By Bertha Badu-Agyei
Accra, Dec 6, GNA – A consortium of International Women Organisations have launched a ‘Women’s Situation Room’ in Accra to track Ghana’s 2024 election process with focus on gender specific issues.
The Women’s situation room operating from December 6 to December 9, has a call operators centre, an intervention desk, and a secretariat fully manned by eminent women from the West African sub-region, notably from Liberia and Nigeria.
The ‘Women Situation Room’ is an initiative inspired by Liberia to promote peace during elections and mobilizes eminent women from the West Africa region to participate in elections by monitoring and observing situations and intervening to ensure peace and security.
Some of the Eminent women to be at the situation room for the next three days include Excellency Mrs Olubanke King-Akerele, Board Chair of ANGIE Brooks, a women’s empowerment centre and former Foreign Affairs Minister of Liberia, Mrs Tumi Akerele Ismail, first female and former solicitor-General of Nigeria and Counsellor Johnson Morris from Liberia.
Others to join them from Ghana includes Dr Charity Binka, Ghana chapter president of the African Women Leaders Network (AWLN), Mrs Joana Opare, eminent member of the National Peace Council (NPC), Mrs Afi Yakubu and other eminent Ghanaian women.
Mrs Joana Opare, eminent member of the NPC who officially unveiled the Women Situation Room, said the model successfully inspired by Liberia served as a central platform dedicated to peace and accountability during the elections.
She was hopeful that the presence of the eminent women in the election process and monitoring would deescalate tension and conflicts to ensure that “tomorrow’s elections reflect the voice of every Ghanaian voter”.
Her Excellency Olubanke-King-Akerele, said the Women’s situation room was to offer resilient support of African women to their fellow women during elections to protect their interest by ensuring peace and security.
She said the African union (AU) and the UN Security Council had endorsed the women’s situations rooms to observe and monitor the interest of African women during elections and praised the forebears of eminent women who stood tall and laid the foundation for such a model.
Madam Tumi Akerele Ismail stressed that the women situation room was to promote peace primarily and to expand and improve women’s participation in elections across Africa.
Dr Charity Binka, on her part called on all women voters to support women contesting for parliament to win their seats to increase the number of women in the next parliament of Ghana.
GNA