Daily Graphic (Pg.11) Sat., July 10/10
Article: Rebecca Quaicoe-Duho
THE issue of affirmative action seems to have received serious backing from women organisers of the four major political parties in the country.
The four, Ms Anita De-Sosoo, National Democratic Congress (NDC) Women’s Organiser, Ms Otiko Afisah Djaba, New Patriotic Party (NPP), Hajia Hamdatu Ibrahim Haruna, Convention Peoples Party (CPP) and Ms Christine Bentie of the Peoples National Convention (PNC), have added their voices to the call for affirmative action and other measures that would help increase women’s participation in governance in the country.
Currently, women constitute 19 out of the country’s 250-member legislature, whereas in other countries such as Rwanda, Mozambique, South Africa and Namibia, women are said to form between 30 to 50 per cent of their various parliaments.
The women organisers added their voice to previous calls made by gender activists from across the country who have, since the inception of democratic governance in the country, called for affirmative action and other forms of quotas to get more women to participate in decision making processes in the country.
Ms Djaba did not mince words when she took the podium to speak on the topic: “Strengthening women’s rights and gender equity: Towards a gender responsive constitution”, saying that “the practice of tokenism with which gender issues are handled by men should be discouraged by the constitution.”
The forum was organised by the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA) in Accra with the aim of collating views from the women organisers to make inputs into the constitutional review processes which was currently underway in the country. It brought together other women organisers from across the country, gender activists and other participants, including men.
According to Ms Djaba, a quota system could also be enshrined in the country’s constitution to “jump-start the process of increasing women participation in leadership and to incorporate them in the development processes.”
She also called for the political party laws to be amended as a way of compelling parties to select women for at least 30 per cent of the seats they contest.
Moreover, she said there should be measures to ensure that adequate safeguards were put in place to ensure that 30 per cent of the seats in a party’s stronghold were reserved for women.
Not only did she call for quotas and affirmative action, she also called for more budget support for the Ministry of Women and Children’s Affairs (MOWAC) so that they could support women to embark on more prosperous economic ventures to ensure that when they stood for elections they would be adequately resourced to finance their political activities.
“National budgets for the Ministry of Women and Children’s Affairs should appreciate to reflect Governments commitment to straighten women.”
Also, she called for the constitution to be amended to stipulate an appropriate percentage of the budget to empower women in business and in politics. Such funds, she said, should be distributed equitably and be devoid of party affiliations for micro credit financing and access, from the grassroots level.
She further suggested the need for people to invest in women who have the desire to contest political elections but do not have the resources, saying that most women have the desire but do not have the financial backing.
On education, which she said was a key component to increasing women’s participation in decision making positions in the country, she said in so far as the dropout rate for girls far exceeds the rate for boys, this will act as a barrier to women’s empowerment.
She therefore called for an inclusion of specific provisions in the constitution which would cater specifically for the girl child and safeguard their schooling, saying that such provisions must include sanctions against whoever compromises or subverts the education of the girl child among others.
She also called for legislative provisions which would provide affordable health and reproductive care for women and girls saying that the status of 51 per cent of the country’s population need to be improved for them to contribute meaningfully to national development.
On culture, Ms Djaba said although Article 26 section 2 states that "all customary practices which dehumanise or are injurious to the physical and mental well-being of a person are prohibited", saying that this was a "lip service" since 'trokosi', Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) and widowhood rites were perpetrated against women.
She concluded that "at the speed at which we are travelling, it is very glaring that we will not achieve the lofty ideals of equality between the sexes if we do not put in place a legal framework to fast track the process," adding that constitutional amendments alone would not be enough unless enforcement of laws were followed.
The NDC Women’s Organiser, Ms De-Sosoo, said statistically women constituted about 51 per cent of the country's population, yet have less representation in all spheres of society adding that throughout the world, human activities, practices and institutional structures were organised with respect to the social distinction people made between men and women.
She said for most part of the State, the law, politics, religion, higher education and economy, were institutions that have been historically developed by men and dominated by men and are symbolically interpreted from the standpoint of men.
She therefore suggested that to help increase women's status in terms of decision making, some parliamentary seats should be reserved for women to help increase women’s representation in parliament.
She mentioned some strategies that would help groom more women into decision making as building of capacity of women through skills training, grooming of women from tertiary levels and the training of women to be part of the political parties communication team to be abreast of current issues of governance to help build confidence in them.
The fact that women were perceived as lesser beings than men was a major concern for the CPP's Women’s Organiser, Hajia Haruna, who said society's appreciation of women issues were affected by beliefs which needed to be changed.
She said one challenge that prevented women from taking up political leadership was the fear that they would be tagged and labelled by men or sometimes their fellow women who use all manner of names including prostitutes and flirts which, in the end, dampen the spirit of several women who hitherto would have been good materials for political activities.
Hajia Haruna said although several laws and policies had been put in place to help increase women's participation, they had not achieved the right impact as more needed to be done for women to be accepted as equal to men by all in the society.
Ms Bentie of the PNC who also had similar concerns as the other women organisers called on women in the country, irrespective of their background, status, tribes and region to stand united in the fight for equality of opportunities in all societal and national development endeavours, saying that this would not be achieved on a silver platter but with hard work and persuasions.
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