Women in Law and Development Africa (WiLDAF-Ghana) has expressed disappointment in the number of women nominated as Metropolitan, Municipal District Chief Executives (MMDCE’s) by the President.
Ms Lois Adumoah-Addo, Programmes Manager, WiLDAF-Ghana, said nominations did not reflect the dictates of the constitutional provision on regional and gender balance in such matters.
This follows the list of 38 females out of the 222 males nominated for MMDCE roles in the assemblies released by the government.
The Programmes Manager said this in an interview with the Ghana News Agency (GNA), in Accra.
She said WiLDAF among other nongovernmental organizations, had been engaging political leaders to ensure that they honoured their manifesto promises and party policies to women during electioneering campaigns, saying “but this is not what they see in action when it comes to appointments and nominations”.
“This shows clearly that government is not working towards ensuring gender balance and women participation in decision making,” she stated.
Ms Adumoah-Addo noted that women’s efforts in governance were not honoured when it came to positions, adding that, “it was about time we call on political leaders to let them know that they are not being fair to the majority in the country who are women.”
According to her, positions at district assemblies were more of nominations and appointments and “that government has the power to make sure the nominations are gender-balanced and inclusive, to meet the requirement of at least 30 per cent women MMDCEs in every region.”
Thus, it was even more disappointing that some regions did not have any woman nominated despite the leading roles women play during elections, she added.
“When it comes to the ministerial appointment women had 14 per cent representation and in this MMDC nomination, women had only 14 per cent which is unfair,” she added.
Ms Adumoah-Addo questioned ,”how does the country seek to develop with such poor women representation having in mind the developmental principles, which states that no one should be left behind?”
She said the Affirmative Action Bill, which would check most of those imbalances was yet to be laid before Parliament and called on political leaders to prioritize the bill.
Government through the Minister of Local Government, on Sunday released the list of nominees for the Metropolitan, Municipal, and District Chief Executives (MMDCEs) positions for approval by respective Assemblies.
Source: GNA