Otiko Afisa Djaba
The Minister for Gender, Children and Social Protection, Otiko Afisah Djaba has told parliament that the Ministry will present the Affirmative Action Bill to parliament during the next meeting just after the Easter holiday break.
She asked Members of Parliament to do their best and expedite action on the passage of the Bill after the Easter break to help give more recognition to women.
She indicated that ministry worked tirelessly to finalise and submit it to Cabinet for approval.
The Minister for Gender, Children and Social Protection made the disclosure in parliament when she addressed parliament to commemorate International Women’s Day which fell yesterday.
The Minister also implored on parliament to pass the Intestate Succession Bill to give better intestate rights to women.
Ms Afisah Djaba said the Ministry will be holding a dinner dance today at the Movenpick Hotel to raise funds to support the Ministry’s initiative of “Operation Get Off the Street Now for a Better Life,” to help remove all children on the street and offer them better lives.
She said the Ministry has used its programmes to empower women, improve legal and policy framework to protect and build the capacity of women to cater for themselves and their families.
The Minister said this year’s celebration seeks to provide a platform to take stock of contribution, achievements and success chalked by rural and urban women and also deliberate on their struggles and challenges in gender equality and women’s empowerment.
The Deputy Majority Leader and New Patriotic Party (NPP) Member of Parliament for Kwabenya, Sarah Adwoa Safo, who also spoke on the occasion of Women’s Day in parliament, asked the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development to collaborate with the Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection, to revitalize and expand the scope of the ‘Women in Local Government Fund’ to help support women, who are into politics at the local level.
According to the Deputy Majority Leader, the district assembles and political parties play important roles in developing confidence, skills and political acumen of women.
She said the primaries of the political parties have already begun in earnest and the impending district assembly elections present an opportunity to elect more women and prepare them for other national leadership positions.
“We need to work hard to improve women’s representation at all levels of governance in this country. The current 37 women out of the 275 elected Members of Parliament, representing 13% of the total membership of parliament, is woefully inadequate and far below the internationally agreed target of 30%,” she said.
The Speaker of Parliament, Prof Mike Oquaye, who is a known activist of gender equality, said that the time has come for political parties to give sizeable quotas to women to contest unopposed on their tickets, stressing that each political party can start with 30 seats for women.
By Thomas Fosu Jnr