a half since I have been involved actively in the House of Parliament. It has been a tremendous experience being the only female opposition MP at the time. Six MPs in the lower house and I had the privilege of working with two male MPs in the upper house as well. We had an interesting time because it was the onset of an election and I learned a lot. What I can say is that I never thought at this age that I would be actively involved in politics but what I have been experiencing is a lot of women coming out and saying but I really want to be part of this. How do I get to be part of this? How do you get to be part of it? For me, I was very active in my community in youth and sports organizations. I was always going around with my dad to visit the sick elderly and the shut-in and it was through my experiences with persons I believed that I wanted to contribute on a national level to represent their interests and that is how I got involved in politics. I did my schooling abroad. I came back to St. Lucia because I believed that I had a contribution to make and I'm really happy for the opportunity given to me by our now Prime Minister, Honourable Philip J. Pierre to represent the voices of young people and women, young and senior in the House of Parliament. So this is how I got involved in politics. I will now pass on the baton to our Minister of Gender Affairs, Honourable Dr. Virginia Albert Boyard, our gender champion in St. Lucia who has brought the domestic violence bill into our House of Parliament. We thank you, Dr. Boyard, for your contribution and we invite you to make your contribution this morning. Good morning, Lisa and the team or the participants on this panel this morning. It's my pleasure to share briefly with you. Lisa gave me just three minutes and Lisa, you know. Every do five. Every do five. Okay. And I think I can just share my experience in politics and I think when we talk of politics, we are talking about partisan politics because politics is much broader than partisan politics. But I have been involved in politics at different levels especially in organisations and when I talk of politics, we look at the trade union movement and that is the basis on which most of the political parties in St. Lucia emerge. The United Workers Party, the Liberal Party, all of them had a base with some trade union where the leaders identify with the masses and that is how you build your base in politics. There are people who come into politics and they do not have much grounding in that they came in whatever they have to bring it in but they do not have that level of connection with the ground and that is critical in the politics. So my involvement in politics in that broader sense has spun over many decades because at the age of 27, I was already president of the teachers union and I fought a hard core election in the teachers union to become president. It was not a just given. I had to campaign whereas in this election that just went last year, I had to campaign to win the Babylon seat but in the teachers union, you have to campaign island wide for it to be accepted by teachers to be elected. And at the time I contested, I like to talk about that because I contested against our current MP for Ufort North that is Honourable Moses Musajabatis and I won the election. So basically my background in politics has been very broad and in my own constituency, I have worked with every single candidate who came up in Babylon since 1997. We had Kenneth David John, we had Michael Gasper, we had Felix Finister and we had Sister Alvina Reynolds. So I worked with them, I was campaign manager at some point for Sister Reynolds so I was in the belly of the beast. I also played a critical role in the party structure that is the Labour Party on the executive. I was one time vice chair of the party and I have been the Labour Relations Officer in the party. So with that kind of background, it gave me a kind of grounding. But notwithstanding that I also understand the importance of mobilizing women around you. And in the teachers union in 1989, I established the status of women's committee. I actually went on to establish a status of women's committee in the Caribbean union of teachers. So you can see all the property work that went into my involvement before I became active or contest in elections. So people may see it as though maybe I just emerged and I became a parliamentarian but it had a lot of groundwork. Not everybody will be able to go through all that but what we need to do to encourage women to participate in politics is basically to expose them to training. Give them, help them build their confidence and give them a lot of exposure. And Lisa, I heard you spoke about your exposure that is actually laying the ground for you to continue your work because the more exposure you get, the more you get to like it, you enjoy it and you remain committed. I think one of the things about politics is that you have to be genuine. You must be concerned about people's welfare and people can see through you whether you are trying to use them just to gain political office. And in that case, I'm saying we need to do a lot of education. We need to put support systems in place. And in my contest for the election, I actually built a framework. I had the support system. I had a lot of women around me. I had men around me and I was able to develop my strategy and get my structure in place to campaign and engage in the election. What I can assure women is that I think there is a fear being created about entering the political arena. And from my experience there, I need to tell them that there is no need to be fearful. It is not as difficult as some people try to portray. You just have to have the determination. You need to love people. You need to be concerned about people. And as a woman, I am also very gender conscious. So I don't lose track of the women who supported me and the plight of women in the decision-making. And in that case, I am encouraging all women to seize the opportunity. When you hear other women encouraging you, do not turn them down. Always explore how you can better represent them at the highest decision-making level. In Cabinet, you know we are outnumbered there. However, we stand our grounds in Cabinet. And we have a Cabinet that is very supportive of women. So that is a plus for us. So I want to stop here, Lisa, so that I don't go beyond your time. All right, thank you so much, Dr. Poyard. Thank you so much for sharing your experiences with us. At this moment, I just want to welcome two of our male parliamentarians in the Senate. That's in the upper house. We have Honorable Gibyan Ferdinand, Parliamentary Secretary and the Ministry of Tourism, who is also our leader of government business. We want to bid you a warm welcome. He is also a gender champion. And Mr. Narani Aziz, who is the CEO of the Saint Lucia Hotel and Tourism Authority, Saint Lucia Hospitality and Tourism Authority. We want to bid you a warm welcome as well, Mr. Narani Aziz. Thank you so much for joining us. We're