What NPP, NDC manifestos say about women
In its manifesto for Election 2016, the New Patriotic Party (NPP) maintains its commitment to a self-confident and prosperous nation, with a strong and thriving democratic society in which mutual trust and economic opportunities exist for all, irrespective of their background.
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According to the document, the party, under ‘Women’s Empowerment & Children’s Rights, first set the then Ministry of Women and Children’s Affairs, under the Kufuor administration, to demonstrate the importance of women and children in the society.
It also indicates that the NPP remains committed to gender equality and children’s rights and will work assiduously to achieve the appointment of women to at least 30 per cent of available public office positions, set aside 50 per cent of Microfinance And Small Loans Centre (MASLOC) funds for female applicants, as well as reintroduce and enforce the administrative directive on the reservation of 30 per cent of poverty alleviation/credit funds of Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDAs) to service women’s enterprises.
Kayayei
It will also reduce the phenomenon of ‘Kayayei’ (female porters) by improving the economy of their districts of origin to curb the migration and providing alternate life skills training and seed capital to them. It will also partner the private sector, non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and charity organisations to provide temporary hostel facilities and work with the district assemblies to exempt ‘Kayayei’ from market tolls and taxes currently imposed on them, and improve their access to education and health care.
In addition, NPP will fully implement the Domestic Violence, Human Trafficking and Disability Acts and ensure that other relevant pieces of legislation are implemented in full, and also continue to implement the policies to increase enrolment and retention in schools, such as the school feeding programme and capitation grant.
NDC’s Manifesto
The National Democratic Congress (NDC), according to its 2016-2021 Manifesto that focuses on changing lives, transforming Ghana, indicates its strong commitment to the principles and values of social democracy to build a just and equitable society in which citizens are empowered to seize opportunities to improve themselves.
According to the party, putting people first is the expression of its relentless effort to investing in sectors of the society, with the view of empowering the people through better educational systems and opportunities; providing reliable and dependable healthcare arrangements; ensuring inclusiveness by protecting the most vulnerable in the society, thus creating reliable pathways for the youth to achieve their aspirations, in order to build a just and equitable society.
According to the manifesto, the government has also strengthened the gender legal framework by working on the Affirmative Action Bill, the Intestate Succession (Amendment) Bill, Property Rights of Spouses Bill, Human Trafficking Legislative Instrument and the Domestic Violence Legislative Instrument, which are at various stages of completion.
It has also launched the National Gender Policy to mainstream Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment into Ghana’s development efforts; granted educational scholarships to over 300 girls and trained them in masonry and spraying mechanics; launched the first Government Shelter for abused women and children and closed down the witches camp at Bonyase in the Northern Region.
Interventions
The document states that an NDC government will continue to consolidate and expand the interventions that have been implemented over the last four years and introduce additional social protection initiatives to sustain the livelihood of the vulnerable and lift others out of poverty.
It will also develop an enhanced national household registry that identifies vulnerable persons and extremely poor persons for support; increase leap beneficiary households to 350,000; target artisanal fishing communities, coastal and inland, and deprived inner city communities, including Zongos, not only for the Livelihood Empowerment Against Poverty Programme, but make them the earliest beneficiaries of the Progressively Free SHS intervention and provide free National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) registration for over 800 inmates of witches camps.
The implementation of the legislative and policy initiatives over the past three decades are said to have yielded some achievements in the empowerment of women, but this notwithstanding, there are still a number of serious challenges militating against the empowerment of women.
Several factors, ranging from socio-cultural discrimination, glass ceiling effects, mechanisms of recruitment and promotion, stereotyping, limited access to resource and lack of adequate education, and issues such as unsupportive husbands threatening divorce, constitute barriers in the strive of women for power and constrain their advancement and effective participation in the public service of Ghana.
Specific bodies
There are specific policies to resolve problems facing women seeking to gain entry into public service, apart from the 1992 Constitution that guarantees women's equality with their male counterparts.
Under the Directive Principles of State Policy in the Constitution, the state is obliged to take measures to achieve reasonable regional and gender balance in recruitment and appointment to public offices. Article 17(4) also provides that nothing shall prevent Parliament from enacting laws that are necessary to provide for programmes aimed at redressing social, economic or educational imbalance in society.
The policy enjoins the state to ensure reasonable gender and regional balance in appointments to public office.
ActionAid Ghana, an NGO that works to advance the representation of women in politics and various levels of decision making, has been working with governmental and other non-governmental organisations to help increase the number of women in decision making and also indicated its support for the Affirmative Action Bill and the need to see it passed into law.
The Bill, which is currently before Cabinet, and is to be passed by the end of 2016, seeks to identify and redress areas of social, cultural, economic and educational imbalance in Ghana, especially as they relate to discrimination against women, and to promote the full and active participation of women in public life by providing for a more equitable system of representation in electoral politics and governance.
Commitment
Although the government has repeatedly said it remained committed to the passage of the Property Rights of Spouses Bill and the Affirmative Action Bill, representatives of the various political leaders at a debate which was organised by the African Height Foundation, in collaboration with the debate society and Students’ Representative Council (SRC) of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), recently, argued that almost eight years in power, more needed to be done to attain such commitment.
The Property Rights of Spouses Bill is designed to regulate property rights of spouses in accordance with article 22 of the 1992 Constitution and the Affirmative Action Bill, which provides for a 40 per cent representation and participation of women in governance, public positions of power and decision making, also seeks to rectify discrimination on the basis of sex or gender.
Last year, the Civil Society Organisation, SEND GHANA, whose vision is to promote the idea of having a society where people’s rights and well-being are guaranteed, appealed to the Gender Ministry to speed up the process of getting the Affirmative Action Draft Bill into law, saying the passage of the draft bill into law was long overdue.