Women have been identified as potential better managers of the nation’s economy to propel development if given the opportunity to play roles at the helm of affairs. ‘We all know that women are the ones managing our homes, and we know that with the little amount of money at home you are sure of getting something to eat. ‘When a woman is doing anything, she thinks about the children and the aged, so they can do the same thing for Ghana to develop when they are entrusted with the state’s resources,’ Madam Charity Batuure, the Upper West Regional Director of the Department of Gender, said. She was speaking in Wa, at a colloquium for aspiring women leaders as part of activities under the She Leads Project being implemented by the Community Aid for Rural Development (CARD) Ghana in partnership with Plan International Ghana. The colloquium was to create an opportunity for the women to discuss and address some identified barriers to women’s effective involvement and participation in leadership and decision-making processes at all levels of society. Some of the barriers were the use of young women as mere campaign agents, pimping products, and their limitation to deputising roles, which discouraged them from participating actively in partisan politics. Madam Batuure said war-torn countries such as Rwanda and Liberia could now be recognised as developed countries in Africa ‘because women play crucial roles in leadership in these countries.’ She said involving women in politics and decision-making would enable them make decisions that represented the collective interest of women to engender collective development. Ms Leenat Abdul-Rahaman, the Executive Director of CARD Ghana, said the need for involving women in decision-making and policy formulations was more crucial considering the relatively discriminatory policies against women. She cited the luxury taxes on sanitary pads as a clear example of a policy that discriminated against women and that sanitary pads could have been exempted from the luxury tax if women were well represented in that policy formulation process. She said the colloquium was also to prepare young women for active politics through confidence building, experience sharing, and campaign message development. Ms Abdul-Rahaman encouraged young women involved in partisan politics to campaign for their preferred candidates on conditions that those Aspirants who were not women will work in theirr interest of women if they win. Madam Nancy A. Dery, the Upper West Regional Women’s Organiser of the New Patriotic Party and Madam Khalida M. A. Seidu, the Deputy Upper West Regional Women’s Organiser of the National Democratic Congress, took the participants through political leadership and how they could participate actively in partisan politics. The participants were drawn from political parties and female members of the public who expressed interest in contesting for Assembly Membership in the upcoming district assembly elections in their various communities.

Source: Ghana News Agency