Ghana strives to bridge gender disparities

TAMALE, Ghana - The huge gap between men and women in Africa in governance and policy making may soon be a thing of the past in Ghana with the development of an Affirmative Action Law now in legislative process by the ministry responsibly for women and children's Affairs.

The bill is designed to address the continuous gender gap and discrimination in economic, social, political and educational arena between the male and female, Zakari-Saa Patrick Seidu, northern regional director of the Department of Women, told Xinhua in an interview in Tamale, capital of the region 658 kilometers north of capital Accra.

The ministry had set up an expert committee to pool opinions from individuals and organizations for the formulation of the bill on Affirmative Action.

In 1998, the Ghanaian government put in place an Affirmative Action policy guideline that called for at least 40 percent representation of women in the public service, committees and boards. However, over the years, not much had been done and the government had not been held accountable. Cultural stumbling blocks continued to play a major role in thwarting these efforts in an attempt to keep women in the background which, Seidu said, did not auger well for the democracy and national development.

Analysis of the district assembly representation indicated that men formed 80 percent of all positions in the 21 local districts in the northern region.

Moses Bukari Mabengba, minister of Northern Region, told Xinhua that legislating Affirmative Action is the best way to ensure parity of representation and participation in politics and decision-making positions and the bill would also give economic and social advantages to women as indicated by the African Union.

The ruling National Democratic Congress came out boldly in 1988 to adopt an Affirmative Action policy based on research that gave impeccable advantage to affirmative action. The then government used it to give women high level decision-making positions to enable them to contribute meaningfully to the development of the nation.

He noted that the proposed legislation was seeking to strengthen women's roles in education, employment, agriculture and health that would also make implementation of such policies effective and accountable.

Mabengba asked Ghanaians not to be disappointed with the recent poor performance of women in both the parliamentary and district assembly elections, urging them to reverse the trend in the next Parliamentary Elections due next year.