Africa-Press – Ghana. Female Assembly Members from the Upper West Region have received leadership capacity-building training to strengthen their participation in local governance and decision-making processes at all levels of society.
It was organised by ActionAid Ghana (AAG) in collaboration with the Upper West Regional Department of Gender to also deepen women’s understanding of the provisions in the affirmative action law.
This initiative aligns with AAG’s Strategic Priority (SP3) of its Seventh Country Paper with a focus on promoting Active Citizenship, Accountability and Gender Responsive Public Services.
The initiative is also to contribute to achieving the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 5, aimed to achieve gender equality and women’s empowerment by 2030.
A total of 35 female Assembly Members participated in the two-day workshop focused on building participants’ confidence, understanding of assembly structures, advocacy, and stakeholder engagement.
Addressing the participants, Madam Abiba Nibaradun, the Upper West Regional Programmes Manager of ActionAid Ghana, encouraged women to leverage the Affirmative Action Law and prepare themselves for leadership roles.
She emphasised the importance of women’s inclusion in decision-making processes, especially when women constituted over 50 per cent of the country’s population but remained underrepresented in leadership and decision-making.
“In a country with more females than males, it is only fair that women are adequately represented at the decision-making table, but many barriers still hinder women participation,” she noted.
Madam Nibaradun added that AAG, in pursuant to women’s empowerment, had supported women in diverse ways to contest district-level elections, with only four women successfully elected as Assembly Members in the recent assembly elections.
She said the workshop was also to help demystify beliefs regarding some socio-cultural barriers against female participation in leadership.
She encouraged the participants to network and continue to share and learn from each other for their effective participation in Assembly sessions.
In the 2023 district-level elections, 24 women contested the assembly member positions compared to 706 men, with only four women elected and 32 appointed.
At the unit committee level, 64 women vied for roles against 1,833 men, highlighting the significant gender disparity.
Madam Charity Batuure, the Upper West Regional Director of the Department of Gender, encouraged the women to uphold integrity and accountability, noting that credibility was the foundation of effective leadership.
“As women it is critical to have integrity and be accountable, because that will bestow confidence in you, and people will also have confidence in you, trust and believe in you,” Madam Batuure explained.
She also mentioned the formation of a network of female Assembly Members to provide them with continuous training and assistance.
Some participants, expressed gratitude to AAG and the DoG for the training as that had exposed them to critical skills in leadership.
Madam Josephine Angsoayir, an elected Assembly Member for Zambo-Kpee Electoral Area in Lawra Municipality, said the workshop had empowered her to contribute meaningfully during Assembly sessions and to lobby for development projects.
Madam Rose Naele, an appointee at the Wa West District, said she felt inspired to contest future elections and better serve her community.
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