Women were at the center stage in 2012

By: Rebecca Quaicoe-Duho
YEAR 2012 saw a lot of women achieving greater laurels while some also got entangled in bitter experiences. From international and political appointments, academic laurels to assault and battery, women became key players in a lot of issues from across the country and beyond.
A female food scientist, Dr Sabina Anokye Mensah, was earlier in the year appointed by the United Nation Commission on Sustainable Development (UNCSD) as a women’s major group organising partner for preparations towards the UN Conference on Sustainable Development which was held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in June.
Dubbed Rio+20, UNCSD was organised  in pursuance of the UN General Assembly Resolution that relates to the programme of action for sustainable development of Small Island Developing States. Dr Anokye Mensah is the Gender and Development Co-ordinator of the Ghana Regional Appropriate Technology Industrial Service (GRATIS Foundation) and she is also the focal person for the Voices of African Mothers, an international non-governmental organisation.
 Lawyer and Gender Consultant, Ms Hilary Gbedemah, was also elected as Ghana’s representative to the United Nation’s Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW). Her appointment followed a fiercely contested election at the UN Headquarters, New York. By her election, Ghana joins 10 other elected member states that would spearhead the activities of CEDAW from January, 2013.
 The Takoradi Polytechnic, for the first time in the history of the school, appointed a female, Mrs Sylvia Beatrice Oppong-Mensah, as its Registrar. The Rector of the Polytechnic, Rev. Professor Daniel Nyarko, together with the Chairman of the Polytechnic Council decorated her at her induction ceremony in Takoradi.
Also Mrs Patricia Ampofowaa Boso from Kumasi was adjudged the 18th National Best Teacher for 2011.The 18th National Best Teacher Awards was held in 2012.
 The Trade Union Congress (TUC), Ghana, elected its first female chair in the person of Ms Georgina Opoku Amankwaa. Ms Amankwaa, who was the Chairperson of the Public Services Workers Union (PSWU), made history in August when she was elected at the TUC’s congress in Kumasi as the first female chairperson.
In a similar vein, the Chief Executive Officer of L’AINE Services Limited, Mrs Ellen Hagan, was in September adjudged the Chartered Institute of Marketing, Ghana (CIMG) Marketing Woman of the year for 2011.
The Director of the Anti-Human Trafficking Unit of the Criminal Investigations Department of the Ghana Police Service, Superintendent (Mrs) Patience Quaye, was in September appointed as the Co-ordinator of Region 18 of the International Association of Women Police (IAWP) in Canada at the 50th IAWP training.
 Ghana’s ‘Chorkor fish smoker’ was in March 2012 hailed at the 56th Commission on the status on Women at the United Nation (UN) in the New York Conference. At a side event organised by Ghana at the conference, delegates gave thumps up for the use of a locally designed technology as an appropriate means to improve livelihoods of rural women.
 In the run-up to the December 2012 general elections, three political parties selected women as their Vice Presidential candidates. The first was the Progressive People’s Party (PPP) which selected Ms Eva Lokko, followed by the Convention People’s Party (CPP), which picked Nana Akosua Frimpongmaa Sarpong-Kumankuma while the People’s National Convention (PNC) picked Mrs Helen Sanorita Dzatogbe Matervi.
 In September, a gender-based violence court was commissioned in Kumasi by His Lordship Mr Justice Robin B. Batu, Ashanti Regional Supervising High Court Judge, to help in resolving domestic violence cases in a speedy manner.
African Queens were in the country in September to form a cultural leadership network. The over 15 queens who were at a conference in Accra, brainstormed on how to build structures for the formation of an African Women’s Cultural Leadership Network (AWCLN).
Also, for the first time in the political history of the country, two females led their political parties as flag bearers: Nana Konadu Agyeman Rawlings, former first lady, led the National Democratic Party (NDP) while Akua Donkor led the Ghana Freedom Party. They were both, however, disqualified by the Electoral Commission at the last minute.
At the end of the 2012 general election, 30 women were elected at various constituencies as Members of Parliament (MPs). The figure represents an increase from 19 women MP’s in 2008.

