04/28/08
Story: Salome Donkor
An American Attorney, Dr Yvette E. Taylor-Hachoose, has advised women to project positive attitudes in life and free themselves from negative thoughts that affect their progress.
She said globally women faced obstacles through wars and civil strives, while cultural practices such as female genital mutilation, betrothal of girls, widowhood rites, as well as abuse of women in the domestic setting tend to degrade and dehumanise women.
She however pointed out that “the role of women has diminished but the spirit has not” and advised women to take inspiration from people with positive attitudes to spur them on to attain success .
Dr Taylor-Hachoose, who is also the president of a U.S law firm, made the statement at a media round table dialogue in Accra. Her firm focuses on business formation, corporate transactions, business succession planning, estate planning and elder law including Wills, Trusts and Estate Administration and Guardianship, as well as protection.
She is currently in Ghana on a two week visit to conduct a series of dialogues on the status of women as business owners, and to hold discussions with female lawyers, business leaders, academics, journalists and university students about laws and business practices that promote the success of women. The visit has taken her to Kumasi and Cape Coast.
She said she undertook the trip to coincide with the celebration of International Women’s Day, which was marked globally on March 8, and pointed out that her visit which was aimed at sharing experience with women entrepreneurs had offered her tremendous leaning experience.
Touching on the theme for the celebration of this year’s International Women’s Day, she said investing in women and girls was critical for the development of the world in general and Ghana in particular since it would have positive results on the development of the country’s economy.
She said in dealing with women entrepreneurs, there was the need to analyse the transfer of wealth and look at what to do with wealth when it was created , stressing that to achieve success as an entrepreneur, one needed a positive attitude, uphold integrity and make sure he or she balanced whatever she or he did.
Dr Taylor-Hachoose spoke about the benefits of estate planning, and said it was necessary to plan to save one’s estate and address family situations in areas where children needed support, adding that an entrepreneur was a teacher .
She also said parents needed to be empowered to plan their inheritance, and indicate who they will want to benefit from the asserts they had acquired, adding that that offered a solution to the problem of who took care of the children when parents were not there.
She also spoke about the need for more access to credit in the formal sector for women entrepreneurs at a reasonable interest rate and also creating public opportunities for women to obtain credit, which is a necessary prerequisite for the growth of any business.
According to her, it was important to publicise organisations that could offer assistance to women entrepreneurs to make them know the benefits available to enhance the growth of their businesses.
Dr Taylor-Hachoose also touched on the need to educate women on their legal rights; including ownership of property in their own name, forms of marriages and their consequences, requirements and inheritance.
She said in many parts of the world, including Ghana, inheritance is not in the name of women, and expressed the hope that Ghana’s Interstate Succession Law,(PNDC Law 111), and other related legal enactment will benefit women.
She touched on mentorship programmes for women entrepreneurs, as well as mentorship programmes for young girls to encourage them to be independent, and pointed out that dependence, whether on government or a human being, puts one at a disadvantaged position.
She spoke about education and training through the provision of technical assistance for women entrepreneurs, including market women and stressed the need for relevant programmes to reach out to women at the grassroots to empower them to make a difference.
She thanked the women of Ghana and said she was warmly welcomed in all the places visited.
Participants at the meeting urged the media, women human rights organisations, governmental organisation to take a front role to support the fight to uplift the status of women and pointed out that institutions such as the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice should be strengthened and fortified to perform their respective roles effectively.
An Information Officer of the US Embassy, Mr Benjamin East, said the visit of Dr Taylor-Hachoose to the country was in line with the commitment of the US Embassy in Ghana to occasionally bring people to talk about relevant issues including those affecting women.
Monday, April 14, 2008
Thursday, March 27, 2008
Improving women’s access to justice-
Article: Salome Donkor
The issue of three ‘royal’ widows of Mo who have undergone widowhood rites for more than nine years as a result of a feud between three gates of the Mo Stool, which has been pending before the Brong Ahafo Regional House of Chiefs for nine years, continues to draw condemnation from human rights advocates.
The widowhood rites would end only when a new chief is installed to perform the final funeral rites of the late chief, Nana Kwaku Dimpo.
The Member of Parliament (MP) for Kintampo North, Mr Stephen Kunsu, reportedly described the practice being perpetrated in the name of culture, as inhuman and said it had brought to the fore the need for negative aspects of the country’s culture to be discarded.
Despite constitutional provisions that guarantee the rights of men, women and children, a number of women continue to be falsely accused and incarcerated in “witches’ camps” or “prayer camps” where they are held to “deliver” them of evil spirits.
These seem to give credence to the assertion that women as daughters, mothers and wives face several challenges in their efforts to access justice in both rural and urban areas due to a number of factors such as illiteracy and poverty.
The Women in Law and Development in Africa (WiLDAF) Ghana maintains that whether they come from a matrilineal or a patrimonial family background, women go through daunting challenges within the country’s existing legal systems to get justice.
This, the organisation says, is in relation to matters concerning domestic violence, property acquired with a partner or entitlement due to inheritance, access and control to land or relating to a third party seeking maintenance, custody or paternity of a child.
Within the government’s development agenda and various international agreements, one critical factor that requires consideration is women’s access to justice.
According to WiLDAF, under the country’s plural legal system where both customary and statutory laws work side by side to offer flexibility and individual choice, the ordinary woman is confused because she is often unsure which system of justice she should pursue. For a woman in the rural area, her best option is to use the customary legal system, which in most cases is “patently patriarchal and often not in her favour”.
Should she choose the state legal system, she is confronted with challenges of physical access to a court of law and low economic power to hire the services of a legal practitioner.
Access to justice has many components and WiLDAF talks about three. The first is access to government or civil society sponsored legal aid services, which include access to information about legal rights and responsibilities, legal counselling, advice and representation, physical access to structures and mechanisms and the application of constitutional provisions on human rights and legislation to ensure justice for all manner of persons, irrespective of their social, political, economic or cultural standing.
To deliberate on the challenges associated with women’s access to justice, WiLDAF Ghana, in conjunction with the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) and the Federation of Women Lawyers (FIDA) organised a dialogue in Accra to focus on the special case of women and their access to justice. Similar dialogues will be organised in Kumasi and Takoradi.
Linked to these discussions, the dialogues will also focus on how women’s access to justice affects their participation in the country’s development process, and focus on women as a special group because of the challenges that confront them in their daily quest for justice in one conflict or the other.
To critically examine a number of important concerns within the country’s legal system, presentations by the panellists at the forum in Accra touched on topics including women seeking State Legal Aid Services: Successes and challenges; the role of Muslim and Christian religions in women’s access to justice; promoting Alternative Dispute Resolution in Ghana - Implications for women’s access to justice and the “Police Service Ensuring Women have Access to Justice, Gains and Challenges”.
Deliberating on the topics, the issue of settling disputes amicably at the community level with the involvement of Female Traditional Leaders (FTL) to safeguard the interest of women, cropped up and that also led to the essence of setting up Community Mediation Centres (CMCs) in parts of the country.
A write-up on CMCs states that they provide a platform where individuals or groups in dispute could resolve the dispute with the assistance of a trained third party neutral, referred as the Mediator.
The CMC is the initiative of the Legal Aid Scheme, with support from the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).
The centres handle civil cases such as tenancy issues, employment disputes, family conflicts, maintenance and custody of children and such minor criminal cases that are permitted under the law such as assaults, acts tending to disturb peace, neglect of dependants and cases referred by the police, the courts and other social service providers.
The objective of the CMCs is to offer an alternative to adversarial, cumbersome and expensive means of conflict resolution to improve access to justice for all people within the community and to create awareness about mediation centres as a preferred alternative to the centres.
All these are geared towards promoting peaceful co-existence among members of the community, facilitating communication between those engaged in dispute and providing dispute resolution centres in the communities in order to offer the platform for those engaged in dispute to create their own solutions to their differences.
