SUPPORT WOMEN'S INVOLVEMENT IN POLITICS (D/G Monday October 6, 2008 PAGE 59)

THE Upper East Regional Project Co-ordinator of the International Federation of Women Lawyers, (FIDA-Ghana), Mr David Atinga, has urged Ghanaians to support and encourage women to take part in active politics.
He explained that the era when people held the view that women's participation in politics was negative was outmoded.
"Women have the right under our national and international laws to actively participate in politics like their male counterparts," he said.
Mr Atinga was addressing a day's consultative forum for some women groups in the Upper East Region in Bolgatanga on women's participation in politics.
The forum, on the theme: "We know politics: Hearing the voices of women in the 2008 presidential and parliamentary elections", was organised by FIDA in collaboration with Women in Law and Development in Africa (WILDAF, Ghana), the Hunger Project, the Gender Centre and Coalition of Women in Governance.
The overall objective of the programme was to increase women’s participation in the 2008 electioneering through strategies that will enable their voice to be heard through stimulated dialogue, awareness creation, knowledge sharing and experiences on civil and political participation as a way of increasing participation of women in political life.
Making the observation, Mr Atinga said apart from actual participation, there was the need to ensure that women’s voices were heard and their needs well captured in national policies.
He said although women constituted more than 50 per cent of the population, they held less than 20 per cent of political power and occupied only a small proportion of decision-making places in society.
The Upper East Regional Director of the Department of Women, Madam Paulina Abayage, in her presentation, identified a lack of constituency, sustainability and political will to implement policies on affirmative actions as some of the challenges confronting women.
She also cited lack of managerial skills and know-how, a lack of confidence and fear on the part of women, as well as a lack of funding and resources for women to engage in partisan politics.
Touching on the way forward, she advocated the review of the electoral laws to ensure that all political parties presented at least 40 per cent female candidates, with the aim of achieving the AU target of 50 per cent by 2015.