Govt must address women's concerns

Saturday, January 17, 2009 (The Mirror Pg 42)

By Rebecca Kwei
The Women’s Coalition Manifesto, has called on the government to commit itself to addressing the demands made in the “Women’s Manifesto for Ghana”.
The “Women’s Manifesto for Ghana”, is a political document that outlines key issues of concern to women and makes demands for addressing them.
It also provides a platform of a common set of demands for the achievement of gender equality and equity and sustainable national development.
It was initiated in 2004 by ABANTU, for Development in consultation with women’s groups, NGOs and other civil society organisations from across the country.
The demands are centred around 10 critical areas of concern to promote women’s rights.
These are women’s economic empowerment, women and land, women, social policy and social development, women in politics, decision-making and public life; and women, human rights and the law.
The rest are discriminatory cultural practices, women and media, women, conflict and peace, women with special needs and institutions with a mandate to promote women’s right.
For instance, under the women’s economic empowerment, the manifesto among others, demands that government undertakes a fundamental review of economic policies to promote the well-being and security of women and men and ensure a reversal of past economic policy failures; that the government take steps to reverse economic policies which discriminate against women and ensure their active involvement in economic decision-making at all levels.
The section on women in politics and decision-making, the manifesto demands that all arms of government and political parties take action to promote the transformation of the political culture to make it more transparent, accountable and sensitive to the needs and concerns of women; that government ensures that by 2008, 50 per cent of appointees to district assemblies and to the offices of district chief executives and district coordinating director are women; that by the year 2008 at least 50 per cent of appointees to public offices, such as boards of corporations and institutions and the higher echelons of the bureaucracies are women.
In this regard, the coalition congratulated Rt Hon. Mrs Joyce Adeline Bamford- Addo on her appointment as the Speaker of the fifth parliament of the fourth republic.
It said it believes Mrs Bamford-Addo’s appointment was an attempt to fulfil one of the demands made in the manifesto.