Mad Hamida Harrison,Convener for Women’s Manifesto Coalition, a non-governmental organization, has noted with regret that few women in the country hold decision making positions and this “makes the existing political structure undemocratic.”
She said this was in spite of the fact that the Constitution and other laws recognized the principles of equality and the right to non–discrimination as central to the success of
democratic ideals.
Madam Harrison was speaking on the topic, “Using affirmative action initiatives to enhance women’s participation in governance” at a one day forum in Sunyani.
It was jointly organised by the Coalition and Abantu for Development, also an NGO, with support from the European Union.
The sensitization forum, which was under the theme, “More seats for women in Elections 2012” was attended by 52 women drawn from Sunyani Municipality and aimed at increasing women’s participation and representation in Election 2012.
Mad Harrison said although Ghana was a signatory to international conventions for the promotion of gender equality as a right and acknowledged women’s participation as critical
in building democracy, not much had been done to implement those conventions.
She said many countries had attained the 30 per cent threshold recommended by the Beijing for Action through the use of affirmative action and called on the government to use affirmative action policy in Election 2012 to promote women’s
participation and representation in decision making.
“It is high time women represent their own interests as they have long been represented by men who know least about their interests,” she said.
Mad Harrison said the representation of women in the legislative setting was not encouraging, with only 19 women out of the 230 representatives of the people in Parliament for the population of 24 million, with women in the majority of about 52 per cent.
Madam Harrison appealed to the legislature to formulate laws that would increase women’s participation in decision making and called on political parties to also raise the number
of women candidates who participate in elections.
“Affirmative action must be introduced to make women provide inputs in governance”, she said.
Mr. Michael Amponsah, Deputy Brong–Ahafo Regional Director of the National Commission for Civic Education, said it was social justice to promote women at all levels of decision making because they were in the majority.
“At all levels 50 per cent of women should be present but the state has only 18 per cent of women in Parliament”, he noted.
Mr Amponsah said in terms of resource allocation 80 per cent was allocated to men “because women are under-represented in the decision making process” and called for women to be fully integrated into mainstream governance for
economic development.
He urged women to take interest in programmes that would empower, enhance, and promote their growth in the political,economic and social sectors and urged those in government to empower women through training and other educational activities.
Mr Amponsah called on municipal and district assemblies to train women in advocacy, lobbying and public speaking to equip them to take leadership roles since they had long been marginalized.