Women groups lobby president-For appointment of more women in next gov’t

Story: Rebecca Quaicoe-Duho
GENDER activists have petitioned President John Dramani Mahama to ensure that he fulfills the promise of ensuring that 40 per cent of women are appointed in the new government and in other public institutions.
They have also stressed the need for the NDC government to fulfill its Better Ghana Manifesto of having 40 per cent of women in public office by proposing names of women and supporting the President’s efforts.
In a petition to President Mahama and other members of the executive, the gender activists urged the Appointments Committee of Parliament to reject the Executive’s list of nominations for Ministerial, Deputy Ministerial and other public appointments if the list did not contain at least 40 per cent females.
The petition was put together by the Women in Law and Development in Africa (WiLDAF Ghana) and Partners of the “We Know Politics” Project, which include the International Federation of Women Lawyers (FIDA), The Hunger Project -Ghana and the Gender Studies and the Human Rights Documentation Centre.
The group also urged the Ministry of Women and Children Affairs and the Attorney’s General’s Office to expedite the process of drafting an Affirmative Action bill, stressing that “The NDC-led Parliament must pass the Affirmation Law as soon as possible”.
According to the group, the petition was informed by the commitment the NDC and government attached to affirmative action as stated in the 2012 Better Ghana Manifesto, page 26 to attain 40 per cent women’s representation in all public appointments.
It said it had taken note of the improved performance of women in the 2012 Elections where 30 women won, 14 of whom are from the NDC, and was also encouraged by Cabinet’s endorsement of an Affirmative Action Law for 40 per cent women’s representation in public office, as proposed by the Constitution Review Commission.
The group said it had also taken note of the victory speech by the President-elect, John Dramani Mahama, stating that he would consider ethnic, regional and gender balance in the appointment of officials in the government.
It noted that current political appointments did not reflect the commitment Ghana had made at both the national and international levels and would shamefully miss  target three of the Millenium Development Goals of a minimum threshold of 30 per cent representation of women by 2015.
Attached to the petition was the list of 65 potential women who could be considered for appointments in the next government, and they include the names of all the 14 NDC elected MPs; all the current female ministers and deputy ministers as well as outgoing ones in the present government, some active presiding and assemblywomen from various metropolitan, municipal and district assemblies across the country; some regional women organiser’s in the NDC and some gender experts and activists.
Others are NDC female parliamentary aspirants in the just ended elections, former female ministers in the NDC; some female chief executive officers; some female human right activists, former female Council of State Members, a female vice chancellor as well as some female heads of institutions.