Dwelling more on promoting Alternative Dispute Resolution in Ghana and its implications for women’s access to justice, a Senior Lecturer at the Faculty of Law, University of Ghana, Legon, Dr Kwadwo Arua-Appiagyei, said both the normal legal system and the traditional system of justice have not helped much in the promotion of women’s access to justice.
He explained that the problem with the traditional system of justice is that it operates in a society that is patriarchy controlled while the normal legal system is slow and complex and discourages women, especially those in the rural areas, from seeking justice under the system.
He said the next alternative is to widen the scope of Alternative Dispute Resolution and give gender training to the adjudicators to make them effective in promoting women’s access to justice.
The participants, however, cautioned that criminal cases, such as rape, defilement and incest are not to be dealt with under the traditional dispute resolution system but by the law courts.
The non-governmental organisations should help in training traditional leaders to appreciate the need not to mediate in such cases. They also called for the empowerment of women financially to address concerns that are raised by some family members in relation to the upkeep of children when a spouse is convicted for a criminal offence.
They also called for an end to trial by ordeal under the traditional mediation scheme since it infringes on the fundamental human rights of victims.
The Ameer of the Ahmadiyya Mission, Maulvi A. Wahab Adam, shared his thoughts on Islam’s attitude towards women’s rights and the role of the Muslim religion in women’s access to justice in an address read on his behalf by Amtush Shakoor Karim, a lecturer at the University of Ghana.
He said certain precepts and practices of present day Muslims cannot be said to represent the letter and spirit of the Shariah.
He made reference to Safiah, who was accused of adultery by a Shariah Court in Nigeria, which claimed that in Islam, punishment for adultery is death by stoning.
He said although he made a demand on all Muslim scholars and jurists in Ghana and across the world to cite one single verse of the Holy Qur’an to support their contention, since 2002, not a single verse had been cited from the Holy Qur’an to substantiate that claim until today and questioned the basis upon which Safiah was sentenced to death by stoning in the name of Islam.
He maintained that if the claim was true then justice demanded that the man who impregnated Safiah should also be stoned to death, but ironically, there was complete silence on that aspect of the prescribed punishment.
He stressed that severe sanctions, including suspension from the community, and where necessary, ex-communication await intransigent men and women.
In her presentation, the Queen of Juansa, Nana Afrakoma Boatemma, who touched on some challenges facing women who seek redress to disputes under the customary law, said in family related cases, the customary process for the resolution of such disputes are mediation and arbitration.
She said considering the cost of accessing the courts, especially for women, most of whom are poor and not well educated, there is the need to strengthen the ability of traditional authorities and sharpen their skills in dispute settlement to enable them mediate effectively in such matters, and generate their interest in such cases as well as to make their views heard.
In her presentation, Chief Superintendent (Mrs) Jessie Borquaye, Accra Regional Co-ordinator of the Domestic Violence and Victims Support Unit (DOVVSU) of the Ghana Police Service said the unit seeks, through its outreach programmes, to prevent crimes against women by educating them on their rights, what constitutes domestic violence, how to identify potential perpetrators and where to locate DOVVSU .
She said one major challenge facing the unit is that some women who report cases at against their husbands turn round to beg for their release and this happens when especially, family or church elders meet and the women are compensated and also advised to forgive the men for the sake of their children.
The issue of three ‘royal’ widows of Mo who have undergone widowhood rites for more than nine years as a result of a feud between three gates of the Mo Stool, which has been pending before the Brong Ahafo Regional House of Chiefs for nine years, continues to draw condemnation from human rights advocates.
The widowhood rites would end only when a new chief is installed to perform the final funeral rites of the late chief, Nana Kwaku Dimpo.
The Member of Parliament (MP) for Kintampo North, Mr Stephen Kunsu, reportedly described the practice being perpetrated in the name of culture, as inhuman and said it had brought to the fore the need for negative aspects of the country’s culture to be discarded.
Despite constitutional provisions that guarantee the rights of men, women and children, a number of women continue to be falsely accused and incarcerated in “witches’ camps” or “prayer camps” where they are held to “deliver” them of evil spirits.
These seem to give credence to the assertion that women as daughters, mothers and wives face several challenges in their efforts to access justice in both rural and urban areas due to a number of factors such as illiteracy and poverty.
The Women in Law and Development in Africa (WiLDAF) Ghana maintains that whether they come from a matrilineal or a patrimonial family background, women go through daunting challenges within the country’s existing legal systems to get justice.
This, the organisation says, is in relation to matters concerning domestic violence, property acquired with a partner or entitlement due to inheritance, access and control to land or relating to a third party seeking maintenance, custody or paternity of a child.
Within the government’s development agenda and various international agreements, one critical factor that requires consideration is women’s access to justice.
According to WiLDAF, under the country’s plural legal system where both customary and statutory laws work side by side to offer flexibility and individual choice, the ordinary woman is confused because she is often unsure which system of justice she should pursue. For a woman in the rural area, her best option is to use the customary legal system, which in most cases is “patently patriarchal and often not in her favour”.
Should she choose the state legal system, she is confronted with challenges of physical access to a court of law and low economic power to hire the services of a legal practitioner.
Access to justice has many components and WiLDAF talks about three. The first is access to government or civil society sponsored legal aid services, which include access to information about legal rights and responsibilities, legal counselling, advice and representation, physical access to structures and mechanisms and the application of constitutional provisions on human rights and legislation to ensure justice for all manner of persons, irrespective of their social, political, economic or cultural standing.
To deliberate on the challenges associated with women’s access to justice, WiLDAF Ghana, in conjunction with the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) and the Federation of Women Lawyers (FIDA) organised a dialogue in Accra to focus on the special case of women and their access to justice. Similar dialogues will be organised in Kumasi and Takoradi.
Linked to these discussions, the dialogues will also focus on how women’s access to justice affects their participation in the country’s development process, and focus on women as a special group because of the challenges that confront them in their daily quest for justice in one conflict or the other.
To critically examine a number of important concerns within the country’s legal system, presentations by the panellists at the forum in Accra touched on topics including women seeking State Legal Aid Services: Successes and challenges; the role of Muslim and Christian religions in women’s access to justice; promoting Alternative Dispute Resolution in Ghana - Implications for women’s access to justice and the “Police Service Ensuring Women have Access to Justice, Gains and Challenges”.
Deliberating on the topics, the issue of settling disputes amicably at the community level with the involvement of Female Traditional Leaders (FTL) to safeguard the interest of women, cropped up and that also led to the essence of setting up Community Mediation Centres (CMCs) in parts of the country.
A write-up on CMCs states that they provide a platform where individuals or groups in dispute could resolve the dispute with the assistance of a trained third party neutral, referred as the Mediator.
The CMC is the initiative of the Legal Aid Scheme, with support from the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).
The centres handle civil cases such as tenancy issues, employment disputes, family conflicts, maintenance and custody of children and such minor criminal cases that are permitted under the law such as assaults, acts tending to disturb peace, neglect of dependants and cases referred by the police, the courts and other social service providers.
The objective of the CMCs is to offer an alternative to adversarial, cumbersome and expensive means of conflict resolution to improve access to justice for all people within the community and to create awareness about mediation centres as a preferred alternative to the centres.
All these are geared towards promoting peaceful co-existence among members of the community, facilitating communication between those engaged in dispute and providing dispute resolution centres in the communities in order to offer the platform for those engaged in dispute to create their own solutions to their differences.
Dwelling more on promoting Alternative Dispute Resolution in Ghana and its implications for women’s access to justice, a Senior Lecturer at the Faculty of Law, University of Ghana, Legon, Dr Kwadwo Arua-Appiagyei, said both the normal legal system and the traditional system of justice have not helped much in the promotion of women’s access to justice.
He explained that the problem with the traditional system of justice is that it operates in a society that is patriarchy controlled while the normal legal system is slow and complex and discourages women, especially those in the rural areas, from seeking justice under the system.
He said the next alternative is to widen the scope of Alternative Dispute Resolution and give gender training to the adjudicators to make them effective in promoting women’s access to justice.
