ENCOURAGE WOMEN TO REDISCOVER TALENTS (PAGE 11, SEPT 21, 2010)

A member of the Council of State, Naa Seidu Braimah has called on chiefs to support women to rediscover their hidden talents since that was the only means to ensure their economic development.
He said women played very important roles in society and must therefore not be relegated to the background, especially when decisions were being taken.
He made the call during a training course for women traditional leaders in northern Ghana at Wa in the Upper West Region.
The course which was on the theme “leadership and natural resources management” was organised by the Centre for Indigenous Knowledge and Organisational Development (CIKOD) and sponsored by the Conrad Adenauer Foundation.
“Any disciplined society depends on traditional women leadership and I wish that our northern chiefs would recognise their roles by encouraging them in their endeavors”, he added.
He suggested to the Constitutional Review Commission that a clause should be inserted in the constitution to promote affirmative action and quota system for women.
Naa Braimah commended CIKOD for organising the workshop and said it would go a long way to build the capacity of the participants. He called on women not to feel shy but endeavour to participate at all levels of governance for their voices to be heard and make meaningful contribution to development.
The programme officer for the Conrad Adenauer Foundation, Mr Isaac Owes – Anza urged women to participate in the impending district level elections.
He advised traditional leaders to counsel prospective candidates in the elections to eschew violence by concentrating on issues instead of personality attacks.
Mr William Lartey of CIKOD was optimistic that the training would strengthen the collaboration between traditional women leaders in Northern Ghana and their counterparts in the South.
He called for the recognition of traditional women leaders in Northern Ghana by traditional councils and the Regional Houses of Chiefs.