Women seek exclusive forum with presidential candidates
Women groups in the country are seeking a special forum with presidential candidates of all the political parties contesting the December polls to discuss their agenda for gender equality and women empowerment in the post-elections era.
Ms Bernice Sam, National Programmes Coordinator of Women in Law and Development Africa (WiLDAF) Ghana, announced this on Wednesday at the launch of a project dubbed “We Know Politics” designed to highlight gender equality and women’s empowerment concerns, especially in the run-up to the December poll.
She said letters had been written to all the flag bearers and some had given positive responses, adding that hopefully the forum would come off live on Ghana Television (GTV) in October.
Ms Sam said prior to the presidential forum with women, there would be 10 regional consultations involving 500 women, national capacity-building leadership workshop for 40 women, a two-day training session for 200 legal literacy volunteers from all 10 regions and other activities, all designed to collate and unify women’s agenda for the forum.
“The project is expected to increase the number of women voted for in the December poll to ensure that women played leading roles in politics and decision making from this year and beyond,” she said.
The project would cover the period between July 2008 and February 2009.
Ms Sam noted that it was not as if women did not know politics, saying that women had been very active in the politics of Ghana, and the project sought to improve their participation.
She also noted that Election Day was a Sunday which posed challenges for women who usually go to church in the morning and prepare lunch for the family after church.
“We are therefore working with the Christian Council of Ghana to impress it upon the churches to hold only one service on December 7 to enable everybody including women to have enough time to meet their domestic commitments and vote as well,” she said.
Other activities lined up as part of the “We Know Politics” project, which is sponsored by the Netherlands Embassy and the United Kingdom’s Department for International Development (DFID), include public education programme on their civil rights, the role of parliamentarians and encouraging people to vote for female candidates.
The project would also be used to lobby eminent Ghanaians and key media analysts to include gender concerns in elections discussions.
Mrs Marilyn Amponsah-Annan, Director, International Desk for Children at the Ministry of Women and Children Affairs (MWCA), noted that even though women played leadership roles in business, civil society and other spheres, their participation in politics was rather abysmal.
“There are currently only 25 women out of 230 parliamentarians and only four women out of 30 ministers and only 14 women deputy ministers,” she said.
She lauded the “We Know Politics” project, saying that it had come at an opportune time when political parties were seeking public mandate to govern the country.
Mrs Amponsah-Annan called on women to take advantage of lobbying by organizations like WiLDAF to improve their leadership, public speaking and lobbying skills, which were necessary for politics and decision making.
Mrs Gifty Afenyi-Dadzie, Member of the Council of State, who launched the project, called on all women to get involved in the project to send a message that women did not just talk but meant business in their call for gender equality and empowerment.
She led the several women groups at the launch ceremony to sing the famous civil activist song “We shall overcome” to bring their seriousness about wanting equal rights home.
Ms Lidi Remmelzwaal, Ambassador for Netherlands, said as development partners of Ghana, her country was also interested in good governance and equal rights in Ghana, adding it was her hope that the project would promote those two values and ultimately ensure peaceful, free and fair election.
Dr. Sonya Sultan, Social and Development Advisor, DFID, said the world was unequal and people had always had to fight for equal rights even thought that was the fundamental rights for all.
“Robust democracy is the type that ensures equality for all, especially women, because without the empowerment of women, development will elude less developed countries like Ghana,” she said.