happy to see other males who have made it their business to be part of this discussion this morning. At this moment, we will invite Sister Kejiana Chalry. And we just want to remind our MPs that we have about three to five minutes because there's a lot that we would love to share. So we want to stick with it in our time. So the floor is now yours, Miss Chalry. Senator Reynolds, can you hear? Good morning, good morning, Madam Moderator. I am attempting to start the video, but it seemed to me that you have stopped it. So can you please help? If you're able, somebody has stopped my video. So let's see, okay, we're very good. Good morning, Madam Moderator. Good morning to everyone who's joining us on this platform. Let me take the opportunity to wish Happy Commonwealth Day, which is on Monday, to all citizens of the Commonwealth. And I ask that we continue to work together for development, human development, democracy, peace, justice, and human rights. So on Monday, let us all take a moment to reflect. Thank you again for having me join in this very important discussion. My participation in the political arena, I must say, is about 12 years now, formally. Prior to that, I think I would use the word terrified of being part of any political activity. And I would attend political meetings and stay a distance to hear what was being discussed on the stage. But I would remain very far away because of what I saw politicians being exposed to, the name calling, the insults holding at them, the stones. I mean, in my community, it was that way on both sides. And the stories would be told, the lies that would be told about them, and so on. I have neighbors who were in the political arena, the gasper brothers, and there was a lot going on. So I was fearful. I never wanted to expose myself or even my family, because your family would get attacked as well. Never felt I would want to do this. Until I think, gradually, I became involved in many community activities, especially in the church. And I saw the pain and suffering of many people in my community and outside. And I was very involved in evangelization on the ground around St. Lucian overseas. And that exposed me to poverty. It exposed me to pain and suffering. And as of one who's training counseling and human development, community development, it was something within me that just burned. I abandoned my studies in the UK at the time and came home to contest. I wasn't sure what the situation was like, but I got on the ground. And it was the present prime minister, Philip J. Pierre Honorable, who bashed me formally into the political arena, who brought me in as a member of the party, signed up for me, and it just the rest is history. As a candidate, then-elected MP was appointed Minister for Health, Human Services, Gender Relations. Then I also served as vice chair of the Central Labor Party. I now serve as the woman's officer for the women representing the women in the party and nationally, as well as appointed senator from last year, eight months ago. It has been a very interesting journey. Like I said, the question was, why did you get involved in politics? I did it because I saw a lot of pain and suffering of people on the ground in communities. And I saw the need. I could do something. I could make a difference to inspire, to empower as a teacher, counselor, and educator, prison worship leader. I was all over the Caribbean, all over St. Lucia, working in different groups, especially with young people. And so it just came naturally to do it at that level. The fear left me. I must admit the day I returned to St. Lucia and it was my day to be presented on stage. I remember being in church and the cheers just came. And up to the day, like today, I don't know why. Maybe now I'm thinking I cried for all those, all what I would have been faced with. I would cry then, so I'm not crying now, and I've not cried since then. So it is something where there might be the fear for some women. And I said, no, just like our minister alluded to, there is nothing to fear. Once you are strong, you know who you are. And you must have a very strong network starting family. You must have a backup when you feel down, when you feel that you've been bruised. You have some people who could just turn around you, your network of women and men in your community, your supporters. Also, you must have food and taking care of your basic needs. That is needed because you have no time for yourself. You have to be on the go. And of course, the good network for young women who want to join into the political arena, we are well-opened to give that support. And I say thanks to Siwil in the region who trained me for six weeks to prepare me for transformational leadership. And that helped as well. And the other women who I saw coming for, like Mary Polio's, et cetera, Dr. Morelle Joseph, that came in as well. So that's basically why I joined into the political arena. Madam moderator, thank you. Thank you so much, Senator Reynolds. I also learned a lot about you this morning. So at this moment, we will invite Senator Kejana Chalry. I apologize for I seem to be having some technical issues earlier. Thank you, Sister Lisa. And good morning, all of you on the platform, everybody listening in this morning. So you've tasked us with the responsibility of indicating why we got involved in the politics. Well, for me, from a child, politics had always been something that I loved. I was just sharing with Senator Fuddin and yesterday that how much I thoroughly enjoyed listening to people like Vell and John and so on back in the day in the presentations in the house. And it was always something that I was really thrilled about. And so my love for partisan politics began then. But then I've always been somebody from a very early age who has been involved in community work, whether it's in the church, whether it's in my development committee at the school. Long before I had a child, I was on a PTA at the Vijay Primary School by virtue of having two siblings at the school. At the time, my mother did not want to serve on the PTA. But my siblings were there. And I served as, at one time, the secretary and at another time, the assistant secretary at the school's PTA. I've also been a member of my constituency group for a number of years now, sitting on the executive in either the secretary or the assistant secretary, treasurer for many, many years. And so as I grew up, I continued to gain a greater love for the politics of St. Lucia. And so having been appointed a government senator like my sister Alvina in August of last year, I guess it was a natural transition to that position having been involved in community work and so on for so long. It is something that I love. I love giving back. I love to be at a place where I can help the plight of somebody else who may not necessarily have the voice to speak up for themselves. And so anytime I get an opportunity to speak up for persons who are otherwise disenfranchised, I grab that opportunity and go with it. There have been some challenges along