Kiribati's Women's Practice Parliament: Slow, Steady Gains in the Maneaba After Two Decades

In August 2011, Kiribati held its first-ever Mock Parliament for Women, bringing thirty women from Tarawa and the outer islands into the Maneaba ni Maungatabu (national parliament) after a three-day preparatory workshop. The exercise has since recurred as the Women's Practice Parliament, most recently in 2023, organised by the Maneaba ni Maungatabu with support from UNDP's Pacific Parliament Portfolio and funding from Japan and New Zealand, giving participants hands-on experience with parliamentary procedure, governance and public campaigning.
The programme has produced identifiable individual outcomes: 2023 participant Ruta Babo-Nemta went on to win election to Parliament in 2024, becoming Deputy Speaker and, at 35, the chamber's youngest MP. Earlier alumnae and beneficiaries of the wider push for women's political participation include Teima Onorio, who became Kiribati's vice-president, and Tangariki Reete, the chamber's first female Speaker.
Independent reporting is candid that the broader trend remains one of slow progress: in the last parliamentary term, women held just 8.6% of the 45-seat Maneaba (4 of 8 women candidates elected); historically Kiribati elected 3 women MPs in 2007, 4 in 2011 and 3 in 2015. For the August 2024 election, 18 women ran nationally — more than double the 2020 field — but a researcher cited by BenarNews predicted only 3-4 would win, underlining that two decades of practice parliaments funded by UNDP and foreign donors have moved the needle only gradually in a country where women make up 51% of the roughly 116,000-strong population.

Read the full analysis: https://www.benarnews.org/english/news/pacific/pac-kiribati-election-08122024224622.html