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The General Secretary of the National Association of Local Authorities of Ghana (NALAG), Kokro Amankwah, has urged women to participate and take a keen interest in local government elections because they are as capable as men.
He explained that over the past years, women’s participation at the local and district level had decreased from 10.1 per cent in 2006 to 3.8 in 2019, which he described as not good.
Mr Amankwah, who was giving a talk at an engagement session organised by the Alliance for Women in Media Africa (AWMA) to enhance women’s participation in the next district assembly elections, said the decrease could be attributed mainly to the usual discrimination against women and some beliefs.
He further urged women to pick up every opportunity given to them and participate in local government elections as most of the district activities were about community development, which most women were naturally good at.
“Most of the services that the assemblies deliver in the community are roles that women can effortlessly play.
The participants in the community engagement
Some of these roles include sanitation, health and access to community water, which are all things that women can easily handle,” he said.
The community engagement with women in political governance at the grassroots was organised with support from the Canadian High Commission that gave an opportunity for a delegation of Canadian Parliamentarians to interact with the participants.
The Founder and Convener of AWMA, Shamima Muslim, said the alliance had, over the years, been interested in the development of marginalised groups in society, especially women.
“So whereas we deal with women in media and development issues, we are also looking at how the media, as a tool for development, addresses issues of disparities in our society and one of those issues is the under-representation of women in decision-making spaces, especially in local and national politics,” she said.
She added that the aim of AWMA was not only to engage them but to look into issues that have become a challenge to them and as media persons, craft campaign messages, coach them and give them the visibility they need for them to be successful in the coming elections.
An Assembly Member of Westlands, Victoria Esinam Assah-Offei, advised women willing to involve themselves in the district assembly elections to go down to the grassroots level to know their concerns and how they could help address them.
She further urged them not to be limited by any force but to hold on to hope and their values to make sure they achieve their aim.