The participants, however, cautioned that criminal cases, such as rape, defilement and incest are not to be dealt with under the traditional dispute resolution system but by the law courts.
The non-governmental organisations should help in training traditional leaders to appreciate the need not to mediate in such cases. They also called for the empowerment of women financially to address concerns that are raised by some family members in relation to the upkeep of children when a spouse is convicted for a criminal offence.
They also called for an end to trial by ordeal under the traditional mediation scheme since it infringes on the fundamental human rights of victims.
The Ameer of the Ahmadiyya Mission, Maulvi A. Wahab Adam, shared his thoughts on Islam’s attitude towards women’s rights and the role of the Muslim religion in women’s access to justice in an address read on his behalf by Amtush Shakoor Karim, a lecturer at the University of Ghana.
He said certain precepts and practices of present day Muslims cannot be said to represent the letter and spirit of the Shariah.
He made reference to Safiah, who was accused of adultery by a Shariah Court in Nigeria, which claimed that in Islam, punishment for adultery is death by stoning.
He said although he made a demand on all Muslim scholars and jurists in Ghana and across the world to cite one single verse of the Holy Qur’an to support their contention, since 2002, not a single verse had been cited from the Holy Qur’an to substantiate that claim until today and questioned the basis upon which Safiah was sentenced to death by stoning in the name of Islam.
He maintained that if the claim was true then justice demanded that the man who impregnated Safiah should also be stoned to death, but ironically, there was complete silence on that aspect of the prescribed punishment.
He stressed that severe sanctions, including suspension from the community, and where necessary, ex-communication await intransigent men and women.
In her presentation, the Queen of Juansa, Nana Afrakoma Boatemma, who touched on some challenges facing women who seek redress to disputes under the customary law, said in family related cases, the customary process for the resolution of such disputes are mediation and arbitration.
She said considering the cost of accessing the courts, especially for women, most of whom are poor and not well educated, there is the need to strengthen the ability of traditional authorities and sharpen their skills in dispute settlement to enable them mediate effectively in such matters, and generate their interest in such cases as well as to make their views heard.
In her presentation, Chief Superintendent (Mrs) Jessie Borquaye, Accra Regional Co-ordinator of the Domestic Violence and Victims Support Unit (DOVVSU) of the Ghana Police Service said the unit seeks, through its outreach programmes, to prevent crimes against women by educating them on their rights, what constitutes domestic violence, how to identify potential perpetrators and where to locate DOVVSU .
She said one major challenge facing the unit is that some women who report cases at against their husbands turn round to beg for their release and this happens when especially, family or church elders meet and the women are compensated and also advised to forgive the men for the sake of their children.
Wednesday, March 26, 2008
Making aid responsive to gender needs - The EC/UN Partnership
03/20/08
Article: Salome Donkor
It is widely acknowledged that gender equality is not only crucial in itself but is a fundamental human right and a question of social justice.
The United Nations Fund for Women (UNIFEM) recognises that women will only benefit from the new aid architecture if gender equality is recognised as a key component of poverty reduction and national development.
Evidence however shows that gender equality has not fared well in the broader aid effectiveness agenda. The Head of Delegation of the European Commission (EC) to Ghana, Mr Filiberto Ceriani, at the launch of an EC/UN Partnership on Gender Equality for Development and Peace in Accra recently maintained that gender inequalities are still ingrained in the cultural, social and political systems of many countries.
To make national development agenda responsive to gender parity and women’s needs and to push forward the agenda of the new aid architecture, the last five years have been marked by a number of global initiatives and commitment to improve on the use of aid in developing economies and ensure that increased levels of aid effectively address today’s development challenges.
Mention could be made of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) that commit developed and developing countries to meeting the needs of the word’s poorest by 2015 and the Monterey Consensus that established ownership, alignment and harmonisation in development assistance.
Furthermore the 2004 Marrakech Roundtable on Managing for Development Results that established aid effectiveness and increases in its volume and the most recently adopted Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness in March 2005, are both geared towards aid effectiveness.
The link between these commitments and the visionary promises made by countries to advance gender equality in the Beijing Platform for Action (BPFA), the Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) and the Millennium Development Goals (MDG) and Security Council Resolution 1325 needs to be clarified and strengthened.
The ten-year review of the BPFA and the five-year review of Resolution 1325 affirmed that commitments to gender equality were not matched by concerted or consistent implementation or by financial support through official development assistance or government budgets.
To address these challenges and to ensure that gender equality is at the heart of all development policy to achieve aid effectiveness has resulted in a landmark initiative that has brought together the EC, UNIFEM and the International Training Centre of the International Labour Organisation (ILO), in the EC/UN Partnership on Gender Equality for Development and Peace.
Ghana is one of the 12 countries chosen to pilot the EC/UN Partnership. The other countries are Cameroon, The Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Ghana, Honduras, Indonesia, Kyrgyzstan, Napal, Nicaragua, Papua New Guinea, Suriname and the Ukraine.
The initiative involves the identification of strategies to support and strengthen national planning processes and consultations on gender and aid effectiveness in 12 countries, with representatives from government, national women’s machineries, NGOs, EC delegations and multilateral organisations, including UN Country Teams.
In Ghana, the Partnership is also to expand capacities of gender equality advocates and experts to promote greater responsiveness to gender equality in aid effectiveness processes, in the lead up to and following the 2008 Ghana High-level Forum on Aid Effectiveness.
It is being implemented in response to the International Donor Community’s new “Development Consensus” that seeks to address aid effectiveness and gender equality in the country’s national development planning and implementation process.
The project which is a follow-up to a crucial conference that was jointly organised by the EU/UNIFEM in November 2005, aims at mainstreaming gender parity issues and other pro-poor interventions in the national development framework to address the plight of women and the “vulnerable” in society.
The launch of the programme in Ghana was also used to present a mapping study by the EC/UN Partnership on Gender Equality for peace and Development.
The study looked at the status of women and gender equality in Ghana, aid to Ghana, aid modalities, alignment, ownership, harmonisation, managing for results and mutual accountability.
The report of the study, which was presented by Ms Afua Ansre, National Programme Co-ordinator of UNIFEM, called on the government and donors to ensure that the Ghana Joint Assistance Strategy, which is to operate from 2007-2010, presents an example of how harmonisation might work for gender equality.
It also urged the government to increase support to the Ministry of Women and Children’s Affairs and called on donors to revitalise their gender mainstreaming approached to ensure that gender is not disappearing from projects and sector and budget programmes
The various speakers emphasised that making aid responsive to gender needs in responsive budgeting, would help governments to probe into whether men and women fared differently under existing revenue and expenditure patterns.
This they maintained, will provide the government the opportunity to understand and appreciate how various social groups responded differently to development policy change over time.
The Chief Advisor to the President, Mrs Mary Chinery-Hesse, who launched the programme, underlined the need for such a mapping study to take into account both the paid and unpaid economic contributions of women.
She mentioned that the work of women within the household or community, such us the upbringing of children, nursing the sick and elderly, managing household resources and consumption, protecting the environment should be acknowledged in addition to those activities that are ultimately reflect in market transaction which tend to be captured by national statistics.
The importance of ensuring that the new aid modalities empower women, by making gender equality a core value and goal at all levels of development co-operation, is significant and it is important that gender equality and women’s empowerment will be the basis for greater co-ordination among donors and increased ownership of development processes by national governments.
Article: Salome Donkor
It is widely acknowledged that gender equality is not only crucial in itself but is a fundamental human right and a question of social justice.
The United Nations Fund for Women (UNIFEM) recognises that women will only benefit from the new aid architecture if gender equality is recognised as a key component of poverty reduction and national development.
Evidence however shows that gender equality has not fared well in the broader aid effectiveness agenda. The Head of Delegation of the European Commission (EC) to Ghana, Mr Filiberto Ceriani, at the launch of an EC/UN Partnership on Gender Equality for Development and Peace in Accra recently maintained that gender inequalities are still ingrained in the cultural, social and political systems of many countries.
