After a week-long intense program hosted by the United Nations Population Fund [UNFPA] in partnership with the National Parliament, youths that took part in the Mock Parliament can walk away with knowledge and skills on how to conduct themselves in parliament, should they wish to go into politics in the future.
UNFPA Youth Coordinator, Bronwyn Kili shared that it had been an intense week but is proud of how far the youths have come over the course of the program.
“It has been an intense week I’d say, for both the facilitators and the participants as we’ve had both day and night sessions, covering everything that we needed to cover,” Kili said.
At the start of the week, Killi stated that they covered mostly topics based on Gender Based Violence, Sexual Reproductive Health and other key issues that youths face that UNFPA have been moving forward to address.
Meanwhile, the rest of the week then shifted focus to Governance, where Ethical Leadership and Anti-corruption were some of the key elements discussed with the youths.
Overall Kili said its been intense with the mock sittings that they have had because of the diversity of the youth that participated this year.
“We’ve had some people from Port Moresby and we also have about 30 youth from outside provinces who also joined for this parliament,” Kili stated.
One of the features in this year’s Mock Parliament was the inclusion of an actual member of parliament in East Sepik Governor, Allan Bird who shared his experience in his journey to becoming a leader in parliament.
“We wanted the youths to have an interaction with a parliamentarian leader who could share not only his experience as a leader but his journey that led him to where he is now,” she said.
Kili further stated that it was refreshing to have a politician to visit and inspire the youths.