NATIONAL Assembly Speaker Tulia Ackson stated that while Commonwealth countries are keen to increase the number of women in parliaments, the focus should also be on having female legislators, who would make meaningful contributions and differences.
"It's not the question of just having more women in the parliament but we need women who are capable of making a difference and make their contributions more meaningful, while in the House," Dr Tulia argued.
She made the remarks on Thursday when officiating the regional sensitisation workshop in Dar es Salaam for Commonwealth Women Parliamentarians (CWP).
The workshop, which brought together women MPs from Commonwealth member states in the region, is aimed at discussing challenges and coming up with a way forward to increase the number of women in the legislature.
"The focus should now be on how women can have meaningful participation, we must show the difference. It's how we impact the society, it's not the matter of how we appear," she challenged women lawmakers.
Despite gains, women continue to be underrepresented in the Commonwealth countries, with Dr Tulia arguing that there was still a long way to go in achieving gender parity in parliament.
She told the participants to use the two-day workshop effectively, for sharing experiences to help and see how countries could work to increase the number of women parliamentarians.
"I believe you will be sharing experiences for inspiration. Look at challenges in a positive way, look at them as opportunities to increase the number of women parliamentarians," she urged, citing the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) Number 5 as their benchmark.
"We in Tanzania, have women account for more than 30 per cent of MPs. Participants will hear and learn experiences from Rwanda, which has reached more than 60 per cent. We should redouble efforts to increase the number of women and strengthen women's leadership roles. This will give more trust to women to sit in decision making organs," she added.
The Speaker explained that President Samia Suluhu Hassan has shown commitment to the agenda of gender equality.
Since she came into power, President Samia has been empowering women to hold high leadership posts in the government.
She appointed the first female Minister for Defence and National Service, Dr Stergomena Tax.
Currently, out of total 25 ministers, nine are women, while 37.4 per cent of all judges in the country are women.
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Earlier, CWP Chairperson for international and Africa, Dr Zainab Gimba explained that the workshop aimed at creating awareness over continued segregation of women in participation in the parliament.
"I urge all participants to take advantage of the workshop to deliberate on ways to increase women in Parliament," she appealed.
On her part, UN Women Country Representative, Ms Hodan Addou, told the women MPs that they have a crucial role in increasing more representatives in the House, so that countries could attain affirmative action of 50/50 ratio as agreed in the UN.
"MPs should take the lead in making an inclusive society. Through your work and partnership with UN women," she said.
She said, however, over the last decades countries have witnessed increased women representation.
She said it was unfortunate that violence against women has also increased despite increase of women in the parliament.