the way, challenges of, yes, transitioning from your community based group, for example, to now being associated publicly with a political party, for example, there, I mean, everybody does not support the same party with you. And everybody does not necessarily support the same views with you. And so you get the contention, you get the differences. You're now in the public's eye. So your whole mode of behavior and everything tends to change because you know now that you are technically being scrutinized. And so these are a bit of some of the challenges that come up. But if you stick to the cause, the real reason and the real issue that you've taken up the mantle, then that keeps you going even when you want to give up, that you understand that you've been called to serve and to serve your people. And if you are somebody like me who love people and who always seek to advance the cause of people, then you stick to the cause and you do what you have to do to get by. Thank you so much. Thank you so much, Senator Kejiana Chowlery. Two cents, Chowlery. Thank you so much for your contribution. We will now invite Honorable Emma Hippolyte, a veteran in politics, to share with us why she got involved in politics. Okay. Wonderful. Yes. Good. Good morning, sisters. Let me recognize in a big way our Excellency Leslie Saunders and our participants from the CBA UK. I want to say I'm very pleased to be part of this discussion this morning. I also want to wish everyone a happy commoner of the in advance. Lisa, why became a parliamentarian, a politician? It was not a decision I made. It was a decision made by others. It was Dr. Anthony, Dr. Kennedy Anthony gave me this opportunity. And upon reflection, he was trying prior to that to get me involved. I was not taking the bait. I always used to say, Dr. Anthony, I'm a professional. You are the politician. But somehow upon reflection, I realized he saw something in me that maybe I didn't even know that I have. But now putting it in perspective, I remain, if most of us would follow my politics, I remain at heart a professional. And I'm hoping that remaining a professional would encourage the professionals of wrong solution to make a decision to serve our beloved country. So to me, we need to bring that very early at the table. What is my base? How I got involved, apart from Dr. Anthony was the one presenting me an opportunity to serve in the Senate. When, as you know, at the time, I was the director of audits and the government of Sanctucia at the time, the United Workers Party did not renew my contract. And Dr. Anthony gave me that opportunity to serve. It is an opportunity now that I relish, because what it allowed me to do, it gave me an opportunity to serve. And now when I think about it, even my entire professional life in terms of serving with the national insurance, serving at the bank of Sanctucia, serving as an auditor, both in the private sector and the public sector, upon reflection, it allowed me to have a national base. And that is what it did, because as a private auditor, I audited almost every business in Sanctucia. So after today, I can walk into any business and feel comfortable, because I know the people in there. As the director of audit as well, I had an opportunity to interact with every area, every individual in the public service. So it gave me a very broad base. Then again, serving at the national insurance, it gave me that national profile. I was serving the people, serving pensioners, serving young people, doing the transformation. From the national insurance, I went into, and even before that, I must say, I also served in the NGO movement when I dealt with the NRGF. I was a board member of the NRGF for years, serving first nationally, then joining the regional body. So it allowed me that room as well. Also, my service with the cooperative movement, the Sanctucia Public Service Credit Union, now Janu. I was a director for a long time, serving on that credit union and also being a member of the plural cooperative and big farmers cooperative. So it allowed me to interact with people. So that gives you an opportunity to know the needs of the people at various levels. And when I was called after being a senator, I mean, after weeks of months of Dr. Anthony appointing me a senator, I got a call to sue internationally. And I was called between, do I resign from the Senate? And then he gave me the opportunity. I actually took on that international job and remained a member of the Senate. And at my own expense, I tried to visit Sanctucia during Senate meetings. And that helped me. And when, again, the women of Brosely called me to say they were considering me, they wanted me to sue as the Parliamentary Rep for Brosely, as a candidate, it took a lot of thinking. It took a lot of, I could remember talking to my mom about it's just still alive at the time. And the question she asked me is, you have any brothers in Brosely? That was the question. So in essence, she was telling me, what's your base in Brosely? Because I do not have a base in Brosely, not at all. And I went by faith. I put into prayer for a little while. And then I could remember, which was after a storm, I came back to Sanctucia and I sat in the house. I knew I had to be on the ground. I knew I had to be on the ground that day. And I did not know where to to. And I remember putting into prayer and at three o'clock, this guy called a simple, people see that relationship. And he said, Anteama, where are you? And I said, I'm at home. And he said, you have to be on the ground. And I met simple. At that three o'clock, I left the house and I met him at the Brosely gas station. And the rest is history. We spent the entire weekend working with people on the ground. And after that, it took me a year of knocking doors in Brosely and getting into the supermarkets and talking to people at different level of politics. And surprised everybody. We brought that Brosely sit home. So I want to tell people to be in this politics. First, somewhere in New York, you need to have that love of people that call to service. And that is what it is. It is a call to service. And as long as you have that and you put it together and you keep the needs of the people up and center, it is not your needs. It is the needs of the people. And as long as you put the people first, the Lord will give you the strength to deliver the rest. Thank you so much, Honorable Emma Hipolet, for your inspiring contribution. And I know you certainly have a stellar reputation in financing and auditing. And thank you for using your skills to better serve our country. So for the next round, we will move very quickly. We have a minute and a half each MP to tell us only what you think the number one challenge is for women to get involved in politics. I will start, and I will be very brief. We have a minute and a half each of us. I believe the number one issue is education. A lot of women who come to me say they are interested in representing but they don't know how. And if we can make strides in terms of taking it to the