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The Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection, on Wednesday affirmed its commitment to the passage of the Affirmative Action Bill into law, to facilitate the development of women in the country. A statement signed by Mercy Adjabeng, Communications Advisor at the Ministry, and copied to the Ghana News Agency, said: �the Gender Ministry believes that an equal representation of women and men in decision-making will reflect a more accurate composition of the society�. It said the equal representation would also reflect society�s commitment to women and gender issues nationally and internationally. The statement said: �Consequently, the Ministry is fully committed to ensuring the passage of the Affirmative Action Bill to enhance women�s representation in Ghana�s democratic process.� It said the Ministry recognizes that generally, Ghanaian women face a myriad of challenges that make them disadvantaged in terms of representation and participation in the country�s democratic process. The statement said this is shown by the low representation of women in politics and decision making at all levels. It said while there have been some positive developments by all stakeholders and political parties in promoting women�s empowerment and gender equality, the efforts are not commensurate with the results. The statement said several international conventions ratified by Ghana have sections that promote women�s involvement in formal decision-making and mentioned Article 7 of the Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination against Women . It called on the authorities to take appropriate measures to eliminate discrimination against women in politics and public life. The statement said the Ministry believes that the passage of the Affirmative Action Bill would be a strategy to achieve gender equality; which is Ghana�s only way of attaining gender equality. This is because it would provide legally mandated systems, structures and policies to ensure women�s equal participation. The statement said it is in line with this commitment that the Ministry has spearheaded the process. It said the Ministry had undertaken regional and national consultative stakeholder workshop for inputs on the drafting of the Proposal for the Affirmative Action Bill and a validation workshop, which agreed that the instructions for the drafting of the Bill be submitted to the Consultant engaged for the drafting of the Bill by May 31. The statement said it was anticipated that the Bill if passed into law, would address the startling gender inequalities in the country�s socio-economic and political spheres, to enable women to contribute to national development.