Women groups agitate for the passage of Affirmative Action Bill

Women groups in the Upper West Region have called on Ghana’s Parliament to pass the Affirmative Action Bill as soon as possible to increase women representation in leadership roles in the public sector.

They said currently, women representation in Parliament stood at 15 per cent, which in their view was inadequate as compared to the women’s population against men in Ghana.

The group said the bill if passed would help change the social front of women just not only on positions in the public sector but also the other sectors, which were debilitating against their wellbeing and development.

Madam Lydia Darlington Fordjour, Gender Equality and Social Inclusive Coordinator at Community Development Alliance (CDA) made the call at a Regional Civil Society Advocacy (CSO) Forum on the Affirmative Action Bill and Non-Profit Organisation (NPO) Bill Legislation held in Wa.

She said women were an integral part of the liberation struggle and fight for Ghana’s independence and wonder why after the attainment of independence, they should now be side-lined to the background.

“Is this not an act of ungratefulness to the women front with the delay in passing the bill by parliament into law for all that while?” she quizzed.

The CDA Gender Coordinator said any country that had not included its women in decision making processes could not be described as a serious country, noting: “It is high time the bill is passed to allow women representation in parliament and district assemblies in terms of those elected and appointed, and all other spheres of government progressions”.

Madam Fordjour said research had shown that there had been gender imbalance in all spheres; imbalances in terms of women representation and participation in the public sector, which needed urgent attention to be addressed to promote gender equality for the progress of the country.

 She challenged female students in the tertiary institutions to be assertive and be willing to take up leadership positions and roles so that they could use such position to build their confidence levels to compete for higher leadership positions in the public and private sectors.

Madam Mercy Dakogri, Project Manager for Giving for Change Project at CDA bemoaned the existence of a proposed NPO Bill that seeks to tax, regulate, and limit the operations and advocacy roles of civil society and non-governmental organisations.

She said CSOs and NGOs, were development partners, it was absolutely wrong for them to be excluded during the formulation, drawing and implementation of a policy that sought to regulate and limit their daily operations and advocacy roles without their involvement in documentation of the bill.

She called for stakeholders’ engagement to find tune the document so that when it is birthed it would be considered legitimise and accepted by all saying, “We demand that our voices be heard in this regard.”

Madam Dakogri said there had been key issues regarding licenses of incoming CSOs and NGOs registration to operate and the processes were time consuming and those that were already operating had to renew their operations and pay taxes every year, even though their works and operations were charitable, and donor driven.

Some of the participants believed government’s resources were inadequate and were not reaching rural women as expected and that it was through CSOs and NGOs support that they rely on to help improve their Livelihoods.

It is the CSOs and NGOs that are supplementing our livelihoods and making us fend for our families, and therefore any attempt to tax them, regulate and limit their operations will be distasteful and warrant resistance,” they warned.

They said CSOs and NGOs were non-profit making entities and therefore the bill when passed would limit and restrict their advocacy and watchdog roles, which would be dangerous to the development of Ghana’s democracy, as that would hinder the activities of the voiceless in society,” they warned.

On the part of the Affirmative Action Bill, the participants called on the government to give more scholarship opportunities to women to further their education and as well provide tax releases to private entities that provided more jobs to women as measure to help narrow the gender disparity gap.

They also called for a halt to the frequent changes of ministers at the Gender Ministry, which they identified as a setback to the delay in the passage of the Affirmative Action Bill.

The participants reminded Ghanaians that this is an election year and that the country needed absolute peace efforts from each one, including the Fulani Herdsmen who had become part and parcel to contribution to sustain the country’s democracy.

The Community Development Alliance in partnership with STAR Ghana organised the forum for 65 participants drawn from the Wa, Lawra and Jirapa Municipalities, Wa East, Wa West, Daffiama-Bussie-Issa, and Sisaala West Districts attended the forum.

The forum sought to provide a platform for the people within the Civil Society space; women and youth groups, persons living with disabilities and other stakeholders including Queen mothers in the region to advocate for the passage of the Affirmative Action Bill and deliberate on the NPO Bill legislation and identify areas for improvement.

Source: GNA

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