Laws, policies, and cultural practices that discriminate against women must be revisited.

This was said by the Executive Director at the Ministry of Gender Equality, Poverty Eradication, and Social Welfare, Martha Mbombo, at a workshop on strategic planning and the work of the Women's Parliamentary Caucus held in Windhoek.

The three-day workshop is aimed at capacitating female MPs to advocate for and promote women's issues in Parliament.

The workshop is facilitated by a team of experts from the Inter-Parliamentary Union and advocates for the full and effective participation of women in decision-making and for women to be considered on equal footing with their male counterparts.

The Parliament of Namibia and the Inter-Parliamentary Union have a track record of collaborating in the area of gender equality.

Mbombo says it is the duty of the state to take appropriate policy and legal measures to eliminate discrimination against women.

Namibia signed and ratified the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women and its Optional Protocol.

Women make up only 25.6% of parliamentarians worldwide, and they continue to face many obstacles threatening to remove them from political life.

Mbombo says there is thus a need to promote equality for women.

The Inter-Parliamentary Union is an international organization of parliaments of sovereign states, established in 1889 to promote representative democracy and world peace.