Women in Law and Development in Africa (WiLDAF) has so far commended  President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo for  ensuring  that 25  per cent of his appointees are women.

With the current ministerial appointments, the group says it is of the view that the President is  on course  on his party’s manifesto of appointing a minimum threshold of the 30 per cent representation of women in its 2016 ‘’Change Agenda for Jobs’’ Manifesto.

Currently, with  the 36 ministerial appointments  made, nine  are women; and according to WiLDAF that constitutes 25 per cent of the appointment for ministerial positions.

At a press conference in Accra last Friday, the group stated that the appointment of 30 per cent women would be fulfilling both local and international obligations on appointing women into decision-making positions.

In the statement read by a board member of WiLDAF, Ms Magdalene Kannae, the group stated that the new administration had not been able to meet the minimum 30 per cent women promised by the  government during its campaign.

International and regional obligations

Ghana has signed onto a number of conventions, treaties and protocols which all set a minimum target of 30 per cent representation of women in decision-making positions. The conventions include the Convention on Elimination of all forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), the Beijing Platform for Action, the Sustainable Development Goals, the Commonwealth Plan of Action on Gender Equality, and the Protocol to the African Union (AU) Charter on Human and People’s Rights which set targets on gender equality at 50 per cent for men and women representation in public office.

Reject list

WiLDAF, therefore, reminded the Executive of the manifesto promise and urged the government to fulfil that.

Madam Kannae said WiLDAF would continue to support women at various levels in order for them  to understand governance issues and effectively communicate on political issues that affected them.

WiLDAF contributions

She also added that WiLDAF had enabled  women to understand that they could also contribute to social development by educating them on various issues of the state.

‘’We want women to be included at all levels,’’ Madam Kannae stressed.

She said when women were not well represented in governance, men tended to make decisions that would benefit them without considering women; which would not promote gender equality, adding that it was important for both men and women to be involved in decision making.

‘’When women are given equal opportunity, they also bring up issues not only beneficial to them but to the whole nation at large,’’ she said.

For her part, Ms Ekua Eguakun, a member of WiLDAF, said the initiative was just a reminder to the government to ensure that the 30 per cent target of women in governance was met.

‘’There are competent women out there that they can equally consider,’’ she noted.

She added that the government should consider women across the board in its appointment to ensure that they were well represented, noting that if the current trend continued, Ghana would not be able to achieve the 30 per cent minimum of women representation even in the next 50 years.

Source: graphic.com