Ghana: Appoint More Women to Positions of Chief Executives

Accra - The Upper East Regional Inter-sectoral Gender Network (RISEGNET) has reiterated the need for the present government to appoint more women to the position of Chief Executives, Assembly members and Council of State members.

The Chairman of RISEGNET, Mr. Daud James Abang-Gos, made the call at a press briefing in Bolgatanga on the activities the Organization had undertaken so far, and how it sought to address its challenges.

RISEGNET as a Network of agencies working towards mobilizing support at addressing gender concerns and development problems in the Region was formed and inaugurated in the Region in 2004.

Its objectives are to foster collaboration and networking among all partners concerned with agenda to promote equitable development and to ensure gender mainstreaming in all aspects of development in the Region.

The Chairman explained that 52 per cent of the population of the Upper East Region is women and yet they were grossly under represented in all decision-making structures.

Mr. Abang-Gos indicated that since the beginning of the Fourth Republic, the Upper East Region had only one woman appointed as a District Chief Executive, one woman elected as a Presiding Woman and only two women appointed as Deputy Regional Ministers.

"There has never been a woman Regional Minister for the Region and only few women had been in the Assemblies. This does not ensure equitable development," Mr. Abang-Gos emphasized and appealed to President Atta Mills to fulfill his promises of giving more women appointments in governance.

Reviewing the activities of RISEGNET, the Chairman indicated that his out- fit for the past couple of years with funding from Action Aid Ghana, IBIS and Community Development and Advocacy Centre (CODAC) was able to embark on a lot of programmes including organizing workshops for traditional rulers on harmful cultural practices which, he said, were yielding positive results.

He mentioned the Bongo and Talensi-Naddam districts where the paramount chiefs through their council of elders had been able to modify certain negative cultural practices including widowhood rites, elopement and Female Genital Mutilation (FGM).

Mr. Abang-Gos stated that RISEGNET was able to organize Advocacy training workshop for the Upper East Assemblywomen Caucus and networking and alliance building for Assemblywomen in the Region.

RISEGNET had also been able to organize a forum to review the implementation of the Beijing platform of action in the Region, promoting women participation in governance, Gender Strategy Development workshop, Workshop on Discrimination Against Women, and Capacity Building Workshop for Assembly Caucus on advocacy, leadership, conflict management and Resolution.

Mr. Abang-Gos mentioned some of RISEGNET's plans for the year 2009, which include intensifying its advocacy campaign, Membership drive, build the capacity of women, lobby stakeholders for understanding and support, and consolidating of gains.

He however mentioned the lack of funding as a major challenge confronting the operation of RISEGNET, and appealed to donor agencies and other development partners to contribute for the effective operation of the Organization.

He commended the Media for their active role in contributing to the success of RISEGNET, and lauded Action Aid Ghana, IBIS and CODAC for funding many of the projects of his outfit.

The Programme Manager of CODAC, Mr. Bukari Issahaku, said one of the objective of CODAC was to build the capacity of women in participating in the decision-making process and to sensitize the community to allow women also to contribute to issues of development in their respective communities.

Mr. Issahaku said so far his outfit had been working in four communities in the Bongo District, namely Gowrie, Bongo-Soe, Dua and Balungo.

He noted that the programme which was sponsored by Canadian Education and Teaching Award Africa, was making a significant impact as some of the communities now appreciate the contribution of women in the decision making process.

He added that plans were far advanced to replicate the system in other tradition councils in the Region, and build the capacity of women to enable them to contribute to issues on development especially issues bothering women.