ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the launch of a caucus of women parliamentarians in the Network of Women at the Parliamentary Assembly of the Community of Portuguese-speaking Countries (NWPA-CPLP). Timor-Leste is a member and the NWPA-CPLP provided a framework and lent legitimacy to Timorese deputadas' collective action. The chapter draws on interview data conducted with women parliamentarians from five Portuguese-speaking countries: Timor-Leste, Mozambique, Guinea-Bissau, Angola and São Tomé e Príncipe. The chapter then examines the NWPA-CPLP and its role in mainstreaming and supporting its membership through capacity building and networking. It suggests that this women's caucus can play a role in furthering elements of an agenda for gender responsive budgeting (GRB) in national contexts. The chapter reflects on the conflicting forces at play; with women pursuing in this new institution another avenue to transform politics and policy, and a political context where patriarchal norms are prevailing and contradictory views of strategies to address gender inequality and gaps have not been tested.
