Awo Mana Asiedu (Dr. ), a lecturer at the Drama Department of the School of Performing Arts and an RPC research partner with the Sexuality them has been promoted to the position of Senior Lecturer.
The RPC West Africa, the entire RPC and partners bid you Congratulations!!!
POLITICS-GHANA: The Steep Price of Getting Elected Global Geopolitics Net Sites / IPS Thursday, October 16, 2008 All rights reserved, IPS – Inter Press Service, 2008. Francis Kokutse
ACCRA, Oct 16 (IPS) - Mawusi Awity and her husband were willing to jeopardize his military career for her dream of running for parliament in Ghana but there was another price to pay that she could not afford.
”The excessive use of money to win the minds and hearts of the voters is making it difficult for women to get into the forefront of politics,” Awity told IPS. A development worker and district assemblywoman for the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP), Awity, 46, is one of a handful of women trying to move into Ghana’s political arena. Her story shows the need to re-draw political rules in this democratic West African country (pop.23 million).
In August, Awity lost the primary election to choose the parliamentary candidate for the South Tongu constituency, in the southeast.
Never mind the possible consequences for her husband, an officer in the Armed Forces, of her choice. "My husband has resigned himself to the fate that if my party looses the elections, that is the end of his career," she added. "But he is a wonderful man and supports me." The insurmountable problem was vote-buying among party delegates, a common practice in Ghana, according to political analysts. "The use of money in politics has seriously affected all the attempts we have made to involve more women in politics," said Hamida Harrison, programme officer of the women advocacy group, ABANTU for Development.
Awity’s decision not to buy votes possibly cost her the election. "The people know I am the best candidate but they also decided to take money to vote for whoever provides the money," she said.
The numbers speak for themselves. For this year’s general elections scheduled for December, only 70 women are running for Parliament’s 230 seats. Perhaps the lesson of the last elections in 2004 was not lost on women. Between the two main parties and a few small ones, a total of 101 women ran. Twenty-four were elected — just under 11 per cent of Members of Parliament (MPs).
The NPP fielded 227 candidates, of whom 27 were women. Twenty women and 107 men were elected.The National Democratic Congress (NDC) fielded 212 male candidates, of whom 90 were elected, and 16 women, of whom four were elected. The Convention People’s Party (CPP) candidates numbered 150 men and 18 women. Only two men were elected.
"To think that after we launched the Women’s Manifesto, this is all we achieved, shows that there are fundamental problems that need to be addressed," said Harrison.
The Manifesto, launched in 2004, is a non-partisan call to promote gender equality in politics. "We have been able to use the Manifesto to change the perception of our women about politics not being a job for them," Harrison told IPS.
Some progress can be seen. The Chief Justice, the Deputy Inspector General of Police and the Vice-Chancellor of a large public university are women.
"What is holding women back is the way politics is run in the country," said Harrison. Money talks, money votes.
Thelma Lamptey, who won the CPP primary to represent Pokuase constituency near Accra, the capital, couldn’t agree more. Lamptey, a teacher, has twice lost the nomination to men. "The main problem has been how to raise money to run my campaigns," she said." Whereas men find it easy to raise funds, women cannot easily go to the men who could help them. In addition, the men who may want to help do not feel comfortable to approach the women," she added.
Harrison attributes the attitude of the men to the social structure of the country: "Let us be honest, Ghana is a patriarchal country and a highly traditional society and this does not give space to women. We have reports of spousal pressure on some women to back out from their political careers and some marriages have broken down."
Perhaps not surprisingly, a couple of top women touted as possible vice presidents by the various parties were not interested. Anna Bossman, acting head of the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice, turned down an offer from the CPP, arguing she was happy in her job. Rose Mensah-Kutin, executive director of Abantu, recused herself early on when her name was being bandied by the PNC.
What to do?
Awity supports affirmative action with a number of Parliamentary seats reserved for women. Lamptey suggests exempting women candidates from paying filing fees to the party before the primaries and another fee later to the Electoral Commission. Awity, who in spite of her bitter defeat works with the NPP presidential advisory team, said that "the party has become aware of the money factor as one thing that is impeding the participation of women and that has to be fought seriously."
She agreed that fees should be scrapped for women or the government should set up a fund to support women candidates. However, she warned, strict monitoring is needed to prevent misuse.Then Awity can worry about winning votes, instead of buying them.
The Federation of Women Lawyers (FIDA) Ghana and Women in Law and Development in Africa (WiLDAF) have condemned the spate of marginalization of Ghanaian women in leadership positions and called for effective affirmative actions to address the problem.
The two bodies admitted that there had been some levels of improvements in the number of women in leadership positions but noted that the gap was still huge considering the more than 50 per cent of women making up the country’s population.
This was made known at a day’s Regional Consultative Forum in Bolgatanga organised by FIDA Ghana, WiLDAF Ghana and the Hunger Project, Gender Centre and Coalition of Women in Governance.