To make national development agenda responsive to gender parity and women’s needs and to push forward the agenda of the new aid architecture, the last five years have been marked by a number of global initiatives and commitment to improve on the use of aid in developing economies and ensure that increased levels of aid effectively address today’s development challenges.
Mention could be made of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) that commit developed and developing countries to meeting the needs of the word’s poorest by 2015 and the Monterey Consensus that established ownership, alignment and harmonisation in development assistance.
Furthermore the 2004 Marrakech Roundtable on Managing for Development Results that established aid effectiveness and increases in its volume and the most recently adopted Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness in March 2005, are both geared towards aid effectiveness.
The link between these commitments and the visionary promises made by countries to advance gender equality in the Beijing Platform for Action (BPFA), the Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) and the Millennium Development Goals (MDG) and Security Council Resolution 1325 needs to be clarified and strengthened.
The ten-year review of the BPFA and the five-year review of Resolution 1325 affirmed that commitments to gender equality were not matched by concerted or consistent implementation or by financial support through official development assistance or government budgets.
To address these challenges and to ensure that gender equality is at the heart of all development policy to achieve aid effectiveness has resulted in a landmark initiative that has brought together the EC, UNIFEM and the International Training Centre of the International Labour Organisation (ILO), in the EC/UN Partnership on Gender Equality for Development and Peace.
Ghana is one of the 12 countries chosen to pilot the EC/UN Partnership. The other countries are Cameroon, The Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Ghana, Honduras, Indonesia, Kyrgyzstan, Napal, Nicaragua, Papua New Guinea, Suriname and the Ukraine.
The initiative involves the identification of strategies to support and strengthen national planning processes and consultations on gender and aid effectiveness in 12 countries, with representatives from government, national women’s machineries, NGOs, EC delegations and multilateral organisations, including UN Country Teams.
In Ghana, the Partnership is also to expand capacities of gender equality advocates and experts to promote greater responsiveness to gender equality in aid effectiveness processes, in the lead up to and following the 2008 Ghana High-level Forum on Aid Effectiveness.
It is being implemented in response to the International Donor Community’s new “Development Consensus” that seeks to address aid effectiveness and gender equality in the country’s national development planning and implementation process.
The project which is a follow-up to a crucial conference that was jointly organised by the EU/UNIFEM in November 2005, aims at mainstreaming gender parity issues and other pro-poor interventions in the national development framework to address the plight of women and the “vulnerable” in society.
The launch of the programme in Ghana was also used to present a mapping study by the EC/UN Partnership on Gender Equality for peace and Development.
The study looked at the status of women and gender equality in Ghana, aid to Ghana, aid modalities, alignment, ownership, harmonisation, managing for results and mutual accountability.
The report of the study, which was presented by Ms Afua Ansre, National Programme Co-ordinator of UNIFEM, called on the government and donors to ensure that the Ghana Joint Assistance Strategy, which is to operate from 2007-2010, presents an example of how harmonisation might work for gender equality.
It also urged the government to increase support to the Ministry of Women and Children’s Affairs and called on donors to revitalise their gender mainstreaming approached to ensure that gender is not disappearing from projects and sector and budget programmes
The various speakers emphasised that making aid responsive to gender needs in responsive budgeting, would help governments to probe into whether men and women fared differently under existing revenue and expenditure patterns.
This they maintained, will provide the government the opportunity to understand and appreciate how various social groups responded differently to development policy change over time.
The Chief Advisor to the President, Mrs Mary Chinery-Hesse, who launched the programme, underlined the need for such a mapping study to take into account both the paid and unpaid economic contributions of women.
She mentioned that the work of women within the household or community, such us the upbringing of children, nursing the sick and elderly, managing household resources and consumption, protecting the environment should be acknowledged in addition to those activities that are ultimately reflect in market transaction which tend to be captured by national statistics.
The importance of ensuring that the new aid modalities empower women, by making gender equality a core value and goal at all levels of development co-operation, is significant and it is important that gender equality and women’s empowerment will be the basis for greater co-ordination among donors and increased ownership of development processes by national governments.
Sunday, March 16, 2008
ActionAid advances women’s empowerment
15/03/08
Article: Salome Donkor
A major commitment of a number of governmental and non-governmental organisations and human rights advocacy groups is to design sustainable interventions to help bring about qualitative improvements in the lives of the people.
They do so by using the rights-based advocacy strategies to ensure that the different needs of various social groups; men and women, and particularly the most vulnerable groups in the society, especially women and children, are met.
One organisation that has made strides in this area by advancing women’s empowerment programmes is the ActionAid Ghana (AAG), which has worked mainly with the poor and vulnerable people in deprived communities in the country since the inception of its Country Programme in 1990, with the aim of ensuring food security and improving their livelihoods.
The key focus of attention of the operation of sector policies of AAG, an affiliate of ActionAid International (AAI), is in the areas of education, health and women’s rights. Its programmes are implemented using advocacy strategies designed to hold government and governmental agencies accountable to the communities.
Operating in collaboration with the Ministry of Women and Children’s Affairs, Ark Foundation, Abantu for Development and other civil society organisations in the main thematic areas, AAG works in six regions in the country, namely Greater Accra, Volta, Northern, Brong Ahafo, Upper East and Upper West regions.
In each of the regions, AAG helps in building the capacity of people to strengthen their institutional capacities to implement effective strategies, focusing on small scale farmers, particularly women.
This is in view of the recognition that despite being the producers of food, women are said to have limited access to productive resources and majority of them remain below the poverty line.
Women’s rights activities recorded the highest expenditure for 2006 as against education since the inception of the Country Programme (CP) in 1990 and this was meant to promote women’s empowerment to address issues of inequalities affecting women, especially in the areas of leadership.
Briefing the Daily Graphic on the operations of the organisation over the years and strategies for the future, the country Director of AAG, Mrs Adwoa Kwateng-Kluvitse, said the advancement of women’s rights remained a key issue on the organisation’s agenda and that this was promoted through its community advocacy work with its related partners and community organisations.
She said in all these regions, women’s issues are taken on board through training programmes for community partners in the six regions to ensure that they were more sustainable.
Consequently, in 2006, AAG concentrated its work on neatly packaged priority themes of education, women’s rights and food rights, using various methodologies to assist communities to facilitate processes that would lead to their collective development. It also worked, to some extent, on HIV/AIDS and in human security in conflict and emergency situations.
Mrs Kwateng-Kluvitse said it was important that women knew their rights and demanded that what was enshrined in the country’s Constitution was implemented to safeguard their rights.
As part of its work on women’s rights, AAG has been working closely with individual women and women’s networks to encourage women to contest in elections. A significant proportion of the organisation’s support to women involved getting them to see themselves as worthy of public decision making positions.
Mrs Kwateng-Kluvitse touched on some negative traditional practices and mentioned the issue of witches camps that operated in some parts of the country.
She described the issue as difficult and complex and said the underpinning power dynamics of the problem needed to be looked at, by examining the expressed needs of women and children in these camps, and drawing up relevant interventions to save them, considering the fact that some of them did not want to go back home.
In the same vein, AAG organises annual Girls Camp, participated in by young girls from all the regions for 10 days, to expose them to women mentors, including doctors, lawyers, broadcasters, nurses and other professionals, to inspire them to aspire to greater heights and make them focus well academically.
The camp had been running for the past five years and every year 100 participants are assembled at the Achimota School. She said the number of the participants for last year increased to 120 following additional 20 delegates brought in by Plan Ghana to build the confidence of the girls to re-orient their minds as to what they wanted to do in future.
Similarly, in the Upper East Region, a local partner of AAG also trained 20 women in bread baking and cloth weaving and provided them with ovens, weavers and an amount of GH¢60 each to start their new businesses.
