THE SPEAKER of Parliament, Justice Adeline Joyce Bamford-Addo, has called on political parties to introduce a quota system for women to increase their participation in politics.
According to her, affirmative action such as the quota system was a critical measure for rectifying imbalances in women's representation in politics.
Opening the 2nd Conference of the Commonwealth Women Parliamentarians (CWP), West Africa Region, in Accra yesterday, Justice Bamford-Addo stressed that the quota system had the potential to motivate political parties to engage women.
Such deliberate policies, she pointed out, had led to an increase in women's participation in politics of Uganda, Rwanda and South Africa.
According to her, despite the fact that governments had adopted and adapted affirmative action measures, figures still indicated that globally, women were nowhere near half of the decision-making bodies as they constituted only 19 percent of the membership of parliaments in most countries.
A paper presented by CEO of AGE Ghana, Elizabeth Quarcor Akpalu, indicated that out of 188 countries, Ghana ranked 114th with 19 women out of a total of a 230-member parliament, comprising 8.3 percent.
Rwanda ranked first globally, in respect of representation of women in Parliament.
'Political parties across the sub-region must be encouraged to adopt these affirmative measures. Women's wings of political parties, as well as women caucus in our respective parliaments must press home for this demand and make sure it is carried through', Justice Bamford-Addo told the participants.
She however cautioned that even though affirmative action through political parties had more potential to increase women's awareness, experience had shown that the quota system could only succeed depending on the nature of implementation and the strength of women's movements.
'Political parties as well as governments have the tendency of manipulating and patronizing women in the name of affirmative action to mobilize support for governments to remain in power', Justice Bamford-Addo pointed out, urging the Association of Commonwealth Women Parliamentarians in the sub-region to develop itself into a strong women political force to make women assertive in calling for adequate representation in politics.
She disagreed with opponents of the quota systems who described the policy as undemocratic because women who benefited from quotas were not elected and therefore unrepresentative.
'I want to assure them that the world, as well as individual nations and political parties stand to benefit a lot due to the versatility of women', Justice Bamford-Addo stated.
The conference, which was on the theme 'Increasing Women Participation in Politics in Commonwealth West Africa-Role of Political Parties', attracted the leadership of Ghana's Parliament – Cletus Avoka, Majority Leader, Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu, Minority Leader, and members of political parties including New Patriotic Party (NPP) National Chairman Jake Obetsebi Lamptey.
The rest were General Secretary of ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC), Johnson Asiedu Nketia; Chairperson of the Convention Peoples Party (CPP), Samia Nkrumah, who is also the MP for Jomoro; Otiko Djaba and Anita De Souza, NPP and NDC National Women's Organisers respectively and members from gender-based civil society organisations.
The Chairperson of the Women's Caucus of the Parliament of Ghana, Hajia Mary Salifu Boforo, who is also the West African representative of CWP, bemoaned the declining rate of women representation in politics and governance at the local and national levels.
Further decrying that the dominance of men on the corridors of power and decision-making was still overwhelming, Hajia Boforo said the persistent gender disparity in the power structure at the national and local levels would continue to impact negatively on women's concerns unless serious action was taken to address to situation.
Minister for Women and Children's Affairs, Juliana Azumah-Mensah, said as part of efforts to increase the number of women participation in politics and governance, the Ministry had, with support from the International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (International IDEA) and other stakeholders, held a dialogue on the development of an Affirmative Action Legislation (AAL) to give women proper representation in decision-making.
By Awudu Mahama
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