It was under the theme; “We know Politics; Hearing the Voices of Women in the 2008 Presidential and Parliamentary election”.
Mr David Atinga, Coordinator of FIDA-Ghana in charge of the Upper East Region said the forum was to collate views and concerns of women that needed to be addressed by politicians in the 2008 elections and afterwards so that could be held accountable after their stewardship.
He noted that unless the gender gap was bridged to allow women to articulate their needs to be addressed, Ghana’s aim of achieving the Millennium Development Goals by 2015 could be a mirage.
Mr Atinga said that out of the 10 Regional Ministers there was no woman with the Deputy Regional Ministers having seven men and three women.
He said the 35 chief directors had 29 men and six women with four women making to the total of 48 Ambassadors.
The Members of Council of State was made up of 22 men and three women and out of 230 Parliamentarians, 25 were women in 2005 with the 138 District Chiefs Executives having 126 males and 12 females.
He said none of the political parties had so far chosen a woman as the running mate and said women had the right under national and international laws to actively participate in politics like their male counterparts.
Madam Paulina Abayage, Upper East Regional Director of the Department of Women who presented a paper on the “Importance of Women in Decision Making,” advocated that a legislation that allows for 40 per cent quota for women in the decision making process must be passed.
She noted that the affirmative action should be adopted in line with article 35 (5) of the constitution and asked for electoral laws to be reviewed to ensure that all political parties presented at least 40 per cent of their candidates as females.
Madam Abayage blamed the low level of the participation of women in the decision making process to religious, cultural practices and asked for the modification of negative cultural practices hampering the development of women.
Women, she noted, needed to be empowered by civil organizations to enable them to undertake political carriers and appealed to traditional authorities and opinion leaders to ensure that the girl child was sent to school.
The function was attended by Women Rights activists, political parties, assembly members, traditional leaders and media practitioners.
A forum dubbed The Reflection Workshop with Popular Artistes, which brought together researchers, popular artistes, disk jockeys and radio presenters to reflect on the messages encoded in popular song texts about women, was held at the Ellking Hotel in Accra on July 30th. The forum also sought to brainstorm alternative ways that women could be presented in popular music.
In attendance at the workshop which was facilitated by Prof. Akosua Anyidoho, the Director of NYU in Ghana, were RPC colleagues from Nigeria, Drs Bibi Bakare Yusuf and Charmaine Pereira, colleagues from Egypt, Drs Mona Ali Ibrahim and Sofa Rafaat, and from GhanaProf. Takyiwaa Manuh, Drs Nana Akua Anyidoho and Sika Ahadzie.The project has also been working with the veteran musicologist Prof. John Collins.The musicians and radio presenters who attended the workshop included Mr. Gyedu Blay Ambolley, Mrs. Diana Hopeson, WunLov, DJ Abio, Nana Adjei Denkyebuor, Mr. Nii A. Dagadu, and Mr. Dennis Abieku.
The workshop was part of the research project, Changing Representations of Women in Popular Music, led by Prof. Akosua Adomako Ampofo, Head, Centre for Gender and Advocacy (CEGENSA) and Dr. Awo Mana Asiedu, Theatre Arts, both of the University of Ghana. This project is, in turn, part of larger research endeavour called, Pathways of Women’s Empowerment, involving an international consortium of researchers from academic institutions networking with women’s organisations, women’s rights groups and policy makers to examine and influence policy changes that affect women’s conceptions of empowerment, creating the framework for women in the public sphere and work and changing narratives of women’s sexualities.The Convenor of the West Africa Hub of the project is Prof. Takyiwa Manuh, the Director of the Institute of African Studies, University of Ghana, Legon.
Through an examination of the lyrics of some songs composed mainly by Ghanaian artistes, the participants found that the messages conveyed about women are often negative and tended to reinforce stereotypical societal perceptions of women. For example, they found that some of the songs focused on women’s bodies and portrayed them as sex objects, while others tended to portray women as fickle minded, unfaithful, money lovers, exploitative, competitive, gossips, submissive, jealous, etc.
The participants also found texts that portrayed positive images about women.For example, some of the texts reflected women as keepers of tradition and history, educators, counsellors, hardworking, virtuous, physically beautiful, virtuous, or as selfless and caring mothers/partners. Some of the lyrics on sexuality also portrayed positive notions of desire and female-male physical love.However, these positive representations in the collection of songs were by far fewer.
Discussing the negative representation of women in popular music, the resource person for the workshop, Prof. Akosua Anyidoho, stressed that such images might cause some girls and women to believe that those portrayals are what society expects of them, and they may fail to develop their potentials. She noted that popular music is a very powerful medium for (re)enforcing and dictating what is in vogue/fashionable or acceptable to society. Both the youth and adults look to popular music for relaxation and entertainment. The songs are played on radio and television, and in the latter case typically accompanied by musical videos which often depict women’s bodies through dance (often quite provocative).
