19-06-14
Some women in leadership have proposed that women should
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 primary due to the absence of financial and other
resources to fund campaigns and appealed to all
concerned individuals and agencies to give women the necessary support
and training to be able to compete
strongly with their male folks. Women, they further proposed should be given
the needed educational support for them to deliver up to expectation. These concerns
were raised at a day’s workshop organized by the Community Development and
Advocacy Centre, CODAC, with support from Ibis Ghana at Bongo in the Upper East
Region. The meeting was to dialogue with the various political parties to
solicit support for the profiled women for the upcoming Unit Committee and
District Assembly Elections. It brought together stakeholders including past
and present assembly women, opinion leaders, political party representatives as
well as heads of decentralized departments. In a presentation, the Programmes
Manager, Seidu Musah Akagri, told Radio Ghana that his office through effective
interaction with communities and research conducted on women leadership in the
2010 district assembly elections discovered low participation and
representation of women in local governance. CODAC since the discovery has been
collaborating with Ibis Ghana to promote women participation and representation
in governance. This, he explained was to create awareness and deepen decentralization and democracy at the local level. In this respect, CODAC is
fishing out for qualified women for profiling so that their capacities could be
built to enable them compete effectively in the upcoming district level
elections. He stressed on the urgent need for women to demonstrate their
commitment by nurturing and encouraging other women to aspire for leadership
positions. To him, women’s participation in political life is pivotal to social
development considering the significant and invaluable role they play to the
development processes. He further expressed the belief that women are the core
actors of the society and needed the required push and recognition only if they
are to get anywhere with the country’s development agenda. The Regional
Director of the National Youth Authority, James Abang-Gos, said though provisions
are made in the various political party manifestoes to increase women representation in government,
nothing concrete had been achieved in that regard. He said at the district
level out of 54 elected and appointed assembly members, only 9 are females with
the rest being males. Mr Abang-Gos, entreated political parties and
stakeholders to bury their partisanship in the upcoming district level
elections and support women to win the elections to correct the imbalances.
Women were also asked to unite and avoid multiple female candidates in one
electoral area.
GBC END
IA/
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