Society, families fail women interested in governance
Stakeholders in the country’s decentralisation process have expressed worry over the low participation of women and other vulnerable groups in the local government system.
Advertisement
The Head of Gender and Social Development Centre at the Institute of Local Government Studies, Mrs Magdalene Kannae, attributed the low participation to lack of support from families and society for interested women.
Lack of political will to ensure that women were adequately represented on the local governance structure, lack of funds to embark on election campaigns; specific cultural, religious and traditional norms were also cited as some of the factors prohibiting the effective inclusion of women in the local government system.
Women’s right forum
She was speaking at a forum on gender equality and women’s rights in Accra on Wednesday.
The theme for the forum was: “Making the district assemblies responsive to the needs of women.”
In 1998, the Government of Ghana gave a directive that reserved 30 per cent of the appointed membership of assemblies for women. Examination of the proportions of appointed officers over the years has shown that the directive has also not been implemented effectively.
Mrs Kannae said even though the local government Act 462 did not exclude any group of persons from being represented in the local government system, the practice and the implementation of the system had excluded some groups of people in society, including women and the disabled.
“There is no discriminatory law against women in politics, but there are overt and covert practices which hinder women’s abilities to lead successful campaigns alongside their male counterparts for political positions.”
Other Trending Stories
“One such cultural limitation is the monetisation of political elections since women rarely have the same personal economic advantages that men do,” she said.
She said the society, the central government and some stakeholders, however, did not see anything wrong with the absence of women and other vulnerable groups from the local government system.
Statistics
Statistics indicate that in 1998, 196 women were elected out of the overall 4,820 elected candidates and in 2002, 341 women were elected out of the 4,583 candidates elected.
Since 2002, administrative guidelines have required 50 per cent of appointed members of district assemblies to be women. While the quota has contributed in some ways to increase women’s presence, assemblies have not adhered totally to it.
Ineffective implementation
Mrs Kannae said those exclusions obviously indicated that the local government system was not being implemented effectively because it required that all societal groups be adequately involved in the decision-making process.
That, she said, was affecting the country’s decentralisation process as well as democracy.
According to her, there should be a conscious effort to include women and other vulnerable groups in the local government system to ensure equity in the system.
She said the strict implementation of the local government system would ensure that all groups of people, particularly women, who formed the majority of the national population, the disabled and other vulnerable groups in society, were involved in decision making, especially those that concerned them.
Convenor of Women’s Manifesto
In her remarks, the convenor for the Women’s Manifesto, Mrs Hamida Harrison, said the district assemblies had a lot to offer women.
According to her, the equitable representation of all groups in society in the local government system promoted democracy and accountability.
Mrs Harrison therefore called for the strengthening of the local government system by ensuring that there was equitable representation of all groups in society, particularly women.