She said through education and enlightenment, the roles of queens were being modernised and given the value that they deserved. In that respect, AAG has also been able to involve queens in the Greater Accra Region in alternative dispute resolution (ADR) mechanisms after the system was first launched at Mayera, near Nsawan, last year, adding that the impact had been positive with the courts getting some people to resort to ADR.
As part of its accountability process, AAG began to adopt an honest, regular and qualitative process of sharing and learning encouraged at all levels, thereby enhancing transparency and mutual respect.
She said the organisation was willing to open itself up to its beneficiary communities and consequently, Accountability Notice Boards had been erected in the communities to display and make transparent the work the organisation had been doing, especially how funds raised were used, with an avenue being created for feedback.
According to the Country Director, ActionAid Ghana had been working with networks of Persons Living with HIV and AIDS in its operational regions to reduce the rate of discrimination and rights violations and mentioned in particular the Association of People Living With AIDS (NAP+).
She said these programme had helped to strengthen their stature and encouraged them to overcome the high level of stigmatisation.
Since women and children are disproportionately affected in disasters, AAG launched a disaster risk reduction survey to assess the impact of the floods in parts of the northern regions last year, purposely to enhance community resilience.
Mrs Kwateng-Kluvitse said there was the need for a medium to long-term response to the plight of farmers in the affected regions for the next planting season to ensure that their farming activities were not affected.
She said the Ministry of Food and Agriculture needed to consider providing planting materials to farmers at subsidised rates and pointed out that AAG was seeking funding to provide seedlings for the farmers free of charge.
“As a country, we need to add value to our primary products and address the issue of post-harvest losses to end poverty. By so doing, we can protect the most vulnerable communities and attain a hunger-free society in 2015, in furtherance of the MDGs,” she said.
She said challenges facing the organisation were enormous but not surmountable, adding that “my team is succeeding in the face of the challenges due to co-operation and hard work from all the staff”.
Article: Salome Donkor
A major commitment of a number of governmental and non-governmental organisations and human rights advocacy groups is to design sustainable interventions to help bring about qualitative improvements in the lives of the people.
They do so by using the rights-based advocacy strategies to ensure that the different needs of various social groups; men and women, and particularly the most vulnerable groups in the society, especially women and children, are met.
One organisation that has made strides in this area by advancing women’s empowerment programmes is the ActionAid Ghana (AAG), which has worked mainly with the poor and vulnerable people in deprived communities in the country since the inception of its Country Programme in 1990, with the aim of ensuring food security and improving their livelihoods.
The key focus of attention of the operation of sector policies of AAG, an affiliate of ActionAid International (AAI), is in the areas of education, health and women’s rights. Its programmes are implemented using advocacy strategies designed to hold government and governmental agencies accountable to the communities.
Operating in collaboration with the Ministry of Women and Children’s Affairs, Ark Foundation, Abantu for Development and other civil society organisations in the main thematic areas, AAG works in six regions in the country, namely Greater Accra, Volta, Northern, Brong Ahafo, Upper East and Upper West regions.
In each of the regions, AAG helps in building the capacity of people to strengthen their institutional capacities to implement effective strategies, focusing on small scale farmers, particularly women.
This is in view of the recognition that despite being the producers of food, women are said to have limited access to productive resources and majority of them remain below the poverty line.
Women’s rights activities recorded the highest expenditure for 2006 as against education since the inception of the Country Programme (CP) in 1990 and this was meant to promote women’s empowerment to address issues of inequalities affecting women, especially in the areas of leadership.
Briefing the Daily Graphic on the operations of the organisation over the years and strategies for the future, the country Director of AAG, Mrs Adwoa Kwateng-Kluvitse, said the advancement of women’s rights remained a key issue on the organisation’s agenda and that this was promoted through its community advocacy work with its related partners and community organisations.
She said in all these regions, women’s issues are taken on board through training programmes for community partners in the six regions to ensure that they were more sustainable.
Consequently, in 2006, AAG concentrated its work on neatly packaged priority themes of education, women’s rights and food rights, using various methodologies to assist communities to facilitate processes that would lead to their collective development. It also worked, to some extent, on HIV/AIDS and in human security in conflict and emergency situations.
Mrs Kwateng-Kluvitse said it was important that women knew their rights and demanded that what was enshrined in the country’s Constitution was implemented to safeguard their rights.
As part of its work on women’s rights, AAG has been working closely with individual women and women’s networks to encourage women to contest in elections. A significant proportion of the organisation’s support to women involved getting them to see themselves as worthy of public decision making positions.
Mrs Kwateng-Kluvitse touched on some negative traditional practices and mentioned the issue of witches camps that operated in some parts of the country.
She described the issue as difficult and complex and said the underpinning power dynamics of the problem needed to be looked at, by examining the expressed needs of women and children in these camps, and drawing up relevant interventions to save them, considering the fact that some of them did not want to go back home.
In the same vein, AAG organises annual Girls Camp, participated in by young girls from all the regions for 10 days, to expose them to women mentors, including doctors, lawyers, broadcasters, nurses and other professionals, to inspire them to aspire to greater heights and make them focus well academically.
The camp had been running for the past five years and every year 100 participants are assembled at the Achimota School. She said the number of the participants for last year increased to 120 following additional 20 delegates brought in by Plan Ghana to build the confidence of the girls to re-orient their minds as to what they wanted to do in future.
Similarly, in the Upper East Region, a local partner of AAG also trained 20 women in bread baking and cloth weaving and provided them with ovens, weavers and an amount of GH¢60 each to start their new businesses.
She said through education and enlightenment, the roles of queens were being modernised and given the value that they deserved. In that respect, AAG has also been able to involve queens in the Greater Accra Region in alternative dispute resolution (ADR) mechanisms after the system was first launched at Mayera, near Nsawan, last year, adding that the impact had been positive with the courts getting some people to resort to ADR.
As part of its accountability process, AAG began to adopt an honest, regular and qualitative process of sharing and learning encouraged at all levels, thereby enhancing transparency and mutual respect.
She said the organisation was willing to open itself up to its beneficiary communities and consequently, Accountability Notice Boards had been erected in the communities to display and make transparent the work the organisation had been doing, especially how funds raised were used, with an avenue being created for feedback.
According to the Country Director, ActionAid Ghana had been working with networks of Persons Living with HIV and AIDS in its operational regions to reduce the rate of discrimination and rights violations and mentioned in particular the Association of People Living With AIDS (NAP+).
She said these programme had helped to strengthen their stature and encouraged them to overcome the high level of stigmatisation.
Since women and children are disproportionately affected in disasters, AAG launched a disaster risk reduction survey to assess the impact of the floods in parts of the northern regions last year, purposely to enhance community resilience.
Mrs Kwateng-Kluvitse said there was the need for a medium to long-term response to the plight of farmers in the affected regions for the next planting season to ensure that their farming activities were not affected.
She said the Ministry of Food and Agriculture needed to consider providing planting materials to farmers at subsidised rates and pointed out that AAG was seeking funding to provide seedlings for the farmers free of charge.
“As a country, we need to add value to our primary products and address the issue of post-harvest losses to end poverty. By so doing, we can protect the most vulnerable communities and attain a hunger-free society in 2015, in furtherance of the MDGs,” she said.
She said challenges facing the organisation were enormous but not surmountable, adding that “my team is succeeding in the face of the challenges due to co-operation and hard work from all the staff”.
Thursday, March 6, 2008
Women’s role in Ghana’s politics
Article: Salome Donkor
The role of women in politics and public office is one of the current burning governance issues because of the perceived and acknowledged potential and contribution of women to governance processes.
A recent study by Dr Beatrix Allah-Mensah of the Political Science Department of the University of Ghana, Legon, on Women in Politics and Public Life indicated that there was ample evidence to substantiate the indispensable role women played in the prelude to independence and immediately after.
The study said the role of women was evident in the support given to the main political party of the time, the Convention People’s Party (CPP), and it is on record that women traders were keen supporters of the CPP government and that the women also offered financial assistance and supportive services.
