NGO holds workshop on gender review process

Abantu for Development, a non-governmental organisation (NGO), is spearheading a gender review process, as part of a project to demand accountability to women’s right and gender equality issues in the local governance and decentralisation procedure.

The organisation supports district assembly women through training to function effectively in their role as local policy makers, and also educate the public on women’s leadership and the importance of gender equality and women’s empowerment.

As part of the process the NGO on Tuesday organised a day’s workshop on Gender Equality and Social Inclusion in Ghana’s Health Sector, for women’s assembly members, civil society organisations and journalists.

The workshop was organised in collaboration with STAR- Ghana, a multi-donor pooled organisation and Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development, to consolidate the key legislation on local government and decentralisation to serve as an opportunity for participants to share ideas and experiences on women and men for change’.

Ms Hafsatu Yusif of Abantu said the project is aimed at reviewing the zero draft consolidated Local Government Bill for gender gaps and develop sensitive policy guidelines and framework and consult stakeholders from diverse backgrounds on the Bill for their inputs into the revised Local Government Bill and decentralisation policy reviews.

It also focused on how to disseminate widely the gender recommendations from policy reviews and consultations in user-friendly formats to benefit citizens, consult and lobby policy institutions for the revision of policy documents and passage of the consolidated Local Governance Bill as well as monitoring the drafting and parliamentary processes on the passage of the Bill to guarantee the gender provisions in the law.

Ms Afuah Gyapomaa, also with Abantu said the project is aimed at promoting accountability to gender equality and women’s right in the local governance and decentralisation, by identifying strategies that would increase women’s participation in decision making.

She said there should be provision for ordinary citizens to sit in assembly sessions without contributing to the debate, while allocation of funds should be informed by gender.

Ms Gyapomaa said ABANTU believes that women’s participation and representation in decision making particularly at the grass roots is a right as well as a means to address the systematic causes of gender inequality and poverty.