schools, letting our children know what politics is about, taking it into community groups, mothers and fathers groups, youth groups, getting them involved in representation at the local level, then the transition to national politics may be a bit easier. So for me, the number one challenge, I believe has been education. I will invite Dr. Poyot to also briefly tell us what she think the number one challenge is. Yes, the number one challenge I see is the issue of structure and organizations and systems. We are in a government, we are operating in communities where we do not see the sense of structure, organization and systems for all the things that we want to do, including distribution of resources and giving attention to people. There are some who get too much and others get too little. And in the absence of that, we will find ourselves caught up. And there is also the need for clear strategy on how we approach what we want to do and what is our goal. We must be goal oriented. Thank you so much, Dr. Poyot. Sister Kajiana Shaury, Senator Shaury. I got caught up for a little bit. Lisa, I seem to be having a challenge in my internet. So could you just go ahead again and repeat the times that you are? Briefly tell us, we have a minute and a half. Just tell us what you believe the number one challenge is for women to enter the political arena. OK, I think for me, the number one challenge is being accepted. Generally, the parties and politics have been generally viewed as a male dominated space. And I think as much as we've had some really, if I can say brave women who have stepped to the fore, who have taken up the challenge and who have done well, they have done well and we must compliment them for that. I think there still exists a bit of trepidation and a bit of fear on the part of women to step out there and and give themselves in that manner. And I think perhaps is because like I indicated before, it is viewed more or less of a male dominated space. I mean, when you look at and think of the long hours and the sleepless days and the days away from your home. And I am pretty sure Sister Emma and Sister Emma, Sister Alvina, Sister Poyot, who have gone up for an elective office, they know about the long days and the long nights and so on. But that just suppose against the fact that you have a family to care for in most instances. And so I think sometimes that draws away from the ability of women to to step up and then offer themselves for political office. I guess I think that's one of the biggest the biggest challenges. Thank you, Senator Shallary. Senator Reynolds. Yes, Sister. Yes, Madam Moderator. I think it's it's a lack of information, education and empowerment. And also, Madam Minister Poyot alluded to a lack of support system. Women may want to, but there's fear because it is not enough information. They do not feel empowered to do that and then bolden enough to do so. When they tell their friends and their friends, you want to do that. So I think we do have a responsibility to encourage them, identify them, we can see them around the app, what it takes. We need to identify them and call them out and say, we think we believe in you, we are there with you. And I think the support system must be in place and we must bring them forth and carry them through. Fantastic. Thank you so much. Honourable Emma Hippolytes, what do you think is the number one challenge? I think it has been articulated very clearly. One of them is to give the information, as we said, but to me is to identify the skill sets and attitudes when we see it and to provide affirmation to the sister to say, you can do it. It is not something too difficult, but we need to give you and we need to be able to be there to give the system that support. And I think a lot of people do not venture out there because they are free. So we have to tell them it's not rocket science. You need to go out there first with a lot of faith, but you need it. You have a week and support you. And I think that support system is lacking. And I think Dr. Boyan mentioned the structure. We need to put the structure so that that support system exists. Thank you so very much, Dr. Hippolytes. We have with us one of our youth parliamentarians, Ms. Shirlen Gitton. Shirlen, thank you so much for joining us. We're very happy to have you here and you being part of youth parliament. Can you just share with us in two minutes why you got involved and what do you think is the number one challenge that women face in politics? Good. Good morning. Let me acknowledge the protocols been established before me. I got involved in politics from a very young age. I remember at the age of eight during the 2006 elections, I believe I used to attend the Dibora Farmers' School and there was some campaign going on and I was just so taken aback by everybody just being on the road and singing and the music and everything. I was taken aback by that. So I grew an interest in politics from then. And then that just continued. I remember working with a first member of parliament, a hopeful member of parliament at the time. I was informed three hours, like 14 or 15. And I could not vote, but I was part of the campaigning process and the strategies and so on and so forth. Thereafter, I served as the vice president for the Denry North youth that's under the United Workers' Party. Then I went on to serve as as the youth coordinator for the United Workers' Party from 2016 to 2018. I believe it was from 2016 to 2019. Then I served as the deputy director for the Caribbean Young Democratic Union from 2018 to 2019. So, you know, I have been involved, but it has always been something that I wanted to do. I like politics. I like helping out people. And if you can help people in that way, you can make a difference. You can you can bring some you can voice the opinion of people. So people come to you with issues and you're like, OK, I could bring this forward in this way in that way that then you should get involved. For me, I believe the number one women that women that the number one challenge that women face in politics is that it is still viewed in society as a male dominated space, like one of the senators I liked it. And it is very unfortunate for lack of a better word that women don't want to go forward because it is viewed that way. We still have we're in 2022 and we see it constantly through all the campaigns, not only in solution, not only in the Caribbean, but in the wider Caribbean, where women have you like your place is to be in the kitchen. Why do you want to be a politician? You should be at home. You should get married. You should have children. And even when you have those things, then politics is not for you. You should stay home and cook and clean and wait for your husband to come home from work. We need we need to get away from that thinking. How do we do that? We do that by education. We do that by continuing forums like this, where we bring forward the views of people who have been involved in politics and so on and so forth. So that is what I think. And