MONROVIA – With the clamor to increase women participation in political activities in Africa, Vice President Jewel Howard-Taylor has emphasized the need for members of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) to apportion 30 percent of their various parliaments to women representation.

Speaking when she officially opened the “Parliamentary Seminar on Transhumance and Inter-community Conflicts in the ECOWAS region” in Monrovia on Thursday, Taylor said if the law requires a minimum of 30 percent women representation at various parliaments in the ECOWAS region, then it is important that governments of member states support the agenda.

“Women representation in the ECOWAS Parliaments continues to decline. It is our prayers that this issue will continue to claim the attention of ECOWAS leaders. We must walk the walk and talk the talk to get women on board,” Taylor stressed.

The Parliamentary Seminar and second extraordinary session is the first to be convened in Liberia and is expected to conclude on Saturday September 12.

Madam Taylor said the decision of ECOWAS to host this year’s extraordinary session in Liberia speaks to the level of security and how peaceful the environment is, adding that the coming of ECOWAS to Liberia will continue to build the image of the country as a peaceful nation.

“We remain hopeful that being here would foster and strengthen ECOWAS,” Taylor emphasized.

She also said the theme of the seminar is a topic of strategic importance for ECOWAS transhumance and economic development in the region, stressing that it is incumbent upon participants to strive to evolve innovative methods and tools that could be refined and employed in conflict prevention and enable peaceful co-existence in the region.

Taylor further stated that the West African generation must be reprogrammed to achieve ECOWAS objectives, noting that “We need to love one another again, for this is the only country in which we can achieve in the midst of diversities.”

To break down emerging barriers, VP Taylor said ECOWAS must invest more time, resources and energy in efforts as well as encourage leaders to build transparent governance systems which will remove the suspicion of ills and blame shifting to generate intolerance, hate and engender violence.

As ECOWAS celebrates its 44th anniversary this 2019, Taylor urged all to strive to make the Economic Community an African example of brotherhood, solidarity and peaceful co-existence.

On behalf of the government of Liberia, Taylor thanked the organizers of the 2019 event and all the Liberian Representatives at the ECOWAS Parliament for their “patriotic move” to lobby and convince the leadership and members of the ECOWAS Parliament to choose Liberia as a proper venue for hosting this year’s special session.

“I hope and pray that this new trend of rotating and granting hosting right to member states will continue. Your visitations to different places across our region would bring you closer to achieving the objective of this meeting,” Taylor noted.

Courtesy of LINA