THE Women’s Progressive Organisation (WPO), women’s arm of the People’s Progressive Party (PPP), will be convening its 16th Triennial Congress on November 24 and 25, 2012 under the theme “Strengthen WPO to Further Advance the Development of Guyanese Women.”

A WPO release said that this Congress will bring together women from the 10 administrative regions of Guyana who will spend two days of interaction, during which time, they will assess and evaluate the journey that was undertaken since the last congress and develop a road map for the next three years.
This will include a Strategic Vision which will be presented to Congress for Adoption, which will include the reports of the six Working Groups, the presentation of the Central Committee Report and the Elections of Members for the Central Committee.

The topics for discussion by the working groups are as follows:
1.       Strengthening the WPO
2.       Women in Decision making
3.       Women’s participation in income generation
4.       Violence against women and girls
5.       How to attract and motive young women into the political environment?
6.       What are some of the challenges facing families and how can the WPO help to overcome them?

This Congress is being held six months before the organisation begins its year- long celebration on the occasion of its 60th anniversary.
The WPO was formed at a very historic juncture of Guyana’s history when the first political party, the PPP was established.
The Peoples Progressive Party (PPP) recognised the role women had to play in the country’s political and economic development and undertook the task of setting up the WPO as the women’s section of the Party. Today, the membership spans all the ten regions of Guyana and across the ethnic divide.
The organisation said it acknowledges the tremendous role that was played by its founding member and President, the late President Janet Jagan, who provided humane services to the people of Guyana, through her involvement in raising the awareness of the oppressed and downtrodden people, especially women.
The organisation acknowledges the support by the party and its leadership for nurturing and providing opportunities for women to develop and participate in various decision making bodies of the Party’s hierarchy.
The WPO has championed a wide range of issues for the improvement of the status and conditions of Guyanese women and look forward to the next years ahead to be even more aggressive in our endeavours to defend and promote women’s rights to participate and influence decisions at every level of the decisions making processes of Guyana.