GOV'T URGED TO STRENGTHEN INSTITUTIONS THAT PROMOTE WOMEN'S RIGHTS
By Martin Luther Otu

July 5, 2004 – (Public Agenda) As part of demands being made by gender activists, the proposed Women's Manifesto is calling for the strengthening of institutions with the mandate to promote Women's right, since these institutions have not achieved much of the objectives for which they were set up.

Some of such institutions are the Ministry of Women and Children's Affairs (MOWAC) National Commission for Women's Development, the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ), the Department of Social Welfare and Community Development DSW/CD and the Women and Juvenile Unit (WAJU) of the Police Service.

At a press conference organized by ABANTU, the main brain behind the Women's Manifesto, to educate the press on sections of the Manifesto, the Executive Director of the Advocates for Gender Equity (AGE), Elizabeth Akpalu said the Manifesto demands that government developed, publicized and fully implemented a comprehensive National Gender Policy by 2005.

"The national gender Policy should clarify the relationships and division of labour between MOWAC, other state organizations and constitutional bodies working to promote women's rights in order to promote the effective coordination of such work and avoid duplication", she said, quoting from the Manifesto.

Other demands, she said are that, the relationship between MOWAC and the NCWD and the Ghana National Commission on Children (GNCC) be clarified and regulated by 2005 to enhance coordination and improve their effectiveness. The Manifesto also calls on government to ensure that the capacity of MOWAC for gender and policy analysis is strengthened through increasing its staffing levels and training core staff members by 2006.

Explaining why these demands, she indicated that since the establishment of the NCWD, though it has been able to achieve some successes, its ability to maximize its core objectives have been limited by resource constraints, lack of policy and lack of political clout to push for demands for its constituents. Again, she said, with the advent of the MOWAC, and the Minister as a member of Cabinet, "we are yet to realize her influence on policies at that level, to the benefit of women" and also to date, there is no gender policy though a draft has existed since 2001.

The problem, she explained, has been compounded at the grassroots level, by the absence of gender policies for some key Ministries like the Ministry for Local Government and Rural Development (MLGRD), thereby making policy implementation lose their gender sensitivity.

Akpalu regretted that even though an administrative directive on Affirmative Action during the 2002 District Assembly Election to the effect that 50 percent of the members of the District Assemblies should be women was issued, because there was no gender policy in place, the MLGRD could not pursue this in the way it should have. Some Districts Assemblies did not comply, while others complied half-heartedly. She noted that though CHRAJ has over the years been able to help address problems of discrimination against women, it still lacks adequate staff to satisfactorily tackle gender issues, adding that CHRAJ has had to contend with having its ruling challenged in the regular court.

On WAJU, she said the Unit was understaffed and therefore requires more staff to enable them work efficiently. The courts, according to her, are also not sufficiently engendered due to lack of training for its staff in gender cases. The Department of Social Welfare on the other hand, is not sufficiently engendered, understaffed and lacks resources to operate efficiently. These problems, she said are the reasons the Women's Manifesto among others calls on government to take steps to reform institutions of State such as CHRAJ, the Courts, the DSW/CD and the police, and strengthen their capacity and effectiveness for promoting gender equity through training and capacity building, adequate resource allocation by 2010. She urged MOWAC to take steps to improve its relations with women's Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) as a matter of urgency and in the spirit of cooperation and mutual respect.

Hamida Morrison of ABANTU on her part said the Women's Manifesto require that government clarified the status and function of Gender Desk Officers (GDOs) and their place in the District Assembly and Administrative structures by 2005; and MOWAC should create a coordination and monitoring structure for GDOs by 2006. This is because though there is a policy for GDOs to be placed at every District Assembly, on the ground, it does not appear so, and this demand by the Women Manifesto is to sustain the GDOs in the long run.