Stakeholders Meet to Review Affirmative Action Bill

Government will soon pass the Affirmative Action Bill into Law, the Minister for Gender, Children and Social Protection, Madam Otiko Afisah Djaba, has disclosed.

Madam Djaba, who was speaking at a Stakeholders Review Meeting on the Affirmative Action Bill in Accra, said the Bill, when passed, would promote gender equality at all levels of governance and redress the imbalance in society.

She noted that successive governments had, over the years, tried to put in place mechanisms to enhance the participation of women in all aspects of decision making in Ghana but this had not gained the intended results.

It had, therefore, become necessary, she said, for the country to take drastic measures to correct the imbalance through implementable legislation.

Madam Djaba said women had a critical role to play in the development of the home, community and the nation, adding that the time had come for Ghana to walk the talk on gender equality as other countries had done.

The Minister said reviewing the Bill to enable Ghana change its way of addressing issues of gender would require concerted efforts by all Stakeholders.

In a statement, the Speaker of Parliament, Prof. Mike Oquaye, said an Affirmative Action was a legal instrument for social engineering and a curable tool for problems.

Prof Oquaye, therefore, charged stakeholders to ensure that the Bill would come up with stern measures that would check the imbalances in gender equality.

He also urged stakeholders to appeal to the President to reserve One-third of District Assemblies membership for Women who would be visible at the local level to enable them contribute meaningfully to national development.

A Former First Lady of Ghana, Mrs Nana Konadu Agyeman-Rawlings, noted that a lot of progress had been made on the Affirmative Action Bill since its inception.

Mrs Agyeman-Rawlings said Ghana would not move forward in its development agenda until women got their rightful places in society and urged all to work together for a worthy course.

Source: ISD ( Aliyah Bayali & Chantal Aidoo)

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