I also think that women's participation in politics is also undermined a lot. So it may be a case where we don't have the women coming forward as the hopeful MPs, but they're the ones in the background. They're the ones who attend all the meetings and plan all the strategies and plan the campaigns and do the financing and do everything. And most times it's a battle. It really is a battle when you're in a male dominated space to get your point across, you really have to stand your ground. You really have to fight. To see to get them to understand your views and to get them to see what you are doing. So if we get away from that mindset that politics is a male dominated space, we get children involved. From the onset in school, you get them to join clubs and so on and so forth. The clubs may not have structures in primary school like a student council. They may not have a president or vice president because it's primary school, but you get them involved in clubs and then they take that forward. They join the community clubs. They join the constituents of clubs and then it goes on and on and on from there on and we could change the mindset of society. Thank you so much, Shilin. Thank you so much for your contribution. So we have identified a few challenges. What seems to be number one is education, that's information, sharing information, structure and systems, ensuring that resources are shared across the board, acceptance, women being undermined, empowerment and obviously breaking the bias. We have a minute and a half and I would implore on our MPs to ensure that we stick to the time as we're running out of time very quickly. What do you think we as MPs or you as an MP can do to help facilitate getting more women involved in politics? We will invite Dr. Virginia Poyard to make that contribution. So we will move on to Senator Alvina Reynolds. As we try to get Dr. Poyard back on the line, Senator Reynolds, can you tell us very briefly what you believe we can do to get more female participation in politics? Yes, Senator, I believe we need to put those systems in place like the women's caucus that we have started in Tinducia. I believe we need to visit the schools like some of the plants that we have in place, visit the schools and get involved with youth groups in the various constituencies, have such forums like this, information, education, empowerment. But most specifically, within our constituencies, within our political organisations, identify the women we see who may have that potential and whisper in the air and push them and pull them and control them and encourage them and help carry them through. They are there. They want to. They just need us to tell them we believe in you. Great. Thank you so much, Senator Tussier-Charlie. Lisa, I think that one of the things we can do and a lot of other things will spring forth from it is that we need to sell the vocation. Those of us who are in there who are involved, we need to be out there. We need to be sharing the information. We need to be selling it. We need to be informing other people, other young women as to what it is and encourage them that it is not something that they should at all be fearful of. It's not just about the dull and it can be fun. It can be exciting and they need to know that because I do not think they know what really happens in the background. And I think that that will be a step in the right direction. Thank you so much. Honourable Emma Hippolytes, what do you think we can do to get more women involved in politics? Well, I think Sister Alvina mentioned one key thing and that is to me, we need to be more involved in the school setting. I believe we have to do that. I believe as well that we have to engage. I'm one who believe that I'm working across the street and it's a young person. I engage them. I always do that. We need to engage the people where they are. They need to see and understand what it is to be a politician. And I think sometimes if they see us always over there and not interacting with them, to me, that does not help. I also believe that within the structures that we need to put, whether it is within, I believe, within our own parliament, I believe we need to have almost like a permanent structure between the parliament and always so that we can cause that to happen in the school setting, but also within the parliament as well as in the parliament within our own party. We have the youth groups, but how do we encourage them into that channeling of the strength that they have to cause them to say, you have what it takes. This is the route you should follow a lot of mentoring and I think these are the things that we have to do and affirmation, affirmation, affirmation. And great. Thank you so much. Honorable Hippolyte, Doctor Boyot, are you back with us? Briefly, what you think we can do to get more involved? OK, there you are. OK, Lisa, I think what we need to do, I think we have articulated most of the ideas already. There is the issue of education so that we are a lot of fears of our young people because their concept of politics, what they have seen in the past, they are afraid of it. So I think we have to act as role models to show them that it's nothing to be fearful of and believe that build that trust. And I believe that you, myself, Sister Emma, Alvina Reynolds and all of us, we have to demonstrate a new kind of politics to encourage young people to come in. And as Sister Emma indicated, we need to be on the ground. We need to stay connected with the young people so that there is that build of trust and confidence in what we do. So that will actually encourage them. But I believe education is critical because that is how I was able to help a lot of teachers, assume leadership positions in the teachers' unit. Thank you so much, Dr. Boyard. So we've been granted a bit more time because certainly this discussion is very important and very interesting. We will now invite Miss Aidele Hippolit, who is working with the British Commission's office in St. Lucia, to read out to us some of those questions and we will direct more opportunities for our viewers to share their questions in the platform. Miss Hippolit. Right. Thank you, Lisa. And thank you to the panelists and to the audience and our colleagues in British High Commission. This has been a fascinating discussion. I've learned a lot, but I think I'll remain a civil servant. And facilitate the women politicians and facilitate things like this. From the chat, actually, there are more there are more things about comments, but there is one question from Miss Hazel Brandy-Williams, who says, my question is specifically to CPA UK and the Commonwealth Secretariat. And she's basically asked and saying that there's always a lot of that. This is a timely conversation. But I think what she may be asking about is maybe how more frequently one should have these conversations. Maybe should the CPA UK be setting up any mores, any fora, any platforms by which this type of conversation can continue. Now, I know there was CPA UK on the line, but