Eliminating child labour is key to development

Story: Rebecca Quaicoe-Duho
THE last Ghana Child Labour Survey (GCLS) 2001 conducted by the Statistical Service of Ghana and published in 2003, reveals that 39 per cent of an estimated population of 6.3 million Ghanaian children aged 5-17 years were engaged in economic activities classified as child labour.
According to the survey, 17 per cent of these child labourers (1,031,220) were below 13 years and more than 242,000 of them were engaged in hazardous child labour.
Ghana ratified the International Labour Organisation’s (ILO) Convention 182 at its 87th session in June 1999 with various interventions undertaken with support from the ILO- International Programme on the Elimination of Child Labour (IPEC), by international and local NGOs.
International agencies such as the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and International Organisation for Migration have also made positive efforts to address the problem.
All these have resulted in the development of policies and legislations and the implementation of actions in identifying, withdrawing and rehabilitating children in various Worst Forms of Child Labour (WFCL).
However, these efforts have not yet resulted or met the set goals.
It is against this background that the Virginia State University and the Leadership Advocacy for Women’s Advancement (LAWA) in collaboration with the Ledzekuku Krowor Municipal Directorate of Education organised a day’s workshop for over 190 girls education facilitators and guidance and counselling coordinators in the municipality to help curb child labour in the municipality.
The workshop was on the theme: “Excessive child exploitation: Measures to increase school participation in the lives of children living with other families”.
A lecturer from the Virginia State University, Dr Nana Derby, said she was inspired to undertake the project of re-uniting children with their parents as a way of ensuring that they got better care in terms of educational and health needs.
According to her, the project has so far united 320 children in the Central and Eastern regions where their parents are also given start-up capitals to ensure that they become self sufficient.
Another 80 children, she said, were being prepared to be re-united with their parents as part of the project, saying that so far, assemblymen and social welfare officers in districts where the project was on-going have been trained to monitor parents to ensure that they do not give their children out again.
The children, she said, have also been given uniforms and other educational materials and their school fees have been paid in full to ensure that they stay in school.
She was of the view that more needed to be done to help children in such situations as people especially the affluent in society see the issue of housemaids as societal practice which needed not to be broken.
According to her, she was disappointed in some organisations which although are supposed to be humanitarian in nature, see her idea of eliminating child labour in homes as breaking the country’s culture.
The Chairperson of LAWA Ghana, Mrs Sheila Minkah Premo, said the constitutional requirement of ensuring that school aged children were put in school should be enforced in the country so that they can go through formal basic education.
Also she called for the enforcement of the provision in the Children’s Act which enjoins parents to send their children to school.
Mrs Minkah Premo whose address was delivered by Mrs Barbara Ayesu also called on teachers to monitor parents to ensure that they did the right thing by sending their children to school and give them the required environment to study.
She also called on parents to desist from using children in performing hazardous task, saying that although the labour laws allowed children to work at age 15, it prevented them from doing hazardous work.
The Director of Education of the Ledzekuku Krowor Municipal Assembly (LEKMA), Mrs Rosetta Addison Sackey, said child labour was an issue that needed to be eliminated from communities and pointed out that it hindered the progress of the child.
The LEKMA educational directorate has put in place measures that would ensure that child labour was eliminated from the municipality and that children were given the needed education that they required to excel in life.
The Guidance and Counselling Coordinator, LEKMA, Mr Roland Takyi, who spoke to the participants on skills needed to identify children in child labour and how they can help such children, called on them to ensure that they collaborated with relevant government agencies such as the Domestic Violence and Victims Support Unit (DOVVSU) of the Ghana Police Service and other non-governmental and child rights agencies such as the Ark Foundation and the Child’s Right International to help the children.
According to him, due to some cultural practices, children are used in homes as house helps with the intention that they would be sent to school but such children end up not going to school or being used for chores that does not promote their well-being.
Some children, he said, were abused sexually, physically, emotionally and psychologically which sometimes go undetected.
As counsellors, he called on them to be observant, caring, sensitive to the children that they handled, saying that it was only when they opened-up to the children that they could confine in them.
Mr Takyi however told them to be on the lookout at all times, saying that sometimes, a single indicator such as a cut on a childs finger could not be used as a pointer to abuse.
The Greater Accra Regional Girls Educational Officer, Ms Gertrude Simpi Amuzu, called on the teachers to help in the campaign against the use of children as street hawkers so that they can have time to study their books.
She also called on the teachers to also encourage parents so that they allow the children to study.

