Potential female candidates for public office from the districts have questioned the usefulness of the Secretary of State for the Promotion of Equality’s (SEPI) Vocal Points.
Ainaro district potential candidate Ana Maria Pereira said the activities of the Vocal Point in Ainaro were exclusionary and did not involve the potential women candidates.
She said when National Women’s day came, activities were held without input.
“We have no vocal point. All the activities were just until until the holiday,” Pereira said at a meeting at Large Hall Rosa Muki Bonaparte Kaikoli, Dili.
The same concern was raised by Bobonaro district woman Lucia Pina who said residents were unaware of work by the vocal point to promote women’s civic participation at the district and national levels.
She said when she asked for figures of how many woman potential candidates there were in the district, she was told that data did not exist.
Pina said the gender work groups needed to visit the districts to meet with potential candidates and businesswomen.
The vocal point and gender work group did not perform their duties properly as they were not sharing information with women in remote areas, she said.
The potential candidates called on SEPI to choose a vocal point who was not a public servant but was instead a potential candidate herself, as the public servants tended to stay in their offices.
Secretary of State Idelta Maria Rodrigues acknowledged problems existed with the vocal point initiative and the gender work groups as there was a lack of knowledge.
She said SEPI would this year provide training to vocal points in 13 districts to increase their knowledge and ability to find the solutions to problems faced by women in the sub-districts.
“It’s the time to strengthen their capacity to attend to rural concerns so they are not just depending on national support,” SE Rodrigues said.
She also said SEPI would provide facilities such as transport and computers in order to make their work more effective.
