40 Years of Ghana’s Women Machinery
The National Council on Women and Development (NCWD) was established as Ghana’s Women Machinery 40 years ago to advance gender equality and equity. It was also to ensure the full integration of women in national development and empower women and girls.
The NCWD was established by NRCD 322, 1775 by the then Head of State, General Ignatius Kutu Acheampong, as a follow up to a UN Resolution calling on member states to establish an appropriate government machinery to accelerate the integration of women in development and eliminate discrimination against women.
The NCWD was also set up, among other things, to advise government on all matters relating to the full integration of women in national development at all levels.
The women machinery took special measures after the Beijing Conference of 1995, to develop and implement Ghana’s 15-year Plan of Action on the Beijing Platform and also worked on the development of a Gender Policy and Gender Mainstreaming Strategic Framework.
Elevation of status
In 2001, the status of Ghana’s National Machinery for the Advancement of Women was elevated from that of “Council on Women and Development” to that of a fully fledged ministry headed by a minister with Cabinet status.
Known as the Ministry of Women and Children’s Affairs, it was headed by the late Mrs Gladys Asmah as the political head, from 2001-2005 under the New Patriotic Party (NPP) administration, followed by
Ms Alima Mahama from 2005-2009. Ms Akua Sena Dansua assumed the misterial position under the National Democratic Congress (NDC) administration, followed by Mrs Juliana Azumah-Mensah and presently, Nana Oye Lithur.
The result of that humble beginning, is today’s Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection, with the mandate to address gender disparity, child rights promotion and development, as well as promote and protect the rights and welfare of children, the vulnerable in the society, the excluded, aged and people with disabilities, through social protection interventions.
40th anniversary
To observe the 40th anniversary of the Women Machinery, the Gender Ministry, in April last year, launched the celebration with a maiden gender dialogue on the theme, ‘Ghana Women’s Machinery:
Achievements, Challenges and Prospects’, which brought together stakeholders to discuss strategic measures for the promotion of the national gender agenda during which a number of projects and programmes undertaken over the 40-year period were assessed.
Looking at the operation of the Women Machinery over the past 40 years during the dialogue session, Ms Marian Tackie, a former Executive Director of NCWD, was reported to have said that it had achieved a lot through creating awareness of gender equality.
Over the years, the ministry’s achievements include the enactment of laws such as the Intestate Succession law, laws to criminalise harmful cultural and traditional practices such as Female Genital Mutilation, harmful widowhood rites and ritual servitude.
To empower women economically in the informal economic sector, mention could be made of the establishment of micro-credit schemes such as Women Development Fund (WDF) that continues to be used to improve the economic condition of women in Ghana. The WDF was established by the Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection (MGCSP) to offer credit to women in Agriculture, food processing and petty trading.
Nana Lithur reportedly asserted at the dialogue session that, “As a result, the NCWD over the years made various recommendations to government on law reform and advocated the promulgation of relevant legislation on matters in relation to the status of women in Ghana and subsequently recorded major achievements in law reform.”
Gender Policy
Cabinet approved the National Gender Policy that was launched last year. The policy provides broad policy guidelines, strategies and operations/actions in furtherance of government’s commitments to achieving gender equality and women’s empowerment targets in its national vision of “a stable, united, inclusive and prosperous country, with opportunities for all”.
The ministry has finalised the Affirmative Action Bill (AA Bill), which will soon be submitted to Cabinet for consideration and the second in the series of gender dialogues has been held to discuss the AA Bill.
The ministry also co-sponsored the Intestate Succession and Property Rights of Spouses bills, with the Ministry of Justice and Attorney-General and obtained Cabinet approval for both bills which are currently with the Joint Select Committees on Constitutional and Gender.
More to be done
However, as Ghana’s Chair to the United Nations Commission on Elimination of all forms of Violence Against Women (CEDAW), Ms Hilary Gbedemah was reported to have said, the country had an unparalleled legal framework with regard to ensuring gender equity but had not done much in the last 40 years towards achieving that objective
According to her, the country had come a long way but had little to show in terms of women’s participation in decision making. Currently, the country has 29 women in Parliament, out of a total of 275.
Perhaps, it was in response to this concern that Nana Lithur said the ministry would encourage more women to participate in decision making, particularly during this year’s parliamentary elections in November.
At a meeting with the media in Accra recently during which she gave an overview of the operations of her ministry and enumerated the ministry's projections for this year, Nana Lithur said being an election year, the ministry would initiate gender-dialogue sessions on the role of women in ensuring peaceful elections this year.
Strategies
She said as a strategy, the ministry would support and project women as agents for peace through advocacy in line with agenda 2030, which involved the development and implementation of a well-structured institutional set-up critical to the achievement of the ministry’s overarching mandate.
She also indicated that they would work closely with market women, and design campaign techniques to be used by women participating in the elections and teach them skills on how to campaign, and also help female candidates to have access to the media and give them visibility.
Acknowledgement
She acknowledged the support and assistance of Department for International Development (DFID), World Bank, United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF),United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), Danish International Development Agency (DANIDA), Canada’s Capacity Development Mechanism, and a host of local and international non-governmental organisations.
Nana Lithur said the ministry needed an office accommodation and also needed to address challenges facing social welfare officers in the districts to enhance their operations. She also mentioned resources as one major challenge confronting the ministry and said, the ministry received only 13 per cent of its GHC 38 million budget for 2015.