30 Women MP aspirants sail through keenly contest

Article: Rebecca Quaicoe-Duho

The anxiety and uncertain clouds that surrounded the gains of female aspirants in the polls can now be assuaged as 30 women from all the ten regions have so far successfully sailed through in the just ended keenly contested parliamentary election.
The regional breakdown is Eastern 3, Greater Accra 8, Central Region 4, Ashanti Region 4, Volta Region 4, Brong Ahafo Region 2, Western, Northern, Upper East and Upper West one each.
Subsequently Ghana’s next parliament is set to have more women since the beginning of the Fourth Republic which started in 1992.
Since independence, the 2012 parliament will go down in history as the one with the most women.
In the First Republic, which started from 1960 to February 14, 1966, Ghana’s first President, Dr Kwame Nkrumah, introduced an affirmative action which saw 10 women being elected into the 104 all-male parliament.
In 1965, a similar affirmative action by Dr Nkrumah sought to increase the number of women to 19 but his reign was truncated mid-way.
The Second Republic started from 1969 to 1972 and there was only one woman in the 140 seat parliament.
The Second Republic was overthrown by I.K. Acheampong who ruled from 1972 to 1979.
In the Third Republic, which was under Dr Hilla Limann from 1979 to December 31, 1981, there were five women in the 140 seat parliament.
The Fourth Republic started from 1992 and there were 16 women in its first Parliament of 200 members while the second parliament of the Fourth Republic with 200 members, started from 1996 with 18 women.
The third parliament of the Fourth Republic (2000-2004) had 19 women in the 200 seat parliament, and the Fourth Parliament of the Fourth Republic (2004-2008) with 230 members has had the highest number of women (25) in Parliament.
The 230 member House constituting the fifth parliament of the fourth republic in 2008 saw the number of women representative dropping to 20 and further dipping to 19 after one member, Mrs. Doris Asibi Seidu, former MP for the Chereponi Constituency died.
Female representative in the 275-member House which will be the sixth parliament will see a further increase to 29 representatives.
A total of 133 women who contested in this year’s parliamentary elections represent a 30 per cent increase in that of 2008 figure of 104 women contesting and it is the highest number of women who have contested parliamentary seats in Ghana’s political history.
Some MPs like NPP’s Catherine Afeku and Samia Yaaba Nkrumah of the CPP all from the Western Region were casualties while some veterans such as Mary Boforo and Gifty Klenam, managed to win their seats.
Out of the 133 women aspirants, Greater Accra region fielded the highest number of 34, followed by Ashanti 26, and Central 15. The rest are western and Eastern 12, Volta 10, Northern 7, Brong Ahafo 6, Upper East 6 and Upper West 5.
The Greater Accra produced the most female representatives of eight from the Ablekuma West Constituency, which was one of the 45 newly created constituencies and was won by Ms Ursula Owusu for the NPP, the Ledzokuku seat which is also new and was won by Mrs Benita Okity-Duah of the NDC, the newly created Weija constituency won by Ms Rosemund Comfort Abrah on the ticket of the NPP, the Dome/Kwabenya seat won by the NPP’s Ms Sarah Adwoa Safo, Ada was won by Ms Comfort Doyoe Cudjoe Ghansah of the NDC, Anyaa Sowutuom was won by Ms Shirley Ayorkor Botchwey who the NPP’s incumbent MP for the area and Ms Irene Naa Torshie Addo retained the Tema West seat for the NPP.
The reason for the Greater Accra’s high number can be attributed to it being the capital, cosmopolitan in nature and also having relatively more educated people.
The Central, Ashanti and Volta regions produced four MPs each. In the Central Region Ms Queenstar Pokua Sawyerr of the NDC won the Agona East seat, Ms Hanna Serwaa Tetteh of the NDC won the Awutu Senya West seat, Ms Racheal Florence Appoh won the Gomoa Central seat for the NDC and Ms Georgina Nkrumah Aboah of the NDC also won the Asikuma Odoben Brakwa seat.
The Ashanti Region had Ms Patricia Appiagyei of the NPP winning the Asokwa seat, Ama Pomaa Andoh won the Juaben seat for the NPP, Ms Elizabeth Agyeman retained the Oforikrom seat for the NPP and the Manso Nkwanta seat was won by Ms Grace Addo of the NPP.
Those who won in the Volta Region are; Mrs Juliana Azumah-Mensah of the NDC who was re-elected but to the newly created Agotime Ziope seat, Hohoe constituency was won by Dr Mrs Bernice Adiku Heloo of the NDC, Ms Helen Ajoa Ntoso won for the NDC to represent the people of Krachi West and the Kpando Constituency was won by the NDC’s Dellah Sowah.
The Brong Ahafo Region is represented by Ms Freda Prempeh, Tano North and Dr. Hanna Louisa Bisiw, Tano South.

Freda Prempeh, new MP

The Eastern Region had three women winning from Abirem represented by the NPPs Esther Obeng Dapaah an incumbent, Ms Abena Osei Asare representing the newly created Atiwa East seat for NPP and incumbent Ms Gifty Klenam of the NPP representing Lower West Akim.
The Western, Northern, Upper East and Upper West had one female each who are incumbent MP for Tarkwa Nsuaem’s Gifty Eugenia Kusi of the NPP, Hajia Laadi Ayii Ayamba of the NDC won the Pusiga seat, Mary Salifu Boforo of the NDC won the Savelugu seat and Ms Sulamana Alijata won the Sisala East seat for the NDC by beaingt the PNC’s Moses Dani Baah who was the incumbent MP, and the NPP’s Sahaku Amidu Chinnia who was her closest contender.
It is expected that the new faces like former DCE of Sissala East, Ms Alijata Sulemana, Ms Hannah Bissiw, Works and Housing Deputy Minister, and Ms Ursula Owusu who have distinguished themselves in their respective careers together with the 'veterans’, would advance the cause of women in the House.