The Parliament of the Maldives has opened applications for the Practice Parliament for Women programme 2023.
The Practice Parliament Series is a project conducted by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in partnership with the Parliament, with the support of the government of Australia. The series consists of two components, which are Practice Parliament for Youth and Practice Parliament for Women.
The opportunity to register for the programme will be open until January 22. The programme will be conducted in two batches from February 12 to March 4. The programme will be held in Male' City with residents from the islands provided with travel-related assistance.
UNDP Maldives said that in addition to interest in participating in the Practice Parliament, previous experiences with political parties, women’s development committees (WDCs), non-government organisations (NGOs) and community activities will be considered in the evaluation process. Pre-screening will also be conducted to determine eligibility. Thereafter, phone interviews will be conducted with the qualified candidates and marks will be awarded according to the eligibility criteria. The highest-scoring 35 candidates will be eligible to participate in each batch of the programme.
The Practice Parliament Series will provide participants with information on the key components of civic education and the key functions of the parliament. A sample parliamentary session will also be held among the participants. The Practice Parliament for Women and Youth series held in 2021 and 2022 conducted five programmes. A total of 116 women and 21 individuals with special needs have participated in the past Practice Parliament programmes.