By Maxwell Awumah
Ho, April 07, GNA – A forum on Advancing Gender Responsive Governance and Inclusive Democracy in Ghana has been held in Ho, the Volta regional capital.
It aimed to assess the outcomes of the 2024 General Elections by reviewing key observations, identifying challenges, and recommending reforms for critical governance and accountability issues for future elections.
The Forum was organised by Global Action for Women Empowerment (GLOWA) in collaboration with NETRIGHT and funding support from the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) of the United Kingdom through STAR-Ghana Foundation.
The forum was part of planned actions under the project “Advancing Gender Responsive Governance and Inclusive Democracy in Ghana.”
Participants were from Civic Society groups, National Commission on Civic Education (NCCE), the National Peace Council, Chiefs, Queenmothers and youth groups identified intrinsic limitations of women to actualise their optimum.
This is because the failure of queenmothers to establish a women’s version of National and Regional Houses of Chiefs to raise the profile of womenfolk for stronger advocacy in the country and fully take advantage of opportunities than seeing themselves as limited.
Other concerns identified were the situation of women being against women; the perception that women in political leadership and space as disrespectful, cultural norms instilling some level of fear in the womenfolk making it difficult for them to take up leadership role, low support for women candidates in the electoral system, lack of women specific programmes for radio and open gatherings and engagement with communities on women-related issues to elevate the conversation on advancing gender responsive governance and inclusive democracy in the country.
Madam Rosemond Ewoenam Atutonu, Executive Director of GLOWA said the Forum would address the concerns related to the low representation of women in governance and advocate for gender inclusive policies.
She said actionable proposals and recommendations for strengthening electoral processes and advancing women’s right in governance would be activated and commended key stakeholders for reaching positive outcomes.
Mr Johnson Yao Akafia, Volta Regional Director of Electoral Commission (EC) emphasised the huge disconnect between women enthusiasm in voting and standing for Parliamentary elections and attributed this challenge to ingrained socio-cultural norms, values and limited political financing opportunities for women.
He said women votes representing 53.99 per cent with males recording 46.01 per cent, respectively, out of population of voters of 567,196, in the region.
Mr Akafia said the EC stemmed the financial burden of women participation in the 2024 general elections by reducing cost in the filing fees for women in the presidential and parliamentary seats to boost women participation.
He said the gender gap in elections could be better managed if political parties evolve deliberate policies to shore up women participation with the appointment to public sector positions while calling for an adoption of a quota system for women representation in line with the Affirmative Action law.
Mrs Thywill Eyra Kpe, Volta Regional Director of Department of Gender underscored the need to practicalise the 2024 Affirmative Action Law, which is pegged at 30 per cent to the core.
“It is envisaged that by 2027 the law would be escalated to achieve a 35 per cent rise and beyond this period attempt to notch a 50 per cent representation as women constituted about 52.30 per cent of the population,” she said.
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