Sat. Jan.5/08 (page 11)
Story: Salome Donkor & Rebecca Quaicoe Duho
Women’s groups, individuals and organisations have advised women to actively take part in this year’s elections to enhance the representation of women in the decision-making process of the country.
A statement issued by the Minister for Women and Children’s Affairs, Hajia Alima Mahama, urged all women to actively take part in the vibrant political activities which would characterise the presidential and parliamentary elections this year.
The statement also called on women to offer themselves for political positions to increase women’s participation in politics.
The minister on behalf of all women and children of Ghana and on behalf of the ministry wished Ghanaians a happy and prosperous New Year.
She said “as we begin a new year, it is my prayer that God will grant us peace in our homes and communities so that we can all develop to our full potential and ultimately contribute towards developing our dear nation”.
She entreated all parents to take good care of their children and also give them good education so that “their children would be able to take good care of them and our nation, when we are old”.
She also urged children to take their studies seriously and to stay away from trouble.
She further urged all women to continue to work hard “as we have done in the past year in contributing to eradicating poverty, empowering ourselves and improving the standard of living in our homes and our nation”.
Hajia Alima also called on all to join in the fight against domestic violence, abuse and HIV/AIDS.
The Executive Director of the Ark Foundation, Mrs Angela Dwamena-Aboagye, said 2007 was significant for women human rights in Ghana.
She said the passage of the Domestic Violence Law (DV Law) in February last year and a number of educational programmes by gender activists on critical areas of gender equality, equity and women empowerment concerns at all levels, were positive steps towards improving the status of women.
Touching on this year’s presidential and parliamentary elections, Mrs Dwamena-Aboagye urged women to gear themselves up and see how best they could participate in the process.
She added her voice to earlier calls on aspirants of the various political parties contesting in the 2008 general election to consider choosing women as their running mates.
She also described the approval given by the Cabinet for the adoption of a gender-responsive budgeting guideline by all ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) as a positive effort to give a further boost to women’s participation in the taking of economic decisions.
She said since men and women suffered poverty differently, the system would help strengthen women’s participation in economic decision-making through their engagement in budgetary processes, and enhance the incorporation of gender into economic governance and leadership processes.
Mrs Dwamena-Aboagye also spoke about preparatory meetings billed to take place in the country on the Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness, which was signed by over 100 ministers, heads of agencies and other senior officials representing donor and recipient governments and multilateral aid organisations on March 2, 2005.
She said such meetings would provide a platform for donors and recipients to look at the development agenda of recipients and set out an agenda to make aid more effective and efficient to help developing countries' governments to formulate and implement their own national development plans, using their own prioritisation, planning and implementation systems wherever possible, stressing that the interest of the vulnerable groups would be catered for.
Dr Rose Mensah-Kutin, the convener of the Network for Women’s Right in Ghana (NETRIGHT), said although a lot had been done, there was still the need to do more advocacy work to promote the rights of women.
She also said efforts must be made to step up initiatives to operationalise the DV Act to achieve the desired objectives.
No comments:
Post a Comment