I won't put them on the spot. Let me turn it over to say I would like Miss Gitton who was very impressed by her contribution. If what would she think about more fora like this to talk about women being in politics more? If Lisa, you don't mind me asking Miss Gitton's to do that. Please go ahead. Thank you. I'll be very happy to answer that question. I don't believe that we need to have more of these forums more frequently and not only on this kind of level, we take it to the different communities. We take it to the schools. We take it to we take it to the youth groups. We meet people where they are. If we meet people where they are, then the message will get across. I find that too often in 2022 that in politics, women are held as a very much higher standard. Women are held at a much higher standard than men. And we we need to find a way. And I think with forums that we can find a way to to cover that. I am not saying that women should not be held or politicians should not be held to a higher standard, but it seems to be way up there when it comes to women and for men, it's way down there in cases where whereas in the Caribbean, we love we love carnival. Carnival is part of our culture. And for a young person who may be thinking of wanting to get involved in carnival, wanting to get involved in politics, you'll be like, hmm, I can't jump carnival because those questions are a bit and when I join politics, you know, people will say that I'm just in this way, that way, that way. So you see, we need to have more firms so that we could educate and get rid of those get rid of those biases and get rid of get rid of those thinking. And I think we could take it from there. Thank you so much, Ms. Gittens, ideally, do we have any more questions from the platform? Yes, sure. Well, one had to do directly to the CPA UK. But what we'll do is we'll say that we will direct the question to CPA UK. And follow up via email or CPA UK representative had to leave. We can only say, if you don't mind, if anybody wanted anybody in the audience wanted to ask any of the panelists any any direct questions, anything directly to them, we can unmute them. They can raise their hand if they would like to. We're not pushing anybody. But if they would like to engage any of the panelists, I see a hand from Karen. So if we can, if we can unmute Karen or Karen can unmute herself and ask her question. Go ahead, please. Hi, morning. There are times when I think that we get into politics and our ladies are it's a lot of tokenism rather than actual work. And I have seen this in a number of of administrations in the past. And I was just wondering if any of our panelists actually have that sort of experience where you felt like you were there more for a number than actual actually to make a difference. Have you ever had that feeling and how did you how did you deal with that? Because I think we have some really strong women on this panel. And I kind of don't see that happening with them. But I'm just wondering, because I think that in the past, I have seen a lot of women speak loudly on platforms during campaign, but during the administration, when there was an opportunity to actually come out and speak on issues that they seem to have gone quiet after that and their voice really did not make a difference. So I'm wondering if any of the panelists have been in that position and if they don't mind sharing how did they actually how how did you feel and what did you do? Karen, the question that you asked is interesting. But the experience that I've had, for example, members of the panel remember my view on the whole issue of gambling and the location of the gambling machines near schools, and I had a very strong view on that. And when I discussed it with Dr. Anthony, he felt because of his experience, I felt I wanted to speak on that subject in the parliament in the House of Assembly. And he actually gave me leave to express my view on that particular issue. So it's how we manage our position when we have a view that might be sort of different to the rest. I felt that it was strong enough that I wanted the world to know what my position was and he gave me that opportunity. OK. Thank you. Thank you. I have a few questions coming in. So I have to jump across before I because we're sort of running out of time. There's a question here. Thanks. Thanks, Minister Hippolyte. We have a question and I see Mr. Unfortunately, Mr. Freud and then left, he had to what is the role of male parliamentarians in promoting women in politics? I think that's a colleague from from Barbados asking that question. What is the role of male parliamentarians in promoting women in politics? And what and what are the views on quarter representation in politics? So, Lisa, let me let me see if I can ask maybe Miss Poyd, not Dr. Poyd. Well, Dr. Poyd can answer as well. But here for Mr. Reynolds as well. I think we haven't heard her in a while. What do what do you guys think of how male parliamentarians can help to promote women in politics? It's a very interesting question. Yes. Thank you very much, Miss Hippolyte, for that question. I would say, yes, we have the hierarchy of our party. We have some of them who are very open to it. And it's interesting during a national council meeting when you brought the resolution into women, some of the members of national council of the stochonism women, it feels like we are asking for favors when we brought from certain resolutions on behalf of women. So, yes, at the hierarchy of the party, you see the men are supportive of women. I am not sure they are ready to go for the quarter. Like, say, the United Nations asking for the 25 percent. I have not heard them embracing that or even mentioning that or discussing it. But generally, generally at the level of the prime minister and ministers, and even Dr. Poyd can look to that, you have that respect, you have that support. They are willing to support women and bring in more women. This prime minister is all about he asked for seven candidates to be women during the time due to our selections, but not fortunately, we didn't get that number. OK, thank you, Miss Reynolds. Dr. Poyd, could you come in on the question of quotas? Would you support the idea of a quota being set in terms of women, female representation in parliament and politics, that there should be a system where it is 30 percent, 40 percent? Would you support something like that? I would basically support that, but I can tell you their resistance will be fast and furious. And it will be very, very furious against the the powers that be because people feel that women need to work their way up. There shouldn't be tokenism and therefore you are not a real leader if they have to give you space based on quota. I support the idea of quota because if I need exposure, they need that kind of confidence building. But I just want to mention that when men see strong women around, they feel intimidated. It's not just women that feel intimidated when they see men around. But I'm telling you, when you get strong women