Narration: Political party representatives at a just ended validation workshop in Bolgatanga have recommended that women be given enough resources and orientation to boost their confidence in district local elections. According to them the increasing poor performance of women during assembly elections are partly due to the absence of financial and other resources to fund campaigns and appealed to all to give women the necessary support and training to enable them compete strongly with their male folks. Women, they further proposed should be given the needed educational support for them to deliver up to expectation. The workshop organized by the Regional Intersectoral Gender Network with funding from Action Aid Ghana,
brought together stakeholders including past and present assembly women, chiefs, political party representatives as well as heads of decentralized departments among others. Isaac Asare was there for Radio Ghana.
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Other participants at the workshop also stressed on the urgent need for women to demonstrate their commitment by nurturing and encouraging other women to aspire for leadership positions. To them, women’s participation in political life is pivotal to social development considering the significant and invaluable role they play to the development processes. They were of the belief that women are the core actors of the society and needed the required push and recognition only if we are to get anywhere with our development agenda as a country. They however challenged other assembly women to see to it that positions held are occupied by their colleagues any time they leave office. They also commended some supporting NGOs, particularly Action Aid Ghana for the numerous advocacy training workshops for women and charged them to do more by assisting women financially during district local elections. The Upper East Regional Director of the NCCE, Mr. Peter Mensah share the belief of the participants but was much concerned about the partisan manner at which district local elections are conducted. According to him, district local level elections are supposed to be non-partisan as stipulated in the 1992 constitution. He said the district assembly concept is a noble concept and should be exercised devoid of partisanship; any breach of the constitution could be described as an act of indiscipline. Mr Mensah reminded Ghanaians that until the law is amended the status quo remains valid and should be adhered to. Reflecting on the overall performance of women contestants in the last District Assemble Elections, the Programs Manager of Action Aid, Gregory Dery disclosed that out of the total of 484 persons that were elected and appointed, only 64 were women with Bongo district exceeding the 40 percent quota proposed by government. The situation, Mr Dery observed leaves a cause to worry and mentioned financial constraints, interference, and negative socio-cultural practices as some of the reasons accounting for the poor performance of the women in assembly elections. On other factor identified was the fact that women are not recognized as leaders in the communities. Moreover challenges including lack of means of transport, lack of time for political campaign and late start of campaign still remain a hindrance to women’s participation in assembly elections. The problem Mr Dery indicated cuts across the regions particularly in areas where women are relegated to the background in all spheres of political and social life. The workshop, he explained, was therefore organized to share experiences of past local elections, identify the root causes of poor performance of women in local elections and recommend possible solutions and strategies to enhance women’s participation and performance at the next local level elections. Mr. Dery however encouraged participants to provide constructive ideas and actions that could contribute in ensuring more women representatives at the district assemblies. Mr Dery in reaction to some of the concerns raised renewed Action Aid’s preparedness to break the many obstacles that women face in order to help them take full and active participation in decision making at all levels including local governance.
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