Sunyani, March 30, GNA - 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=96discrimination as central to the success of
democratic ideals. Madam Harrison was speaking on the topic, 93Using
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, 93More
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=96Ahafo 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 93because 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.
