By Athena Karsera
WILL Cyprus one day follow Sweden’s lead of recently appointing women to 10 of its 19 Ministerial positions?
The organisers of the ‘Women in Politics’ seminar, starting today at Nicosia’s Forum Intercontinental hotel and ending on Sunday, certainly hope so.
With the aim of increasing the number of top positions held by women in politics, the seminar was arranged by the Cyprus National Machinery for Women’s Rights under the auspices of the Justice and Public Order Ministry and in collaboration with the British Council.
The organisers said the workshop would focus on developing communication and leadership skills for women already participating in campaigning and decision making at all levels of politics.
Presenting the seminar yesterday, Justice Minister Nicos Koshis said that female experts from several countries would be training participants in topics such as preparing a speech or talk, building confidence and learning to understand the media.
The seminar aims at promoting parative democracy, the inclusion of women but not necessarily through the exclusion of men.
Also speaking yesterday, Lesley Abdela, a senior partner of ‘Eyecatcher Associates,’ the company conducting the seminar in conjunction with ‘Shevolution’, said that experts would be coming from the United Kingdom, Ireland, South Africa, Hungary, the Chezch Republic, and Poland.
Abdela, a well known expert on women’s roles in political life is currently under a six-month United Nation contract in Kosovo as the deputy director of a mission to rebuild democracy in the war-torn Serbian province now under Nato administration.
Abdela has also been directly involved in the 300 Group, which aims at raising the number of female MPs in Britain to 50 per cent of the total or approximately 300 — “by the last elections the number had grown from 19 to 121,” she said.
She has visited Cyprus several times, most recently to participate in a 1998 seminar organised by the Machinery called “Men and Women in Politics.”
Recalling last year’s seminar yesterday, Abdela said, “It was like getting tickets to the World Cup or Wimbledon,” adding that many eager participants had had to be turned away due to overwhelming demand.
This year, the number of participants has been reduced to just 57, made up of women affiliated to all the island’s political parties and politically-linked youth groups.
UK based trainer Candy Piercy said the reason numbers had been limited was because the seminar was a skills workshop, not a series of lectures. “Feedback is important in this case: if it was a lecture there would be no need to limit the numbers.”
Piercy is one of the UK’s top campaign managers and was the Liberal Democrats’ deputy campaign-director for ten years.
Piercy said her role in politics had been mainly behind the scenes but that, “It is just as important for women to be behind the scenes as in front.”
Piercy has helped a large number of people be elected, including women, noting, “The first person I helped get elected was a woman.”
She has worked in countries as diverse as Australia, Zanzibar and the Ukraine and has now moved on to forming a training company with clients as diverse as a Formula One racing team.
Other expert speakers include Gemma Hussey from Ireland, a former Education Minister and current director of the European Women’s Federation.
BBC affiliated Claire Walmsley, who specialises in grooming public figures for appearances, will also be speaking, along with South Africa’s Safoora Sadec who will be passing on her experiences of a radically altered political system.
The organisers said that another workshop would be held early next year to help motivate women who were not directly involved in political parties.
