Kerala''s women empowerment programme gets C''wealth meet invite

Thiruvananthapuram, Feb 26 (PTI) Kerala''s womenempowerment initiative "Kudumbashree" has received invitationfor the conference of Commonwealth Local Government Forum(CLGF) to be held in Cardiff in the UK from March 15 to 18.

This was for the first time that a women self-helpmovement got invitation to present its experiences at aCommonwealth forum, a release from Kudumbashree said heretoday.

The Cardiff meet is a prelude to the Commonwealth Headsof Government Meet (CHOGM) to be held in October at Perth inAustralia.

The theme of the Cardiff meet is "Emerging localeconomies-partnership for prosperous communities" and exchangeof sound models and experiences of local self-governmentinitiatives would be the main aim of the meet.

As a component of Commonwealth, the ideas emerging fromCLGF would help in determining the policies of self-governmentbodies in the member countries. The Perth summit wouldconsider the recommendations from the Cardiff conference, therelease said.

"We are inviting Kudumbashree as a model initiative thatkeeps women economically active", CLGF Deputy SecretaryGeneral Lucy Slack said.

The delegates of Kudumbashree were invited to present apaper at the session on initiatives that created employmentopportunities for women at the CLGF Working Group sessionon March 16, the release said.

The biennial meet provides for a meaningful forum forlocal self-government ministers, city mayors, heads of othercivic bodies and officials and delegates from UNDP anddevelopment agencies.