‘Push More Women Into Leadership Positions’

The Volta Regional Minister, Dr Archibald Yao Letsa, has bemoaned the low level encouragement women receive when they show interest in occupying leadership positions in the country.

According to him, many women with the requisite capacity in nation building had fallen back and not shown interest in the governance process, thereby denying entities the opportunity to tap more knowledge of doing things differently from women, especially as it worked towards achieving the objectives of the African Charter on Democracy, Elections and Governance (ACDEG)  .

‘There is a challenge and we have not made giant strides. For example, out of the 25 municipal and district co-ordinating directors in the region, none is a female’.

National canker

The minister who noted that this was a national affair and therefore, not peculiar to the region called for more women to be given opportunities to be part of the higher decision making bodies in the country to move the country forward.

In a speech read on his behalf by Mr Kenneth Kponor, the Volta Regional NCCE Director, at an ActionAid Ghana engagement with stakeholders, including assembly members and co-ordinating directors in some districts of the region in Ho, the minister said it was the desire of the Volta Regional Co-ordinating Council to see more females assume leadership positions in the country.

‘In the case of political appointment, we need to encourage more women with the needed capacity to participate in active party politics in the region so as to get more of them appointed as municipal and district chief executives when their parties come to power. 

Citing the role of women in Rwanda as an example, Dr Letsa was of the view that if women were given the opportunity to assume key positions, the country would benefit because they were good managers, and as such would manage the resources of the country well.

Talking about the performance of Ghana in achieving the objective of the Charter as a signatory, Dr Letsa said the country had done a lot in terms of participation of citizens in democratic, development processes and in governance of public affairs.

According to him, Ghanaians were involved in the democratic and development processes, and through town hall meetings they were offered the opportunity to interact with the various assemblies.

What is ACDEG?

The Advocacy and Campaigns Manager of Actionaid Ghana, Ms Margaret Brew-Ward, in explaining what the Charter contained stated that although Ghana ratified ACDEG in 2010, the promise to promote the Charter had fallen short of expectation as the existence of the Charter and its 53 articles had not been popularised by the government.

She observed that it was the political elites and some civil society organisations that had knowledge of the Charter while the Ghanaian public knew very little about it.

She urged the stakeholders to help promote the objectives of the Charter which included democratic rule and constitutional changes of power through free, fair and transparent elections in Africa and representative systems of government on the African continent.

Source: Daily Graphic