International Women’s Day: Stakeholders call for the passage of the Affirmative Action Bill

As the world marks International Women’s Day on the theme “Invest in women, Accelerate Progress”, the Coordinator for the Affirmative Action Bill Coalition, Becky Enyonam Ahadzi has joined calls for the need to expedite the passage of the Affirmative Action Bill.

According to her, this will demonstrate Ghana’s commitment to improving gender equality in the country.

Speaking to Citi News on the sidelines of the Intergenerational Dialogue/Youth Forum on the Passage of the Affirmative Action Bill held in Accra, Becky Enyonam Ahadzi, called for the urgent passage of the bill.

“As we celebrate International Women’s Day, we believe that the passage of the affirmative action and gender equality bill is one of the ways the country will show its commitment to investing in women and it will show that we are progressively increasing our political life.

“What this bill is going to do is to ensure we have at least 30% representation of women in key decision-making spaces in this country and so we are calling on parliament, both majority and minority to come to a consensus and pass this bill for the better of women in this nation”.

Enyonam Ahadzi also asserted that “because we are in an election year, it will be expedient to increase advocacy efforts to ensure the Bill is passed by Parliament before the end of March 2024”.

The Affirmative Action (Gender Equality) Bill was put before parliament in 2016. The bill which is currently in parliament when passed into law, will address the apparent marginalization of women in key decision-making spaces in Ghana by reserving a minimum of 40% of public offices for women.

Over the years, Ghana has been grappling with low representation of women and other marginalized groups. The number of women in leadership positions at both local and national levels is discouraging as the country has failed to achieve the 30% UN target for women’s participation.

Article 17 clause 4 of the 1992 constitution of Ghana further provides that nothing prevents Parliament from enacting a law when there is clear historical evidence of gender discrimination.

This, however, is the basis for calls from stakeholders to the government to ensure the passage of the Affirmative Action Bill to bridge the gender disparity in the country aimed at accelerating progress through inclusion and active participation of women in key-decision decision-making spaces.

The Intergenerational Dialogue/Youth Forum on the Passage of the Affirmative Action Bill was in partnership with the Affirmative Action Bill Coalition, the Women in Law and Development in Africa (WiLDAF), the Network for Women’s Rights in Ghana (NETRIGHT) the Women’s Voice Leadership Project at Plan International Ghana and supported by the Global Affairs Canada.

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