The assembly women pose for a picture after the programme
FEMALE ASSEMBLY members from Western North, Ahafo, Bono and Bono East regions have benefitted from a two-day capacity building workshop on effective lobbying skills and community mobilisation.
The workshop was facilitated by the National Association of Local Authorities (NALAG) in collaboration with the Commonwealth Local Government Forum.
Addressing them at Fiapre on Tuesday, General Secretary for NALAG, Joseph Owusu, said female assembly women need to be effective in their roles for faster community development and poverty eradication. According to him, low women participation in decision making at local government affects society, so there is the need to reverse this trend.
He noted that issues discussed at assembly meetings mostly concern women and children such as water and sanitation, health, girl-child education, resource mobilisation (finance) among others which need women inputs for positive changes.
“Assembly issues are women issues so we need more of you to take up community roles. Ideally there should be about 70 per cent representation at the assemblies but due to socio-cultural discrimination against women, not even 30 per cent representation is achieved,” he said. He charged them to encourage their colleague women to put up themselves for election or appointment into leadership positions. “Marital issues including parental issues should not deter you from doing assembly work or community work,” he added.
District Chief Executive for Tain, Oforiwaa Dwommoh, who is a law lecturer at the Catholic University of Ghana, took the assembly women through managing workload, time management, how to delegate, prioritisation, problem solving skills, decision making, multitasking, strategic thinking and scheduling. She said because women have so many roles to play in the house as wives, teachers, cooks, among others, they need to know how to apply all the above skills so they would be able to achieve a lot within a short time and at the same time play their political roles.
On her part, the programme officer for the Commonwealth Local Government Forum, Joyce Ekuful, said her organisation hopes to work for more women participation in decision making that affect their lives and that of their children positively. As a result, we are working with women assembly members, and encouraging them to come out for assistance.
danielyaodayee@yahoo.com
FROM Daniel Y. Dayee, Fiapre