Building upon past initiatives, Women and Media Collective (WMC) intends to consolidate its work on increasing women’s political representation in Local Government Authorities by working with women members of 20 selected trade unions.

One of the main objectives of the programme will be to enhance the capacities of trade union women by establishing a network among them, developing their leadership, negotiation, networking and other relevant skills to be eligible to and access leadership positions and to engage in decision making processes. WMC sees such processes as a platform for women to enter mainstream politics, focusing on the level of Local Government through women and youth wings of political parties.

A preliminary meeting was held with trade union leaders on the 7th of February 2013 at the Cinnamon Grand Hotel in Colombo. The main objectives of the meeting were to formally present the ‘Stepping Stones’ programme, to define the programme’s scope of work, including deliverables, to propose the project plan of action and implementation and to solicit inputs from union leaders regarding the implementation of the project, to determine mechanisms for stakeholders’ participation and to identify the Programme Team and the key point of contact/liaison for each trade union.