around, men feel very uncomfortable. So I see the whole issue in terms of fighting that battle inside and outside. And I think Sister Emma will test to that because we are in the hot seat. And what you see outside on the surface is not always what happens in the inside. But I'm telling you, we remain steadfast and we have to fight, as I said, on the outside, we need the support on the outside and we need the support on the inside. So when you raise your voice out there and you say the things, we can use it to justify our argument inside. And it is possible that we can fight for quota, but you can look at the Senate. And I think we need to applaud the prime minister. He puts how many women. Nobody told him who to put. He uses judgment and he's because he felt he needed more women in the Senate, which is something we had not seen much of before. But this time around, the Labour Party has a large percentage in the Senate. In terms of the elected politics, we have to fight hard to encourage our women to come forward. But there will be fast and furious hostility when the women start appearing. But we have to go forward. Thank you for your candor, Dr. Boyot, a question from the audience before we move to some other questions. Move from Laurel, moving forward from this very interesting discussion. What are some of the plans to engage young women into getting into politics? Actually, Senator Jawaier, I think, even though you're a moderator, I think you should take that one. Certainly. So as my colleagues before me have said, we have established where we are in the process of establishing a women's caucus in St Lucia. We have Commonwealth women parliamentarians. St Lucia at this current stage does not have its own caucus. There is a branch of Sewell and Karen is Karen Tobias, the new president. We had a question from Karen earlier, which is Caribbean women in politics. And they have also been collaborating with the Parliament of St Lucia. The Parliament of St Lucia will be embarking on a series of campaigns, getting more young women involved, getting more women involved, taking the bills that will be laid in the house into the communities where you can have active discussions, active feedback from persons from the community. I believe that most of the time, some of the solutions are coming directly from the people. We do not know it all. And in our political space, we may be having a certain vision as to what we believe will be the right idea or the right solution. But when we have taken some of those discussions into the communities, we are seeing that somebody always has a brilliant idea, something we would never have thought of. So I know the Parliament of St Lucia is working very quickly on taking policies of the government into the communities so we can get more people involved. Honourable Virginia Albert Poyert spoke about educating our young people, especially in the schools. So the plans are really on an education perspective, getting our children involved, getting our young people involved, getting more female participation as well. On the question of getting more, of getting men involved ideally, I just want to segue just briefly. Honourable Vivian Ferdinand is also a gender champion. I believe how men can encourage female participation is by ensuring even at a budget level that line items in a budget are gender sensitive. How will this impact women? How will this impact youth and also persons with disabilities? So even in the Cabinet of Ministers, we know we have Dr. Poyert and Sister Emma having our male parliamentarians understand that the policies we put in place will impact females who we can agree are usually the backbone or is the backbone of political campaigns. When we put policies in place to help sustain them, help empower them, we'll be achieving sustainable goal number five, which is to empower women and girls. So there are certainly more activities that will come. I will not speak on behalf of the Parliament in terms of giving you a calendar, but I'll invite you to pay close attention to the government of St. Lucia's Facebook page. You'll be seeing more about this in time to come. OK, I think we have to just space for two more questions. And we have to wrap up because we have gone over time. This question, I'm not sure who can answer to be honest, is asking whether in terms of campaign politics, funds have to be distributed, candidates have to be given funds to run their campaigns. Are women given priorities or are they? Yes, are their campaigns as well funded? Is there any disparity between men and women on the campaign trail regarding funds, financing support? I think, wow, what about Ms. Toussaint-Charlory? I don't know if she's a good person. We have heard her voice in a while. If she can answer that or Lisa, you can direct it to somebody who who who may be better placed to answer that question. I think I have an idea that it's equal, but that's not for me to say. So, well, if I would want to say that we don't even I don't even think we can even answer that question because definitely you don't even know. You don't know. So you don't have the right to have it right. This is the end. We don't know all I can tell you when I did when I run the campaign for grocery, which is a very expensive campaign, I had to use at that time coming from the UN and so on. I use a lot of my resources with some support from the party. When I did the Sufra campaign, I had a lot more support from the party. So it varies. It varies the challenges because when you look when when in for the party to determine how they support, I believe sometimes they look at, well, what are the chances of within this constituency versus the other? I'm not sure if this strictly through gender lenses or whether it's a female politician or a male politician that the strategy would be how do we is is that constituency very important for the party? What is happening? What is the opposition doing there and what it is we have to do? So it varies. But the long and short of it is we do not know the answer because we do not know what the other person thought. Right, you have it right. I like the standard of the women. OK, we have to wrap up in a while. So one last question and it has to do with the participation of non-partisan women with non-partisan views in the political space. So I think I'll say very quickly, each of you just one minute just to say that. And then Lisa, you can wrap up. So Lisa, you include that in terms of giving your views on where is the space for women who are non-partisan but want to be in the political process? I think I'll jump to Lisa. You can kick off and then have the others a minute, please. And then we need to wrap up. Thank you. OK, so I can I can start. Yes, there's certainly an opportunity for women who do not want to align politically with a party. We have to first understand the definition of politics and it is any activity that is involved with the governance of our country. And one particular example I want to bring about is civil society groups. Catherine