The Bill, which is also being drafted in collaboration with civil society groups and Ministries, Department and Agencies (MDA’s), aims at ensuring that there is fair representation of women in decision-making positions across the country.
At a two-day workshop in Koforidua with the leadership of all political parties in the country and other stakeholders, they resolved that they would work towards the passage of an AA law before the end of 2012.
The workshop, which was on the theme “Increasing Women’s Participation and Representation in Decision-Making: Using Affirmative Action Measures, in Ghana”, was sponsored by the International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (International IDEA). It was also attended by members of the Women’s Caucus in Parliament, three male representatives from the Gender Committee in Parliament, representatives of the Electoral Commission (EC) and development partners.
The participants discussed topics such as ‘Findings from various research/studies on women participation in politics-trends and challenges’, political parties role in promoting equal participation and representation of women and men’, Discussion on role of political parties in Ghana: Achievement and challenges, ‘A review of existing AA guidelines and various government directive’ and ‘Making a case for AA Law in Ghana’.
The workshop at the end issued a communiqué which among other things called on the government to enact a comprehensive legislation that would ensure that by 2012, there will be equal representation in parliament, district assemblies, boards of corporations and institutions within the public services, in strict compliance with the legal obligations imposed on the government under the 1992 Constitution.
The Minister for Women and Children’s Affairs, Mrs Juliana Azumah-Mensah, in a welcome address said the need for an AA law had become necessary in the country because globally, women had found themselves to be under-represented in governance and at most decision-making levels and Ghana’s situation was not any better despite the fact that they constituted 51 per cent of the population.
She said although Ghana set an example of Affirmative Action immediately after independence in 1960 by passing a Representation of People (women members in parliament) Bill, which elected 10 women unopposed to the legislature, making the country the first Sub-Saharan African country to practise AA, “50 years on, other countries have overtaken us with their numbers of women in the legislature continuously rising”.
She said the number of women in parliament was dwindling fast from 10 per cent in 2008 to 8.3 per cent presently, saying “Our task in this particular meeting would be to deliberate on effective ways of adopting Affirmative Action to circumvent the socio-cultural practices, attitudes and stereotypes which are impediments to women’s participation and representation in politics, in order to give them the opportunity to prove themselves to be excellent partners in leadership and decision-making”.
Quoting Mr Kofi Annan, former UN Secretary General, she said “study after study has shown that there is no effective development strategy in which women do not play a central role”.
The Senior Programme Manager on Democracy and Gender, Ms Rumbidzai A. Kandawasvika-Nhundu, said the time had come for countries in the sub-region to cultivate strategies and interventions that would help promote women’s equal participation in decision-making.
A commission member of the EC, Mrs Rebecca Adjalo, in a solidarity message recounted the numerous challenges that the EC went through in the organisation of the recently held District Assembly and Unit Committee Elections and said the introduction of an AA Law would help remove the bottlenecks that worked against women in order to make the election process easier, as well as create a favourable and enabling environment for women to participate in elections.
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