Gender Activists Say Empowering Women Remains a Lip Service

April 11, 2005 - (Public Agenda - Accra) The issue of political parties reneging on promises they make to champion the course of women groups on their assuming office came for discussion at a post election assessment conference organized by the International Federation of Women Lawyers (FIDA, in collaboration with UNIFEM

It formed part of efforts being put in place by women's groups to implement the Platform for Action (PFA) declared at the Beijing conference held in 1996. The PFA emphasized the need to support women to assert themselves in public life.

The meeting sought to identify the factors that influenced women's candidature in the 2004 elections, assess the support provided for women aspirants in the elections and the elicit lessons learned for supporting women's participation in parliamentary elections from the 2004 experience.

The conference also assessed the strategies and interventions that worked and what did not and also evolve a framework for providing support for women aspiring to public life. In addition, factors that influenced women's candidature in the parliamentary elections, how helpful civil society interventions was in strengthening women's participation and what women activists and candidates suggest how it should be done.

Dr. Rose Mensah-Kutin, the West African Regional Programme Manager for Abantu for Development, a women advocacy group noted that government was not doing much to support women in politics in terms of its policies. "It has to put in place the needed policies that would champion the interest of women", she said.

Dr Mensah-Kutin emphasized the need to put in place measures and principles that would promote and empower women because presently there is no constitutional provision on gender parity.

She however, acknowledged that illiteracy has worked against women's participation in public life, which has also made most women ignorant about their rights and responsibilities.

Dr. Mensah-Kutin also cautioned leaders of the country not to take things for granted because nationals would be looking up to them for the socio-political and economic development of the country and also equity in the distribution of resources.

The National Programme Co-coordinator of the United Nations System Programmes for the Promotion of Gender Equality, Mrs. Joana Adzoa Opare, highlighted the positive social impact that the empowerment of women has had. " I was very impressed at the way both men and women were strategizing at the just ended women conference that was held in Beijing. This is an indication that the message is sinking down well not only with women but men,"she said. Mrs. Opare promised that if more women with the potential to handle political or public positions are found, resources would be solicited to support them.

In Ghana many non-governmental and civil society organizations have over the past decade focused their activities on skills building for political campaigns.

Other interventions have included advocacy with political parties to field more women candidates, media advocacy with the electorates, encouraging women to exercise their franchise and encouraging the participation of more women in public life.

As a result, a technical team drawn from the Ministry of Women and Children Affairs (MOWAC), other governmental agencies and civil society groups are working to formulate and implement the ministry's three-year Strategic Plan of action. The plan is a short- term measure towards the implementation of a comprehensive plan for gender sensitive programmes in the country. This would see to the economic empowerment of women and also ensure the advancement of women from the micro to the macro levels as owners of small and medium scale businesses.

Other measures that have been put in place to improve the lives of Ghanaian women include the introduction of a revised Reproductive Health Policy that provides free antenatal care. This has resulted in a 92% increase in antenatal coverage and fertility rate is slowly, but steadily declining with increases in the utilization of family planning methods.

Also through a community-based health planning strategy adopted by the health sector, under served communities are enjoying responsive maternal and child health service. Although Ghana has made some gains in the area of girl child education, access to reproductive health, micro credit delivery, politics and representation in key governmental institution, a lot remains to be done in the area of women and poverty, women's economic empowerment, girl child education at the basic, secondary and tertiary level with respect to enrolment, retention and quality completion.
 
 From: http://allafrica.com/stories/200504110994.html