STAKEHOLDERS WORKSHOP ON THE AFFIRMATIVE ACTION BILL ADVOCACY AND COMMUNICATION STRATEGY PLANNING

The Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection in collaboration with the UNDP have held a stakeholders meeting on the Affirmative Action Bill Advocacy and the Communication Strategy Plan at the La Palm Royal Beach Hotel on 8^th August, 2019. The purpose of the workshop was to furnish the various stakeholders with a well formulated plan of action and strategy towards Advocacy and Communication as far as the Affirmative Action Bill is concerned.         

The Affirmative Action Bill is designed to help eliminate gender inequalities, based on the principle that every citizen shares an equal right to self- development, and that both men and women with equal abilities should have equal opportunities.

It is in this regard that the Bill is to redress social, cultural, economic and political gender imbalance in Ghana based on the historical discrimination against women emanating from persistent patriarchal sociocultural systems and norms in spite of the gender equality of men and women.

The bill therefore is seeking to provide an accountability framework for gender equality and the empowerment of women aimed at providing both the executive and legislative yardstick for measuring the commitment and progress of the country towards achieving gender equality.

The Director for the Department of Gender, Rev. Dr. Comfort Asare who was the representative of the Ministry said they are aware of the concerns of people on the delay in the passage of the Bill and that the committee in charge has engaged various stakeholders on the issue and are hoping their efforts will soon materialize.

She spoke about the low representation of women in both the public and private sectors of the country and the various MMDAs unlike some countries like Rwanda, Uganda amongst others. She said there is the need for more women advocates to speak on issues which directly affects them since they are in a better position to do that.

Ms. Rokya Ye Dieng, the UNDP Resident Representative in her address said the country needs to work towards achieving the Sustainable Development Goal five’s target of ensuring women’s full participation and equal opportunities for leadership at all levels of decision-making in political, economic and public life.

According to her it is in this regard that the UNDP is supporting the advocacy for the Affirmative Action Bill to help in the promotion of gender equity and women empowerment for the achievement of the sustainable development of their communities. She said gender inequality can lead to the discrimination, social injustice and the downgrading of most people in society which may lead to an unfair sharing of the national resources.

Source: MoGCSP