KABUL (Pajhwok):  Canada’s ambassador to Afghanistan, Deborah Lyons, on Thursday said her country was making efforts at strengthening Afghan women’s abilities in politics because departments run by female administrators experienced low levels of corruption.
Lyons was addressing a training workshop for female members of provincial council members on its last and seventh day in Kabul.
The workshop organised by the National Democratic Institute (NDI) was aimed at introducing female members of provincial councils to each other and training them on how to effectively plan their programmes.
The ambassador said her country had spent 6.3 million Canadian dollars strengthening women’s political participation and empowerment in Afghanistan and would continue to implement needed programmes in this regard.
“In countries where women are leaders or in police, corruption level there is too much low,” she said.
Afghanistan is ranked third among the world’s most corrupt countries.
Lyons said women’s empowerment in diverse fields of Afghanistan meant empowerment of all women of the world.
In her address to female provincial council members, she said: “Afghanistan woman politicians are strong and I appreciate it.”
The ambassador said her country was assisting Afghanistan in reducing mother-child mortality rate and Canada strongly opposed to forced marriages.
NDI director Diyana Bowen said the week-long introduction programme came to an end on Thursday with participation of female PC members from nine northern provinces.
She said the participants were trained on how to effectively chalk out their programmes and establish close contracts with each other.
She said the NDI planned to arrange similar programmes in future with support from the Independence Directorate of Local Governance (IDLG).
One of the workshop participants, member of the Baghlan provincial council, Shah Jehan Ayubi, told Pajhwok Afghan News such programmes helped women improve their political skills.
She said she learnt many new things during the week-long training and hoped such events would be organized for other provincial council members.
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