By Eunice Hilda A. Mensah/Dorcas Stephens
Accra, Feb1, GNA – Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) have encouraged the National Democratic Congress (NDC)-led government to submit to them and the entire citizenry timelines for the implementation of their manifesto provisions.
They also admonished government to communicate clearly to them how government intended to fund all its proposed projects for them to hold it accountable when the need be.
They made the appeal at a Stakeholders’ Forum in Accra organised by the Network for Women’s Rights in Ghana (NETRIGHT) Ghana, Star Ghana Foundation and Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office under the UK High Commission on “Gender and Social Inclusion Analysis of Political Party Manifestos in Ghana”.
The CSOs include the Ghana Anti-Corruption Coalition, Feminist Africa, Ghana Federation for Persons with Disability, Centre for Gender Studies (University of Ghana), Ghana Integrity Initiative, Institute for Democratic Governance, Action Aid Ghana, Amnesty International, Imani Ghana, and the Affirmative Action Law Coalition.
Also present were political parties including the Movement for Change and Ghana Union Movement.
The CSOs also lauded government for making a commitment to implement the Affirmative Action Law and set up a Gender Equity Committee to that effect.
They also applauded government for its provision to engage a minimum of five per cent of persons with disability at public offices.
Ms Rachel Gyabaah, a Development Practitioner and Consultant for the forum, said gender equality and social inclusion served as a vital framework in international development, addressing systemic discrimination and inequalities faces by marginalised groups.
To promote equitable access to opportunities across education, health, economic participation and political representation, she said it had become important for the forum and all CSOs to dismantle power imbalances rooted in intersecting identities of the manifestos such as gender, ethnicity and disability.
“Most of the time, manifestos are short term and tend to satisfy the interests of party faithful sometimes and so it’s importsnt to ensure monitoring, evaluation and accountability,” she said.
Ms Gyabaah presenting findings on a study of party manifestos said it was crucial to inform NETRIGHT’s advocacy on tracking, demanding, and holding the government accountable to gender transformative interventions, towards creating an inclusive and accountable governance.
The methodologies used in the intersectionality-based policy analysis, she said were the social relations approach, social inclusion audits and content analysis to put them under relevant themes such as gender equality, economic inclusion, political representation, and social protection among others.
Mr Raymond Danso, Portfolio Manager, Rights to Services, Star Ghana Foundation, said the forum was timely as his organisation’s focus since 2024 had been to create rooms for vulnerable groups to be included in the electoral process.
He said they believed the insight acrued from the forum would trigger a commitment to bridge the gender gap.
“Despite all efforts made, gender inequality still persists. And it’s so unfortunate women are still underrepresented in both decision making and leadership positions.
“So we hope that the insight from this forum would enable all to leverage knowledge to amplify their voices to bridge the gap. Star Ghana believes the forum has the ability to catalyse a meaningful change,” she said.
Mr Danso said Ghana had gone far in terms of its democratic dispensation, but it’s women were highly underrepresented when it came to representation, leadership, and decision-making.
CSOs, he said, had a responsibility to support government in shaping policies, adding: “Policies will come, but they need to trickle down to actions and programmes, and that is where CSOs can also break the divide through research, a case for good practices and model adoption,”.
Mrs Bernice Sam, a Gender advocate advised the participants: “Make the 2024 NDC Manifesto your second constitution and ensure that you hold the government accountable especially on issues about gender, women and vulnerable groups like persons with disability.”
GNA