Daily we hear music, booming from shops, restaurants, taxis, buses, lorries, etc. Social gatherings such as marriage ceremonies, naming ceremonies, funerals, commissioning of projects, etc. are deemed dull without music. Thus, the whole society, both young and old, is exposed to the songs and the messages musicians convey. The lyrics are repeated in daily conversations, and even children are heard repeating them during their play time in the streets, at school, or at home.
Based on the foregoing, the participants considered alternative representations of women. The artistes and the radio presenters agreed they needed to expose the public to songs that do not stereotype women. According to Diana Hopeson, President of Musicians Union of Ghana (MUSIGA), most songs about women are composed by men. She suggested therefore that women needed to be encouraged and supported to sing about themselves. There were calls to involve female musicians in setting new standards: to write alternative songs texts about themselves.
*** Editorial changes have been made to the original publication that was made in the Daily Graphic, as boldened in the article.
Making aid relevant to gender-equality -The EC/UN Partnership Daily Graphic, Tuesday, August 19, 2008. Page 11 (Gender and Children) Salome Donkor
Between September 2 and 4 this year, ministers from over 100 countries and heads of bilateral and multilateral development agencies, donor organisations, and civil society organisations from around the world will assemble in Accra for the third High-Level Forum on aid effectiveness.
The conference is being held in recognition of the need to reform the process of development assistance to make it more responsive to the needs of developing countries and marginalised people in their fight against poverty by making aid more transparent, accountable and results-oriented.
The move towards a more equitable and gender responsiveness in the aid agenda over the years resulted in a conscious effort by the international community to reform the ways through which aid is delivered and managed.
They recognised that while the volumes of aid and other development resources must increase to achieve these goals, aid effectiveness must increase significantly, as well as support partner country efforts to strengthen governance and improve development performance. This is aimed at increasing the impact of aid in reducing poverty and inequality, increasing growth, building capacity and accelerating the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).
The commitment to achieve improved aid effectiveness and results was concretised in the late 1990s, when donors/aid agencies, in particular, began working with each other, and with partner countries, to harmonise these approaches and requirements.
The movement picked up steam in 2002 at the International Conference on Financing for Development in Monterrey, Mexico, and the last five years have been marked by a number of initiatives towards establishing a new aid architecture.
This culminated in a High-Level Forum on Harmonisation in Paris in March 2005, attended by heads of multilateral and bilateral development institutions, who resolved to take positive steps to reform ways to aid delivery and management.
The High-Level Forum followed up on the adoption of a Declaration that has come to be known as the Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness. The declaration is grounded on five mutually reinforcing principles: Ownership, alignment, harmonisation, managing for results and mutual accountability.
As part of a programme to enhance the knowledge of the media in understanding the issues concerned with aid effectiveness, the European Commission (EC), the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM), and the International Training Centre of the International Labour Organisation (ITC-ILO) have launched the EC/UN Partnership on Gender Equality for Development and Peace. The partnership is to support stronger action on gender equality and women’s human rights in national development process and in co-operation programmes supported by the EC.
Consequently, a one-day training workshop was organised for journalists in Accra, to provide the opportunity for participants to interact and share ideas on international aid and development issues and to break down the technical terms of the Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness.
The participants, made up of representatives from both the print and electronic media, maintained that no country could attain accelerated development if a segment of the population was not involved in the planning and implementation of the development process. They said it was necessary to ensure that women, who constitute more than half of the population of a number of countries, were involved in development plans, while aid was implemented to meet the different needs of men, women, children and people with special needs.
Ms Afua B. Ansere, the National Programme Co-ordinator UNIFEM said aid effectiveness would be attained if monies flowing into a country as aid were more co-ordinated and used for the intended purpose, while recipients were more accountable for the aid received.
She said for Ghana to attain a middle-income status by 2015, and to make aid effectiveness more relevance to the country, it was important to link the international aid received by the country to gender equality and women empowerment, while looking at the proportion of money that was channeled into health, education and youth training, as well as reproductive health and maternal health care, water and sanitation and the provision of other social services.
Mrs Charity Binka, a member of the EC/UN Partnership, who made a presentation on the concepts of gender equality and women empowerment, said basically women were seen to perform reproductive roles, while men performed productive roles. She, however, indicated that gender was not a consequence of sex and did not mean that one group was better than the other, adding that “it involves the roles that we play in our homes, the society, the church and in our communities”. She said gender equality meant that men and women had the same rights, status and fair treatment regardless of their sex.
The Accra forum will among others review progress in improving aid effectiveness, broaden the dialogue to newer actors and chart a course for continuing international action on aid effectiveness.
The conference will conclude high-level discussions and negotiations around key issues, culminating in the endorsement of a ministerial statement — The Accra Agenda for Action — that aims to deepen implementation of the Paris Declaration.
Malaika & Saviour, nursing students off to school by Senyo Ganyo
