Hajia Hawawu Boya Gariba, Deputy Minister of Women and Children Affairs, noted that the seed of democracy lies in the principle that the legitimacy of power to make decisions about peoples lives, their society and their country should derive from a choice by those who will be affected.
“For many centuries the basis of this legitimacy was limited and many were excluded from making a choice: bonded persons, those without property or formal education and overwhelmingly, women were not given the franchise and so did not have a choice.
“The men folks were the voices of the voices of women….this unacceptable situation has since the past few decades changed. However, the quantum of representation in national legislatures is not significant and continues to dwindle especially in our case”, she noted.
Hajia Gariba said: “it is my conviction that if policy decisions and laws are to be made for the benefit of all members of society and in particular its larger segment of women.
“Then the extent to which the decision-making body is able to take into account the experience of the broad spectrum of the society will be the gauge of the degree to which its decisions will reflect its aspirations.
“The representation of women and the inclusion of their perspective and experience into decision-making process will inevitably lead to solutions that are more viable and durable and satisfy a broader spectrum of society.
She said: “That is the basis of our drive that women should be part of the process”.
Hajia Gariba noted that despite the drive and efforts women have made they continue to face difficulty in entering institutions of governance and high level decision making.
“Political Parties failed to choose women as candidates and the electorates reflect and act on the gender stereotypes in society by voting for men”, she stated.
The Deputy Minister therefore called on women to organize both inside and outside their political parties and encourage political parties to set down clear rules for selection of parliamentary candidates.
The Political Parties Manual on Women in Politics in Ghana seeks to advocate that women’s participation in governance can be facilitated by strengthening their representation and candidature in the election process.
The manual is being developed by the IEA, a think-tank, in collaboration with the National Democratic Congress (NDC), New Patriotic Party (NPP), Convention Peoples Party (CPP) and the Peoples National Convention (PNC).
Leadership of the various political parties are expected to adopt and sign at a later date the Political Parties Manual on Women in Politics in Ghana.
Representatives of NDC, NPP, CPP and PNC who have representation in parliament, as well as media practitioners, female members of parliament, aspiring parliamentarians and educationists are attending the three-day workshop.