WPTT opens applications for YES 2026

The Women Par­lia­men­tar­i­ans of Trinidad and To­ba­go, WPTT, has opened ap­pli­ca­tions for Co­hort Three of its Young Women Em­pow­ered to Serve, YES, Lead­er­ship Pro­gramme 2026.

WPTT is a non-prof­it or­gan­i­sa­tion es­tab­lished to sup­port and em­pow­er past, present and fu­ture women par­lia­men­tar­i­ans and to re­move so­cio-eco­nom­ic, cul­tur­al and po­lit­i­cal bar­ri­ers to the ef­fec­tive par­tic­i­pa­tion of women in Par­lia­ment and oth­er de­ci­sion-mak­ing spaces.

Car­olyn Seep­er­sad Bachan, Projects and Pro­grammes Of­fi­cer, said the or­gan­i­sa­tion emerged from the need to in­crease women’s rep­re­sen­ta­tion in po­lit­i­cal lead­er­ship.

“Notwith­stand­ing that women com­prise over half the pop­u­la­tion of Trinidad and To­ba­go, there re­mains a dearth of women in po­lit­i­cal de­ci­sion-mak­ing spaces. WPTT was there­fore born out of the recog­nised need for women to have equal op­por­tu­ni­ty to par­tic­i­pate ac­tive­ly at all lev­els of de­ci­sion-mak­ing, not­ing that op­ti­mal de­vel­op­ment can on­ly be achieved with the ef­fec­tive par­tic­i­pa­tion of women.”

WPTT de­vel­oped the YES Lead­er­ship Pro­gramme to strength­en the lead­er­ship ca­pac­i­ties of as­pir­ing women lead­ers and to sup­port their par­tic­i­pa­tion in leg­isla­tive and gov­er­nance process­es.

The pro­gramme tar­gets women aged 18 to 29 and com­bines the­o­ry with prac­tice through work­shops de­signed to build lead­er­ship con­fi­dence, re­search and de­bate skills, pub­lic en­gage­ment, ad­vo­ca­cy strate­gies and eth­i­cal de­ci­sion-mak­ing. Cur­rent and for­mer women par­lia­men­tar­i­ans, sub­ject-mat­ter ex­perts and ex­pe­ri­enced prac­ti­tion­ers fa­cil­i­tate the ses­sions.

“In en­sur­ing that par­tic­i­pants are equipped to nav­i­gate con­tem­po­rary po­lit­i­cal and so­cial is­sues ef­fec­tive­ly, the pro­gramme in­cor­po­rates gen­der main­stream­ing in sus­tain­able de­vel­op­ment, eth­i­cal lead­er­ship, and the prop­er and ef­fec­tive use of AI in pol­i­cy mak­ing to en­hance cre­ativ­i­ty and in­no­va­tion whilst main­tain­ing the au­then­tic self,” Seep­er­sad Bachan said.

Par­tic­i­pants take part in a sim­u­lat­ed par­lia­men­tary de­bate, a com­mu­ni­ty out­reach phase and diplo­mat­ic en­gage­ment ses­sions that ex­pose them to in­ter­na­tion­al per­spec­tives on gov­er­nance, con­flict res­o­lu­tion and glob­al co­op­er­a­tion. Suc­cess­ful par­tic­i­pants re­ceive cer­ti­fi­ca­tion recog­nis­ing their lead­er­ship train­ing and par­lia­men­tary en­gage­ment ex­pe­ri­ence.

The 2026 co­hort will run from April to Au­gust and will com­bine vir­tu­al and in-per­son ses­sions. The sim­u­lat­ed par­lia­men­tary de­bate will take place in Ju­ly, fol­lowed by the com­mu­ni­ty out­reach phase dur­ing Ju­ly and Au­gust.

Women aged 18 to 29 who are cit­i­zens of Trinidad and To­ba­go and in­ter­est­ed in lead­er­ship, ser­vice and na­tion­al de­vel­op­ment can ap­ply through WPTT’s on­line plat­form. Ap­pli­ca­tions opened on 2 Feb­ru­ary 2026 and close on 2 March 2026. Ap­pli­cants must sub­mit a three-minute per­son­al state­ment video. WPTT will se­lect fifty par­tic­i­pants through a struc­tured eval­u­a­tion process.

Re­flect­ing on the pro­gramme’s im­pact, Seep­er­sad Bachan said, “Over the last two years, mem­bers of WPTT have had the sat­is­fac­tion of ob­serv­ing young as­pir­ing women emerge from the pro­gramme with con­fi­dence, with their own lead­er­ship style, and as 21st-cen­tu­ry agents ca­pa­ble of mod­ernising and trans­form­ing fu­ture par­lia­ments of Trinidad and To­ba­go.”