Sealers, who is the founder of Raise Your Voice St. Lucia. She has not, as far as I know, is not publicly aligned or aligned with any political party, but her civil society group continues advocacy for what she stands for for her foundation, which is equal opportunity and women and human rights. And it is persons like her because of her voice. We saw that the domestic violence bill was passed. She has constantly advocated on that. So aligning yourself with a foundation, Caribbean women in politics, young women in politics, these civil society groups, whether it be Helen Daughters or even Raise Your Voice St. Lucia, your voice is part of that. What we call those stakeholder engagements, because when the MPs are about to work on a bill that will be passed in the house, usually these bills go out into the public for feedback and your feedback will be critical. And I believe that is how persons who are independent, independent thinkers can get involved in how policies are instituted in our country. In addition to that, we have opportunities for independent senators. So the governor general is the one who appoints that your contribution to civil society will be a deciding factor on if you are appointed as an independent senator as well, I can move over to Dr. Poirot. I don't think there is a word in the dictionary called non-aligned because that don't exist, especially in our small society. It may not be publicly announced, but I think every single individual is aligned and they may not articulate it publicly. So there is space for those who do not want to articulate it publicly, but we cannot say definitely they are non-aligned. And I just want to share briefly that one person that shocked me is our former governor general who said from the time she was appointed governor general, she never voted because once you vote, you align yourself to a party. Wow, I did not know that. Yes, Sister Alvina, can you tell us how we can how independent policies can be heard in politics? Yes, Sister Alvina, this is very amazing to be at this point because I recall I was not aligned to any political party and I was approached by both political parties at one time to run and that floored me. I was terrified because I just did not want to get into politics. But I think based on one's one's interest, whether it be culture, agriculture, education, health, whatever your interest might be, align yourself with an organization or with your MP. So your MP knows that you are interested in that particular area and you may be called upon to serve on the board. You may be called upon for ideas. So it is about using whatever avenue is available to you to make your contribution, whether it's through an organization or whether through your constituency council. But don't just sit back, go forward and indicate. This is my interest. This is where I'd like to work. I have a contribution to make. Fantastic. Thank you. Ms. Shalene Gittens, can you share with us how you believe more independent voices can be heard in politics? Yes, I can. I believe also that by getting involved in different organizations or it be whether it be charitable groups fighting for specific causes and so on and so forth, your voice can be heard. You do not need to be publicly aligned with a political party. If you're fighting for a cause to get something done, then you work with both whichever party becomes the government. That is a way that you can deter people from aligning you to a party. And by doing that, then you fight the cause. You get to fight whatever cause that you want to fight for. And then on election day, if you so decide to vote, which I believe everybody should vote, when you go to the bottom to your constituency to vote, your polling station to vote, nobody knows where you put your votes. So if you want to become not aligned with politics, you get involved in a political group fight for cause, whichever cause that you believe in and just work with both parties and that could be a way to not quote unquote be aligned with a political party. Thank you, Ms. Gittens. Honourable Hippolytes, how can independent voices be heard? Well, it's correct. I mean, the issue is politics is the life of the people. So if you are a citizen, you do not want to be aligned to one party or the other. But make your contribution to civil society. And that's the moment. Make your contribution, whether individually to civil society or collectively with other groups or community groups. And also, if you are professional, you take a particular point, but you articulate it to present it to wherever a party is in office. You look at the policies, you drive the policies and just make a contribution so that the lives of the people are better. That's that's to me. That's what it is. Thank you so much, Honourable Hippolytes. Senator Shallary, how can more independent voices be heard in politics? I want to agree with one of the speakers before me, Lisa, that I don't think there is such a thing as a non-alignment. What there may be is a particular individual may not be as publicly involved or may not necessarily carry a membership card for a political party. But I think the ground, the foundation should be based on issues. And so if you look at it based on issues, no matter which political party forms the majority government, the rest of us are in fact part of the government. If we have a voice when it comes to the issues that are affecting us and are affecting people. And so you deal with the issues rather than the personalities or. I think we lost Senator Shallary briefly. OK, we would have lost her. OK, sorry about that, folks, but we have run out of time. I want to take this opportunity to thank each and every one of you. I was really happy to see youth parliamentarian Miss Shilin Gittens join us and give us a perspective from her political party in addition to our senior female parliamentarians and the new ones, especially like myself. Thank you so much for your contribution. We want to thank CPA UK. We want to also thank the British High Commission for ensuring that this platform was made available to our to not just our women, but to everyone who was interested in hearing more about female participation in politics. We want to certainly thank the Parliament of Saint Lucia for your unwavering support thus far in ensuring that the processes and the structures are in place for us to have smooth operations, especially during parliament and especially for this forum. I want to thank each and every one of you. I'm really sorry we were not able to get to all of your statements and all of your questions. We want to thank you again for respecting each other's time and respecting each other's opinion at this moment. This Zoom was recorded and it will be shared momentarily on NtN's Facebook page so you can always go back, have a look, dissect and feel free to share in your questions with the Saint Lucia Parliament. Again, I'm Senator Lisa Jawa here. Aidelli and her team want to thank you again and hope everyone enjoys the rest of their Friday and weekend. Thank you.