Women in governance build capacity

By William Yaw Owusu

Thursday June 17, 2010
A WORKSHOP aimed at encouraging women to participate in governance has ended in Accra with a call on government and civil society organizations to intensify efforts to get more women into positions of authority.

The one-week training programme was organized by the Institute of Local Government Studies (ILGS) in collaboration with SEND West Africa and had 11 women legislators from Sierra Leone as participants.

It forms part of the implementation of the ‘Kailahun Women in Governance Programme’ spearheaded by SEND West Africa and ILGS to increase by at least 50 per cent the number of elected women to local councils and parliament by 2012.

All national women organizers of the various political parties in the country were at the workshop to share their experiences with participants while their counterparts from Sierra Leone had the opportunity to learn firsthand how Ghana is promoting women in governance.

Topics discussed included the decentralization process and district assembly concept, women in national and local governance, gender and advocacy as well as how to form networks to promote women’s participation in governance.

Speaking on the topic “Experiences in promoting women’s participation in politics,” Dr. Rose Mensah-Kutin of ABANTU for Development said “the experience of election 2008 shows that powerful groups in society will on their own hardly move beyond the frontiers of power and self-interest.”

She said rather it was when the citizens pushed politicians and policy makers beyond that frontier and consistently worked towards the creation of an environment that foster principles of democracy, justice, equality, peace and development that the collective well-being will be safeguarded.

“Women will certainly continue to have their voices heard in the struggle against entrenched social inequalities, injustice and lack of efficient opportunities for their participation in politics and decision-making.”

She stressed the need to get “a critical mass of women in politics” so that effort to prevent discrimination against women in politics is sustained saying “women themselves have to strengthen their groups to provide leadership in women’s political participation.”

Dr. Mensah-Kutin also said development of the country and the consolidation of democracy could only be meaningful if it relied “on all the population for decision-making rather than half of it,” adding “other marginalized groups and the youth must also be considered for greater inclusiveness.”

Otiko Afisah Djaba, NPP National Women’s Organizer who also shared her experience with the participants said “in spite of our numerical advantage we have performed poorly in competitive politics because many of us are more comfortable with the opposite gender in politics than our fellow women.”

She admitted that promoting women’s participation in politics is not an easy task but it is a challenge should be embraced by every stakeholder so that there would be greater accountability, decorum, decency and diligence in the practice of politics.

“We urge all women to take greater interests in the administration and management of national resources. In spite of the tremendous obstacles and challenges that confront us, we do not have a choice but to involve ourselves in this noble duty to rescue our children from a future of poverty, conflict and hunger.”

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