Gender Ministry urged to help female aspirants in district-level elections

Mr Kokro Amankwah, General Secretary, National Association of Local Authorities Ghana (NALAG), has asked the Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection (MoGCSP) to offer financial support to women participating in the district level elections.

He said the aspirants needed assistance to take care of the printing of posters, campaigns and other election related activities.

“As a nation, the Ministry of Gender, I believe should be of assistance to these women…They are printing their own posters; they are going out campaigning; what support have we given to them?” Mr Amankwah asked.

He said this at a programme organised by the Alliance for Women in Media Africa (AWMA) in Accra.

It was on: “Enhancing inclusive participation in Local Governance: Gender Sensitive reporting for Journalists and Communications Skills for Women Aspirants in the 2023 District Level Elections”.

It was to increase visibility for the women aspirants and ensure that more of them emerged winners in the December 19 District Level Elections.

The project, with support from the Canadian High Commission in Ghana, is also to enable journalists build their capacity in gender sensitive reporting to increase the quality of coverage for women aspirants in the upcoming and subsequent national elections and marginalised groups.

Explaining why the government through the MoGCSP must support the women aspirants in the upcoming elections, Mr Amankwah said despite the enactment of local and international laws, protocols, and treaties on women’s participation in politics, many were still shying away due to the financial burden and others.

He said it was time the Government took steps to ensure that women were represented in decision making and charged the Ministry to respond to the needs of the aspirants.

“When we are talking about democracy and we decide to leave women or not to support women the way we should, it becomes a democratic deficit and we cannot pride ourselves as a nation and think that we are the gateway to Africa in terms of democracy and other things without paying attention to our women,” he said.

Dr Abena Yeboah-Banin, Head, Department of Communication Studies, University of Ghana, who also bemoaned the low participation of women in politics, said findings from a 2020 Global Media Monitoring Report indicated that it would take Ghana 67 years to balance the equation of women and men’s representation in politics.

She said that should be a worry to any government that ascribed to the tenets of democracy.