LET'S ADDRESS LOW REPRESENTATION OF WOMEN IN POLITICS (PAGE 12, SEPT 28, 2010)

A PROGRAMME that seeks to address the severe under-representation of women at all levels of governance and decision making in the three Northern Regions has been launched in Wa, the Upper West regional capital.
Known as “promoting human security through the economic and political empowerment of women in the three northern regions of Ghana”, the programme would be implemented by the Foundation for Security and Development in Africa (FOSDA) in partnership with Training and Career Centre in the United Kingdom.
The objective of the programme is to increase knowledge, self-confidence and relevant skills of selected women and equip them to become successful candidates for elections at the local, district and parliamentary levels.
Launching the programme, the associate director of the Foundation for Security and Development in Africa (FOSDA), Miss Afi Yakubu, said all political parties would be engaged and persuaded on the importance of supporting women candidates.
“As a result and fitting in with the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and the Savannah Accelerated Development Authority (SADA), women’s representation at all levels would increase and women’s rights, including natural resources, education and participation in decision–making will be addressed,” she added.
She said the five-year project would be implemented in 13 selected districts with inputs from all stakeholders including community based organisations, traditional authorities and research institutions such as the University for Development Studies (UDS).
Miss Yakubu observed that despite the activities on gender mainstreaming, women still were under-represented and that “we can only succeed if we get our acts together and bring other stakeholders on board.”
At a validation workshop earlier, participants called on the government to, as a matter of urgency ensure that 50 per cent of the government appointees to the next district assemblies were women.
“Furthermore, the government should ensure that at least a third of the appointed Metropolitan, Municipal and District Chief Executives across the country were women,” Miss Amina Montia said on behalf of the rest of the participant.
She commended the government, especially the President, for signing into law the Savannah Accelerated Development
Authority (SADA) bill and called on all women groups in the SADA areas to take advantage of the opportunities to be made available in order to improve on their lot.
She applauded the Savannah Women’s Empowerment Group, Ghana initiative, as a non-partisan pressure group which monitors government policies towards women in the Savannah areas.