He made the comments while addressing the Pacific Parliamentary Assembly on Population and Development and 7th Forum Presiding Officers and Clerks Conference in Honiara this last week.
Rodgers said Pacific countries are not fully utilizing the full capacity of the intellectual potential that God our creator had blessed.
“In some of our countries up to 50 percent of that capacity is not utilized for nation building at the political level,” he said. “There should be a possible way to introduce equity through possible changes in electoral reforms such as looking at a possibility of having two elected members for each constituency — one man and one women,” Rodgers said.
Conference chairman Toofuaivalelei Falemoe Leiataua urged all parliamentarians to support women empowerment. “As custodians of our respective legislatures we must start thinking about how we in our positions can commence a process that can lead to much greater involvement of our women in political leadership,” he said.
“They may or may not require chances in constitutional and legislative provisions. They may or may not happen. They may take a long time to happen. However, to make them happen, we must also believe in a future that is or can be better — a future that we, the presiding officers can contribute to as catalysts and instruments of change,” Toofuaivalelei said.