That was largely responsible for the development of women’s sections or wings of the party and also the organisation of the youth league.
The CPP leadership, therefore, took that initiative and effort seriously and institutionalised it by making constitutional provisions for a women’s league at branch and ward levels as the main organising framework for women in the party.
Other studies indicate that women were efficient organisers who could bring thousands of people together for a rally at the shortest possible notice.
It was, therefore, not surprising that the CPP gave credit to the women for the internal solidarity, cohesion and success of the party.
A paper written by Ms Joyce Rosalind Aryee, the Chief Executive Officer of the Ghana Chamber of Mines, on the Contributions of Women to Ghana’s Independence and Democratic Governance, dated March 2007 and quoted in the study by Dr Allah-Mensah, pointed out that Dr Kwame Nkrumah’s political success was based on the foundation set for women by the CPP.
The paper, however, observed that the contributions of women to Ghana’s independence struggle and democratic governance were trivially handled by historians and political scientists.
It said in 1949, many benevolent and mutual associations, credit unions and market women’s voluntary groups sprang up and became staunch supporters of Dr Nkrumah and the CPP. It said those associations, though they were not at the forefront of the independence struggle, were involved in activities which were politically significant.
The contribution of women to the political struggle caught the eyes of the leadership of the CPP and by May 1951 the party had appointed four women, namely, Letitia Quaye, Miss Sophia Doku, Hannah Cudjoe and Ama Nkrumah, as propaganda secretaries charged with the duty of organising women.
The paper also touched on the contribution of women to Ghanaian politics after independence and indicated that that became more prominent, resulting in the introduction of the Representation of the People (Women Members) Bill in 1960.
The bill was passed and it received the Governor-General’s assent on June 16, 1960.
Through that act, 10 women were elected unopposed as Members of Parliament (MPs) in June 1960. They were Susana Al-Hassan, Ayanori Bukari and Victoria Nyarko, all representing the Northern Region, Sophia Doku and Mary Koranteng, Eastern Region, and Regina Asamany, Volta Region.
The rest were Grace Ayensu and Christiana Wilmot, Western Region, Comfort Asamoah, Ashanti Region, and Lucy Anim, Brong Ahafo.
In 1965, Dr Nkrumah appointed Madam Susan Al-Hassan as the Minister of Social Welfare and Community Development, while others were appointed as district commissioners.
In the Second Republic, there were two women MPs — Madam Akanbodiipo Lydia Azure, who stood on the ticket of the National Alliance of Liberals (NAL), won the Sandema seat, and Madam Tedam Catherine, who won the Chiana-Paga seat for the Progress Party (PP).
Again, in the Third Republic, five women served as MPs and in the first Parliament of the Fourth Republic, 16 women were elected as MPs, while in 1996 18 out of the 53 women contestants were elected. In 2000, 19 out of the 95 female contestants were elected, while in 2004, 25 out of the 104 contestants were elected.
Ms Aryee said since 1992, the number of women contestants in parliamentary elections had increased steadily, regardless of the fact that only a few won, while 42 women have been appointed as ministers of state under both the National Democratic Congress and New Patriotic Party Administrations.
She said there was ample proof of the willingness and preparedness of women to participate in the political process and that although the women found themselves in a male-dominated environment and that they did not hesitate in contributing to motions moved in the House for discussions.
When contacted to share her views on women’s participation in the country’s political history, Ms Aryee, who served as the Secretary (minister) for Information and Education during the Provisional National Defence Council (PNDC) regime, maintained that though women were not engaged in the struggles which were directly anti-colonial, their contributions were politically significant.
She stressed that the clarion call to women was to rise and shine and actively take part in vibrant political activities which would characterise all competitive elections in the country in the next 50 years.
Ms Aryee said politics should be looked at beyond the boundaries of political party activities and seen as the totality of organisations, both governmental and other institutions, pointing out that although not on a large scale, women had contributed in that respect.
She mentioned the role of Dr Mrs Letitia Obeng, an educationist, and other women who were nurses, broadcasters judges and lawyers who became part of the independence struggle.
She said there was the need to take a look at the playing field and address the difficulties that women encountered in campaigning to win competitive elections, while more women needed to encourage themselves to contest elections.
She said the state funding of political parties would go a long way to help, while women’s groups, individuals and churches should support women aspirants in their respective communities.
She, however, advised women to avoid self-censorship and offer themselves for political positions and also aspire to hold public offices.
Ms Aryee, who is the Executive Director of the Salt and Light Ministry, said there was the need for sustained education for men to appreciate the fact that God created women as equal partners in development, stressing that now was the time for all to recognise that life was lot better when both men and women worked together to attain sustainable national development.
The role of women in politics and public office is one of the current burning governance issues because of the perceived and acknowledged potential and contribution of women to governance processes.
A recent study by Dr Beatrix Allah-Mensah of the Political Science Department of the University of Ghana, Legon, on Women in Politics and Public Life indicated that there was ample evidence to substantiate the indispensable role women played in the prelude to independence and immediately after.
The study said the role of women was evident in the support given to the main political party of the time, the Convention People’s Party (CPP), and it is on record that women traders were keen supporters of the CPP government and that the women also offered financial assistance and supportive services.
That was largely responsible for the development of women’s sections or wings of the party and also the organisation of the youth league.
The CPP leadership, therefore, took that initiative and effort seriously and institutionalised it by making constitutional provisions for a women’s league at branch and ward levels as the main organising framework for women in the party.
Other studies indicate that women were efficient organisers who could bring thousands of people together for a rally at the shortest possible notice.
It was, therefore, not surprising that the CPP gave credit to the women for the internal solidarity, cohesion and success of the party.
A paper written by Ms Joyce Rosalind Aryee, the Chief Executive Officer of the Ghana Chamber of Mines, on the Contributions of Women to Ghana’s Independence and Democratic Governance, dated March 2007 and quoted in the study by Dr Allah-Mensah, pointed out that Dr Kwame Nkrumah’s political success was based on the foundation set for women by the CPP.
The paper, however, observed that the contributions of women to Ghana’s independence struggle and democratic governance were trivially handled by historians and political scientists.
It said in 1949, many benevolent and mutual associations, credit unions and market women’s voluntary groups sprang up and became staunch supporters of Dr Nkrumah and the CPP. It said those associations, though they were not at the forefront of the independence struggle, were involved in activities which were politically significant.
The contribution of women to the political struggle caught the eyes of the leadership of the CPP and by May 1951 the party had appointed four women, namely, Letitia Quaye, Miss Sophia Doku, Hannah Cudjoe and Ama Nkrumah, as propaganda secretaries charged with the duty of organising women.
The paper also touched on the contribution of women to Ghanaian politics after independence and indicated that that became more prominent, resulting in the introduction of the Representation of the People (Women Members) Bill in 1960.
The bill was passed and it received the Governor-General’s assent on June 16, 1960.
Through that act, 10 women were elected unopposed as Members of Parliament (MPs) in June 1960. They were Susana Al-Hassan, Ayanori Bukari and Victoria Nyarko, all representing the Northern Region, Sophia Doku and Mary Koranteng, Eastern Region, and Regina Asamany, Volta Region.
The rest were Grace Ayensu and Christiana Wilmot, Western Region, Comfort Asamoah, Ashanti Region, and Lucy Anim, Brong Ahafo.
In 1965, Dr Nkrumah appointed Madam Susan Al-Hassan as the Minister of Social Welfare and Community Development, while others were appointed as district commissioners.
In the Second Republic, there were two women MPs — Madam Akanbodiipo Lydia Azure, who stood on the ticket of the National Alliance of Liberals (NAL), won the Sandema seat, and Madam Tedam Catherine, who won the Chiana-Paga seat for the Progress Party (PP).
Again, in the Third Republic, five women served as MPs and in the first Parliament of the Fourth Republic, 16 women were elected as MPs, while in 1996 18 out of the 53 women contestants were elected. In 2000, 19 out of the 95 female contestants were elected, while in 2004, 25 out of the 104 contestants were elected.
