The Women in Front group launches its new project on strengthening women’s role in municipalities

Women in Front launched its new initiative entitled strengthening women’s role in municipalities and which seeks to build the capacities of Lebanese women candidates for municipal elections and prepare them for the upcoming electoral round through building their skills and capacities in undertaking assessments of needs of their localities and identifying possible solutions.  The launch of this new project which is implemented with funding from the MEPI initiative, took place during a press conference that was organised yesterday in Beirut under the auspices of the Minister of Interior and Municipalities.
The coordinator of the project, Joelle Abu Farhat Rizkallah, reiterated in her key note address the fact that women’s participation at municipal level does not exceed 4.8% and thus indicates the need for encouraging women to participate in political life.  The MEPI coordinator in Lebanon, Erik Ryan noted that this project is a model of women candidates that Lebanon needs as they will have the chance to be exposed to mechanisms and ways of working in local elections and will become familiarized with the role of the municipal council as well as government.  He added that strengthening women’s role in politics, through this project, is likely to bring in a new dimension to politics in Lebanon.
Source: Al-Mustaqbal, Al-Diyar 3 December 2013