By Arnold Ageta
Women parliamentarians from across the Great Lakes region will meet in Tanzania in November to push for stronger gender-responsive policies on peace, security, development and natural resource management.
The four-day Women Parliamentary Conference (WPC), organised by the Forum of Parliamentarians of the International Conference on the Great Lakes Region (FP-ICGLR), will be held at the Julius Nyerere Convention Centre from November 2 to 5, 2026.
FP-ICGLR Secretary General Ambassador Dr Deo Mwapinga said the conference would seek to move beyond discussions of challenges facing women and focus on practical policy action.
“The Women Parliamentary Conference … is intended not only to recite the issues facing the women of our region but also to provide a space where actionable policy, commitments on peace, security and development, viewed through a gendered lens, will be developed,” Mwapinga said.
The conference will bring together women parliamentarians alongside civil society organisations, women-led groups and youth networks in a bid to widen participation in discussions on regional development and security.
Among the issues on the agenda will be the implementation of UN Security Council Resolution 1325 on Women, Peace and Security, sustainable management of natural resources and gender-responsive legislation governing the mineral sector.
The meeting will also examine how governments can harness Africa’s youthful population to promote innovation and technological advancement through supportive legislation.
Mwapinga said peace, security and inclusion must underpin regional integration, warning that economic cooperation cannot deliver lasting development without a stable foundation.
“I say this to reiterate the undeniable significance of peace, security, and inclusion as foundations of development and prerequisites for advancing the regional integration agenda,” he said.
The conference comes as the region faces a range of challenges, including the Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo, forecasts of a strong El Niño and continuing displacement of populations.
Mwapinga said women are often on the frontline during crises and that the conference would examine how insecurity affects women and communities and how countries can strengthen collective responses.
He also called for stronger African-led responses to challenges affecting the continent, citing rising energy costs and uncertainty in global affairs.
“This is what I call a south-south cooperation. Put otherwise, African problems for Africa-led solutions,” Mwapinga said.
Tanzania was chosen to host the conference because of its historical role in regional peace and security initiatives, including the 2004 Dar es Salaam Declaration that gave rise to the ICGLR framework.
Mwapinga also cited Tanzania’s record of women’s participation in political and decision-making institutions and the country’s history of women in national leadership as factors making it a fitting venue for the meeting.
He said the conference would seek to address the continued marginalisation of women in decisions affecting peace, security and development, drawing on the question popularised by feminist scholar Cynthia Enloe: “Where are the women?”
Through the conference, Mwapinga said, the organisers hope to contribute to policy development and the practice of international relations and regional integration.
The conference will be held from November 2 to 5 at the Julius Nyerere Convention Centre in Dar es Salaam.