Ms Aryee said since 1992, the number of women contestants in parliamentary elections had increased steadily, regardless of the fact that only a few won, while 42 women have been appointed as ministers of state under both the National Democratic Congress and New Patriotic Party Administrations.
She said there was ample proof of the willingness and preparedness of women to participate in the political process and that although the women found themselves in a male-dominated environment and that they did not hesitate in contributing to motions moved in the House for discussions.
When contacted to share her views on women’s participation in the country’s political history, Ms Aryee, who served as the Secretary (minister) for Information and Education during the Provisional National Defence Council (PNDC) regime, maintained that though women were not engaged in the struggles which were directly anti-colonial, their contributions were politically significant.
She stressed that the clarion call to women was to rise and shine and actively take part in vibrant political activities which would characterise all competitive elections in the country in the next 50 years.
Ms Aryee said politics should be looked at beyond the boundaries of political party activities and seen as the totality of organisations, both governmental and other institutions, pointing out that although not on a large scale, women had contributed in that respect.
She mentioned the role of Dr Mrs Letitia Obeng, an educationist, and other women who were nurses, broadcasters judges and lawyers who became part of the independence struggle.
She said there was the need to take a look at the playing field and address the difficulties that women encountered in campaigning to win competitive elections, while more women needed to encourage themselves to contest elections.
She said the state funding of political parties would go a long way to help, while women’s groups, individuals and churches should support women aspirants in their respective communities.
She, however, advised women to avoid self-censorship and offer themselves for political positions and also aspire to hold public offices.
Ms Aryee, who is the Executive Director of the Salt and Light Ministry, said there was the need for sustained education for men to appreciate the fact that God created women as equal partners in development, stressing that now was the time for all to recognise that life was lot better when both men and women worked together to attain sustainable national development.
Friday, February 29, 2008
Pregnancy is special let’s make it safe
28/02/08
Article: Salome Donkor
A woman’s health is critical to the well-being of her family and to the economy of her community and her country.
The health of a pregnant woman is even more special because she needs access to essential health services to save her life from death resulting from obstetric complication that cannot be predicted and are difficult to prevent.
That is why the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) give a central place to maternal health and gender equality.
MGD 5, improving maternal health, is often called “the heart of the MDGs” because if it fails, the other goals will also fail.
Evidence from 20 years of research and pilot interventions has identified five primary causes of deaths of pregnant women namely, haemorrhage (bleeding), eclampsia (high blood pressure), unsafe abortion, sepsis (infection), obstructed labour and obstetric fistula.
Maternal mortality is a global issue and the concern for reducing maternal mortality stems from the fact that at least 583,000 women die each year from the complications of pregnancy and childbirth. The alarming situation is that almost 90 per cent of these deaths occur in sub-Saharan Africa and Asia.
According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), 2006, while women in northern Europe have a one in 4000 likelihood of dying from pregnancy-related causes, for those in sub-Saharan Africa, the chance is one in 16.
The Ghana Demographic Health Survey, 1993 puts the maternal mortality rate in Ghana at 214 per 100,000 live births with a life time risk of one in 35 and health experts say the situation may not change by 2015 if no drastic measures are taken to reverse the situation.
The commitment to fight maternal mortality led to a landmark ‘Global Women Deliver Conference’ held in London in October last year, during which participants charged themselves to address the high incidence of maternal mortality.
A high-level Ghanaian delegation participated in the conference and the Ministry of Women and Children’s Affairs, in collaboration with the Ministry of Health, recently organised a panel discussion in Accra on reducing maternal mortality in Ghana to ensure that achieving points four and five of the MDGs remains a high priority on the national agenda.
Ghana has committed itself to achieve MDG Five, which requires the country to “reduce the maternal mortality rate by 75 per cent between 1990 and 2015”.
Coming in the wake of this crusade is a disturbing news item published in the February 25, 2008 edition of the Daily Graphic that the high maternal and juvenile mortality in the Upper West Region is the result of incessant alcohol abuse among expectant mothers.
The Regional Director of Health, Dr Erasmus Agongo, was quoted as saying that: “Alcoholism is causing high maternal and under-five mortality in this region. This is because more women in the region are drinking higher volumes of alcohol and more frequently than men.”
When reached on the telephone for further clarification, Dr Agongo explained that there is a high level of alcoholism among people of the region and the worse aspect of the problem is that people who are already impoverished are spending their scarce resources on alcohol.
He said for that reason a number of people could not afford balanced diets leading to malnutrition and anaemia and that is one of the underlying factors of maternal and under-five mortality in the region.
Dr Agongo explained that alcohol consumption was not good for anybody and it posed more risk to expectant mothers and children under five, because of the severe damage it caused to them.
Figures from the health directorate indicate that although accelerated child survival and maternal mortality reduction were some of the major priorities of the sector last year, 30 maternal deaths were recorded in the region last year as against 24 and 21 maternal deaths recorded in 2006 and 2005, respectively.
The question that keeps boggling my mind is whether the expectant mothers who join the “alcoholics” and devote their energies to consume volumes of alcohol are aware of the effects of alcohol abuse among pregnant women: Or do they do so out of some frustrations and social problems?
A medical reference from Healthwise, a health magazine, indicates that when a pregnant woman drinks alcohol, so does her baby, and a woman who drinks alcohol while she is pregnant may harm her unborn baby (foetus).
Alcohol can pass from the mother’s blood into the baby’s blood. It can damage and affect the growth of the baby’s cells and the brain and spinal cord cells are most likely to have damage.
The term "foetal alcohol spectrum disorder" (FASD) describes the range of alcohol effects on an unborn child.
The problems range from mild to severe. Alcohol can cause a child to have physical or mental problems that may last all of his or her life.
The effects of alcohol can include odd facial features, growth problems, learning and behaviour problems, birth defects, such as the eyes, ears, heart, bones, or urinary tract, and birth defects which involve parts of the body such as the eyes, ears, heart, bones, or urinary tract.
The Healthwise also mentions low birth weight and growth retardation and central nervous system problems as some of the effects of alcohol consumption among expectant mothers, indicating that new-borns with severe effects may be irritable and have problems with sucking.
During their school years, they also have problems with attention and learning.
Alcohol is the most commonly used addictive substance in the United States. One study estimated that of the approximately four million women who give birth each year in the United States, 2.6 million use some amount of alcohol during their pregnancy and another study has estimated that up to 22,000 children per year (approximately one-half of one per cent of all births) experience mild, moderate or severe adverse effects as a result of their mothers' alcohol ingestion.
The disastrous effects of alcohol intake, especially on expectant mothers, cannot be overemphasised.
Dr Agongo explained that there is a high level of alcoholism among people of the Upper West Region and since alcohol intake is not good for anybody, especially expectant mothers, it is important for them to be counselled to stay away from drinking.
As was pointed out in a Daily Graphic Editorial following the publication of the story, the Public Health Unit of the Upper West Regional Directorate of the Ghana Health Service has a crisis on its hands that must be addressed with all the seriousness it deserves and this should be done with support from related agencies.
Apart from the fact that health officials need to mount sustained public education on the need for proper ante-natal care or services and also encourage patronage by the expectant mothers, the Department of Women in the Upper West Region and women advocacy groups need to mount a vigorous campaign against alcoholism among expectant mothers.
In addressing this, the Public Health Directorate, with other relevant stakeholders, including the Department of Social Welfare, also need to identify social factors that drive the people, including pregnant mothers, into alcoholism and find effective solutions through counselling and the initiation of poverty alleviation programmes.
The 2008 State of the World’s Children report, released by United Nations Children Fund (UNICEF) late last month, has shown that up to half of the world’s under five deaths are caused by undernutrition. The report described the impact of simple and affordable, life-saving measures — such as exclusive breastfeeding, immunisation, insecticide treated bed nets and vitamin A supplementation — as key to achieving child survival across the world.
