More women representation in local govt advocated
A former Executive Director of Institute of Local Government Studies, Dr Esther Ofei-Aboagye has advocated more women representation in the district level elections to facilitate socio-economic development.
According to her, women constituted 51.7 per cent of the population, however women’s representation and participation in local governance was very low as less than five per cent were represented in the district level.
Dr Ofei-Aboagye disclosed this at a policy dialogue on women’s leadership in local governance in Ghana organised by United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in Accra, Thursday.
Under the theme; ‘Women’s Leadership in Local Governance: Driving Grassroots Development,’ the dialogue sought to address the low participation of women in local governance and the need to close
the gender gap to GapZero for women in leadership.
Dr Ofei-Aboagye, who is also the Chairperson of Star Ghana Foundation said women sustained the development of communities that assemblies had jurisdiction over.
“They do this through their reproductive roles – what they do in their homes, for their families and social responsibilities in the community; Productive roles: in the markets, economic activities; and contributions to the social sustenance, cohesion and management of communities – welfare, faith groups. Therefore, they deserve a more meaningful place and more recognition in community political arrangements,” she stated.
Dr Ofei-Aboagye underscored the need for local governance arrangements to allow for effective participation of both women and men in governance and decision-making “both on the supply and demand sides – as politicians and administrators; and as citizens, clients and stakeholders.”
The UNDP Resident Representative, Dr Angela Lusigi said Africa had the highest female representation at the board level of any region in the world of about 25 per cent against a global average of 17 per cent.
However, she said when it came to women in political leadership and decision making the picture was different, as only 14.5 per cent were represented in Parliament, less than five per cent in the district level, and only 15 per cent of the 261 Metropolitan, Municipal and District Chief Executives (MMDCEs).
Dr Lusigi said although one of the biggest barriers to women’s leadership was bias as new data from UNDP showed that globally, 49 per cent of women and men felt that men make better political leaders than women do and 43 per cent feel that men make better business executives than women do.
“But real evidence shows that women are often better leaders, show more empathy and are better able to tap into a wide variety of skills that men don’t always possess,” she added.
Dr Lusigi expressed UNDP’s commitment to expanding opportunities and networks so that women and young people reach their full potential as leaders.
“Empowered women and youth with equal access to leadership and decision making will close the gender gap and get us all closer to the Sustainable Development Goals,” she said.
BY VIVIAN ARTHUR
