Women Must Take Their Destiny Into Their Hands - Effah-Dartey

November 16, 2004 - (Ghanaian Chronicle - Accra) The Deputy Minister of Local Government and Rural Development Captain, (RTD) Nkrabeah Effah-Dartey, has urged women to take their destiny into their hands to avoid being relegated to the background.

" On real stage of life, if you don't carve a role for yourself, you will be assigned to the off-stage back seat for less attractive assignments," he said in an address when he inaugurated the Women's Caucus of the National Association of Local Authorities of Ghana (NALAG) in Accra at the weekend.

The Membership of the women's caucus comprises all female District Chief Executives, female Presiding Members and female members of NALAG's gender development committee.

Speaking on the theme: "Women Agenda" Cpt. Effah-Dartey said for far too long, the culture of women seemed to be one of waiting, just sitting there, until some benefactor or Good Samaritan came up with something.

"However, in real life, it is clear that nobody, no group, no sector and no nation can develop with that type of mentality." He said women had long been pillaged, exploited, marginalized, bullied, misused and generally taken advantage of by sections of the male-dominated society.

He said any form of abuse against women must be condemned at the highest level; however women themselves must take the lead to champion the fight against discrimination.

"The struggle to throw away the yoke must be championed first and foremost by women," he stressed, adding that women were their own enemies because they themselves perpetrated some of the worst atrocities committed against women.

He cited female genital mutilation and throwing of unwanted babies into gutters, snake pits and toilets and pushing little daughters into "quasi panyarring" and commercial sex, saying these were all acts committed mainly by women.

Capt. Effah-Dartey, however, conceded that men were not entirely blameless, but he argued that with all these atrocities perpetrated against them, women had the power more than anyone else, to fight against them.

"Of course, men are not entirely blameless, but my point is that a combined forceful action of conscious womanhood fighting for their interest will seriously minimize if not completely eliminate female abuses." Capt. Effah-Dartey, who is MP for Berekum, advised the caucus that, as women, their topmost priority should be how best they could promote girls' education and suggested that they strive to open the first ever Women's University College, promising that the people of Berekum were prepared to provide land for such venture.

Their second priority should be the health of women with greater emphasis on the HIV/AIDS epidemic to which, according to available statistics, women were more vulnerable.

Mr. Sam Ocran, representative of the Netherlands Development Organization (SNV), the initiators of the women caucus of NALAG, said in spite of government's effort to achieve gender equity, studies indicated that positions of women with respect to power sharing and decision making in the country had shown little improvement.

Her added that in all cultures, women were more or less the victims of the phenomenon of gender inequity as a result of which they had become marginalized.

Mr. Ocran said NALAG was currently participating in the "African Local Governance Programme (ALGP)", aimed at improving governance at the local level.

As part of the programme, NALAG has formed the "Women's Caucus" to play an advocacy role for women and to ensure that women's voice and concerns were adequately taken into consideration in policies and decisions.

He said while the NALAG women caucus would welcome ideas, " the most effective way to address women's issues is for the women themselves to constitute solidarity groups and to speak with one voice for the themselves and the less privileged colleagues, particularly in the rural areas".

From: http://allafrica.com/stories/200411160411.html