Hon. Elizabeth FY Renner accompanied by the deputy clerk of the National Assembly, Momodou A Sise, recently returned home after attending the just concluded Sixth Annual Meeting of Women Speakers in Bern, Switzerland, from 16-17 July and the 3rd World Conference of Speakers of Parliament held in Geneva from 19-21 July 2010.

According to a press release issued Wednesday by the Office of the Clerk of the National Assembly, during the annual speakers meeting held in Bern, women speakers expressed their wish to maintain a link to the agenda of the United Nations, while ensuring that such meetings provide a forum and opportunity to exchange ideas and experiences on other gender issues which are of interest to their national and international agendas.

This year's Meeting of Women Speakers of Parliament focused on challenges faced in achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) 4 and 5 on child survival and maternal health. It also provided Women Leaders of Parliament the opportunity to take stock of progress made and challenges ahead in achieving these two Goals which concern all and not only women.

Officially opening the meeting, the President of Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) Dr Theo-Ben Gurirab, expressed delight with the theme and reminded the gathering that it is only five years left to the 2015 deadline to achieve the MDGs.In her welcoming address, the president of the Swiss National Council, Pascale Bruderer, said that women are the driving force behind the formal and informal economy and that they have immense potential which will be recognised as soon as all sexual discrimination are eliminated.

The release further noted that Hon. Elizabeth Renner, the speaker of the Gambia's National Assembly was one of the four lead presenters on the theme "Building national health systems"- how to ensure access for all and how to improve service delivery for women and children".

The Gambian speaker, the release noted, dilated on The Gambian concept, highlighting The Gambia's success story citing the increased health facilities, infrastructure, equipment and human resources, easy access to treatment at very little or no cost, the 'prevention is better than cure' policy through aggressive sensitisation and provision of preventive services and treatment, use of traditional medicine side by side with conventional medicine citing President Jammeh's success treatments, increased access to education for girls for longer period resulting in the prevention of early pregnancy and its detrimental effects.

Hon. Elizabeth Renner also contributed during the debate on the themes "funding for the MDGs 4 and 5" and "empowering women, including by addressing violence against women". "She expounded the correlation between MDGs and stressed the need not only to adequately fund MDG 4 and 5, but also other MDGs especially those addressing poverty and violence against women.International donors, she stated, should move away from commitment to action. They must follow up their pledges with immediate contributions accessible to the people they intend to help," the release noted.

World Conference of Speakers Confab

In another official engagement, according to the release, Speaker Renner and delegation also attended the 3rd World Conference of Speakers of Parliament in Geneva. The conference, which was the largest gathering ever of Speakers of Parliament, was held at the United Nations European Headquarters in Geneva from 19-21 July 2010, under the theme "securing global democratic accountability in a world in crisis".

The objective of the conference was to significantly advance democracy at the international level through the greater involvement of parliaments in international affairs.According to the release, in his welcoming remarks, the president of the IPU, Dr Theo-Ben Gurirab, emphasised that to achieve accountability, democratic institutions must be strong and they must resist the temptation to trim down the rules of multiparty democracy.

Ban-Ki Moon, the UN secretary general according to the release, told the gathering that the proliferation of nuclear weapons and technology, the menace of terrorism and the growth of transnational organised crime are growing threats to international peace and security all of which calls for collective action.

In her contribution, the release added, Speaker Renner argued that it is debatable whether parliaments are a part of the problem or a beacon of hope for a world in crisis. Calling for more concerted efforts by all, she further argued that "securing global democratic governance for the common good" is more often than not a mere rhetoric and lip service at such international forum. She called for parliaments at national; sub-regional and international levels to be given the necessary administrative and financial authority to enable them play their role effectively.

She urged that parliaments must be involved very early at the inception stage of global decisions by Heads of State that should affect the people. Merely asking individual Parliaments to ratify such decisions they were not part of, and then expecting them to ensure their implementation without any pre global inter-parliamentary assessment of, and decisions on the issues is a non-starter.

"After both presentations, Speaker Renner was given one- to-one interview with international media houses among which are the Swiss International Television and the Senegalese Television Crew headed by Mr. Rene Massiga Joof.

In addition to the main conferences, Speaker Renner also had bilateral talks with her colleagues among them Ms.Syada Greiss, member of the People's Assembly of Egypt and President of the IPU Coordinating Committee and Mr Rene Van Der Linden, the president of the Senate of Netherlands who requested to have an informal meeting with the speaker.

Their discussion centred on Gambia/Egypt cooperation in the area of health and the Africa/Netherlands cooperation respectively," the release concluded.