It has been established that without mandatory Affirmative Action, expected changes that can lead to an increase in women's representation in national politics will not occur.
Ghana may also miss out on achieving its Millennium Development Goal (MDG 3) target with regard to the proportion of seats held by women in national parliament. MDG 3 mandates all countries to promote gender equality and empower women.
A study has recommended that in the short term, advocacy must continue to explain and build support for legislation on an Affirmative Action Policy (AAP). This is to be spearheaded by the Ministry of Women and Children Affairs (MoWAC) and Coalition on Affirmative Action legislation.
Professor Takyiwaa Manuh, former Director of African Studies at the University of Ghana, said advocacy efforts need to be based on current statistics on women's representation in politics and national life, Ghana's treaty obligations such as those of the Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), the trends around sub-Saharan Africa and also in West Africa.
She said the advocacy would need to enlist the support of the media by MoWAC and civil society organisations (CSOs) to popularise and disseminate the AAP. Prof. Manuh was making a presentation at the Gender and Development Dialogue series organised by the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA) and it partners, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and UN Women in Accra.
She spoke on the topic, "Towards Greater Representation of Women in National Governance: An Innovative Approach." Come December 2012, Ghana will hold presidential and parliamentary elections, obviously the last elections before the final assessment of the MDGs in 2015.
The low participation of women in decision-making is listed by MoWAC as one of its key challenges, 15 years after Beijing Platform for Action and also a concern to government, CSOs and development partners working to increase the numbers of women in decision-making.
The UN System's intervention on MDG 3 and Elections project is to support the process with research in the area of increasing women's representation in national governance with a view to sharing best strategies from elsewhere and from Ghana on meeting the MDG 3 target.
Prof. Takyiwaa Manuh disclosed findings are that in contrast to countries in Southern and Eastern Africa, and increasingly in West Africa, which have used some form of legislated affirmative in action, women's representation in Parliament in Ghana is only at 8.2%, well below the UN recommended 30% threshold, and below Ghana's own early promise in the 1960s when women's representation in parliament was above 18%.
She said women aspirants also encounter several constrains and challenges from within their parties and the electorate at large, including lower access to funds. "Analysis of current and past interventions, many are ad-hoc and poorly times, and do not take into account party electoral cycles, including the opening of nominations and the conduct of primaries.
Giving the key role of political parties in determining who becomes a candidate in multi-party systems of governance, there has been continuing engagement with them Ghana by the Electoral Commission, development partners and CSO's to encourage them to take actions that can lead to an increase in women's representation in national politics."
She noted that in terms of models, there were several affirmative action guidelines that existed from government directives, the political parties and the international levels (CEDAW, Commonwealth Secretariat, and the Quota Project) which could be harmonized and adopted to local conditions towards a comprehensive Affirmative Action Bill to parliament.
"As the experience of several countries would suggest, constitutional or electoral quotas have been the most successful in increasing women's representation in parliament and national life."
"Given women's numerical majority in Ghana, a conscious strategy of organising women as voters that transcend political divides would strengthen their hand in making demands for increased political representation of women and attention to women's issues as the high unacceptable rates of maternal infant mortality."
The establishment of this league of Ghanaian women voters, Prof. Takyiwaa Manuh recommended should be lead by women CSOs, in concert with larger mass-based women's groups and associations in churches and mosques, trades and vocations.She said such a group would also form the basis for establishing a 'Hawa's List' to raise funds to support women candidates who commit to advancing gender equality and the interests of women. The private sectors as well as individuals must be specifically targeted to contribute to such a fund.
"There must be commitments by the UN country team and other development partners to prioritize interventions on increasing women's representation in parliament and to financially support the process beyond the 2012 elections."
In the long term, (beyond five years), there must be continuing executive and legislative action to ensure parity of women and men in national governance and public life in Ghana. An institute for women in politics must be established with secure funding to support women already in parliament, and women aspirants.
"The institute could be initially nested within one of ting skills and the CSOs and is envisaged as a centre for continuous engagement with women politicians and aspirants to teach them parliamentary practice, debating skills, and constituency building skills and to ensure that increased women's representation in national governance achieves both quantity and quality, the critical mass and critical acts, that strengthen the linkage between representation and transformation, and ensures that politics becomes more gender-responsive."
In the medium term (two to five years), the report recommended among others, that executive action must be taken to implement an AAP across board to achieve 40% representation of women in politics and decision-making that Ghana aspired to in the late 1990's, and which the current government modelled in its party manifesto in election 2008.
Mrs Ruby Sandhu-Rojon, UN Resident Coordinator said it is ridiculous that the number of women in parliaments has gone down, such that out of the 230 members of parliament, less than 10% of them, 19 precisely are women, though women make up 51% of Ghana's population.
"The benefits of having women in politics must be discussed in legislative frameworks. When women are in politics there is development as they respond to basic needs from family to country level."
Other contributors at the forum stated the need to build the critical mass across all sectors of the society.
They said it was important to begin to look at having more Ghanaian women in leadership positions, be it education, politics, etc and not only in politics but everywhere else. There was a consensus to discuss how to have a broader engagement with Ghanaian women that looks at the gender issues first and then politics.
Ms Hilary Gbedemah, Rector of Law Institute deduced the figures in representation of women in politics do not paint picture of real democracy. She believes democracy can only have real meaning when decision-making is by both men and women.
"Where lies democracy when composition of governance does not represent the governed? The trend will not correct itself so we need to think about concrete measures to address the obstacles that lie at the base of these low figures."?
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