Women in local government fund fails to realize target

Wa, August 21, GNA - The Women in Local Government Fund launched by the Ministry of Women and Children's Affair aimed at raising two billion cedis to support aspiring assemblywomen in the impending district level elections has so far fetched only 100 million cedis.

Mrs Nana Amma Oforiwaa Sam, an official of the Ministry disclosed this at a regional capacity building workshop, organized by the Ministry for aspiring assemblywomen in the Upper West Region held in Wa on Monday.

She named the United States Embassy as one of the few donors and urged aspirants to seek financial support from other sources in order to pay their foot soldiers and meet other campaign expenses. In all, forty out of the 55 aspiring assemblywomen, who had filed their nominations in the region, were attending the two-day workshop. They were lectured on the art of public speaking, confidence building, and the district assembly concept and campaign strategies among others.

She announced that an eleven-member board of Women in Local Government Fund instituted to raise fund to support aspiring women assembly members was now a permanent body, to ensure that adequate funds were raised to support women in all future district level elections. In his opening address, Mr George Hikah Benson, Upper West Deputy Regional Minister announced that, half of the government appointees to the assemblies would be reserved for women.

Mrs Kate Bob-Milliar, Upper West Regional Director of the Department of Women, urged the aspirants not to be perturbed by malicious propaganda being waged against them by their male rivals. She noted that the factor militating against aspiring women politicians was finance, disclosing that the region had only 500,000 cedis support from the Ministry of Local Government as assistance to the aspiring assembly women.