It noted that 26,000 children under five, the world over, died mostly from preventable causes and nearly all of these children lived in the developing world, of which 60 countries, including Ghana, were the worse affected.
Undoubtedly, parents need resources to take care of their children while pregnant women need energy and resources to safeguard their lives and that of the unborn baby, but this could not be done. We definitely need to make pregnancy safe.
Article: Salome Donkor
A woman’s health is critical to the well-being of her family and to the economy of her community and her country.
The health of a pregnant woman is even more special because she needs access to essential health services to save her life from death resulting from obstetric complication that cannot be predicted and are difficult to prevent.
That is why the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) give a central place to maternal health and gender equality.
MGD 5, improving maternal health, is often called “the heart of the MDGs” because if it fails, the other goals will also fail.
Evidence from 20 years of research and pilot interventions has identified five primary causes of deaths of pregnant women namely, haemorrhage (bleeding), eclampsia (high blood pressure), unsafe abortion, sepsis (infection), obstructed labour and obstetric fistula.
Maternal mortality is a global issue and the concern for reducing maternal mortality stems from the fact that at least 583,000 women die each year from the complications of pregnancy and childbirth. The alarming situation is that almost 90 per cent of these deaths occur in sub-Saharan Africa and Asia.
According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), 2006, while women in northern Europe have a one in 4000 likelihood of dying from pregnancy-related causes, for those in sub-Saharan Africa, the chance is one in 16.
The Ghana Demographic Health Survey, 1993 puts the maternal mortality rate in Ghana at 214 per 100,000 live births with a life time risk of one in 35 and health experts say the situation may not change by 2015 if no drastic measures are taken to reverse the situation.
The commitment to fight maternal mortality led to a landmark ‘Global Women Deliver Conference’ held in London in October last year, during which participants charged themselves to address the high incidence of maternal mortality.
A high-level Ghanaian delegation participated in the conference and the Ministry of Women and Children’s Affairs, in collaboration with the Ministry of Health, recently organised a panel discussion in Accra on reducing maternal mortality in Ghana to ensure that achieving points four and five of the MDGs remains a high priority on the national agenda.
Ghana has committed itself to achieve MDG Five, which requires the country to “reduce the maternal mortality rate by 75 per cent between 1990 and 2015”.
Coming in the wake of this crusade is a disturbing news item published in the February 25, 2008 edition of the Daily Graphic that the high maternal and juvenile mortality in the Upper West Region is the result of incessant alcohol abuse among expectant mothers.
The Regional Director of Health, Dr Erasmus Agongo, was quoted as saying that: “Alcoholism is causing high maternal and under-five mortality in this region. This is because more women in the region are drinking higher volumes of alcohol and more frequently than men.”
When reached on the telephone for further clarification, Dr Agongo explained that there is a high level of alcoholism among people of the region and the worse aspect of the problem is that people who are already impoverished are spending their scarce resources on alcohol.
He said for that reason a number of people could not afford balanced diets leading to malnutrition and anaemia and that is one of the underlying factors of maternal and under-five mortality in the region.
Dr Agongo explained that alcohol consumption was not good for anybody and it posed more risk to expectant mothers and children under five, because of the severe damage it caused to them.
Figures from the health directorate indicate that although accelerated child survival and maternal mortality reduction were some of the major priorities of the sector last year, 30 maternal deaths were recorded in the region last year as against 24 and 21 maternal deaths recorded in 2006 and 2005, respectively.
The question that keeps boggling my mind is whether the expectant mothers who join the “alcoholics” and devote their energies to consume volumes of alcohol are aware of the effects of alcohol abuse among pregnant women: Or do they do so out of some frustrations and social problems?
A medical reference from Healthwise, a health magazine, indicates that when a pregnant woman drinks alcohol, so does her baby, and a woman who drinks alcohol while she is pregnant may harm her unborn baby (foetus).
Alcohol can pass from the mother’s blood into the baby’s blood. It can damage and affect the growth of the baby’s cells and the brain and spinal cord cells are most likely to have damage.
The term "foetal alcohol spectrum disorder" (FASD) describes the range of alcohol effects on an unborn child.
The problems range from mild to severe. Alcohol can cause a child to have physical or mental problems that may last all of his or her life.
The effects of alcohol can include odd facial features, growth problems, learning and behaviour problems, birth defects, such as the eyes, ears, heart, bones, or urinary tract, and birth defects which involve parts of the body such as the eyes, ears, heart, bones, or urinary tract.
The Healthwise also mentions low birth weight and growth retardation and central nervous system problems as some of the effects of alcohol consumption among expectant mothers, indicating that new-borns with severe effects may be irritable and have problems with sucking.
During their school years, they also have problems with attention and learning.
Alcohol is the most commonly used addictive substance in the United States. One study estimated that of the approximately four million women who give birth each year in the United States, 2.6 million use some amount of alcohol during their pregnancy and another study has estimated that up to 22,000 children per year (approximately one-half of one per cent of all births) experience mild, moderate or severe adverse effects as a result of their mothers' alcohol ingestion.
The disastrous effects of alcohol intake, especially on expectant mothers, cannot be overemphasised.
Dr Agongo explained that there is a high level of alcoholism among people of the Upper West Region and since alcohol intake is not good for anybody, especially expectant mothers, it is important for them to be counselled to stay away from drinking.
As was pointed out in a Daily Graphic Editorial following the publication of the story, the Public Health Unit of the Upper West Regional Directorate of the Ghana Health Service has a crisis on its hands that must be addressed with all the seriousness it deserves and this should be done with support from related agencies.
Apart from the fact that health officials need to mount sustained public education on the need for proper ante-natal care or services and also encourage patronage by the expectant mothers, the Department of Women in the Upper West Region and women advocacy groups need to mount a vigorous campaign against alcoholism among expectant mothers.
In addressing this, the Public Health Directorate, with other relevant stakeholders, including the Department of Social Welfare, also need to identify social factors that drive the people, including pregnant mothers, into alcoholism and find effective solutions through counselling and the initiation of poverty alleviation programmes.
The 2008 State of the World’s Children report, released by United Nations Children Fund (UNICEF) late last month, has shown that up to half of the world’s under five deaths are caused by undernutrition. The report described the impact of simple and affordable, life-saving measures — such as exclusive breastfeeding, immunisation, insecticide treated bed nets and vitamin A supplementation — as key to achieving child survival across the world.
It noted that 26,000 children under five, the world over, died mostly from preventable causes and nearly all of these children lived in the developing world, of which 60 countries, including Ghana, were the worse affected.
Undoubtedly, parents need resources to take care of their children while pregnant women need energy and resources to safeguard their lives and that of the unborn baby, but this could not be done. We definitely need to make pregnancy safe.
Friday, February 22, 2008
Problems of suspected witches
21/02/08
Article: Salome Donkor
The mere suspicion of witchcraft was enough for the youth of Gbarimani, a farming community in the Tolon/Kumbungu District of the Northern Region, to attempt to lynch a 52-year-old woman, Fati Adam.
She was dragged to the chief’s palace and held captive for three days without food, while being taken through some painful rituals to force her to confess.
The timely intervention of the police and the Northern Regional Co-ordinator of the Federation of International Women Lawyers (FIDA) helped to save the life of the woman, who had been branded a witch.
A report in the February 16, 2008 edition of the Daily Graphic, indicated that a detachment from the Northern Regional Police Command was attacked by some residents of the town when it went there to effect the arrest of two persons for allegedly molesting Adam Fati.
The irate youth also vandalised a vehicle belonging to FIDA which the police used to effect the arrest of the suspects.
The two persons, identified only as Alidu and Nantogma, were suspected to have molested Adam Fati, a mother of eight, who had been accused by the two of masterminding the death of her stepson through witchcraft.
She told the police that she was forcibly taken to the chief’s palace by Alidu, who together with his partner, placed some chains round her neck, manhandled her and asked her to confess to being behind the death of her stepson, but she pleaded innocence.
A number of such women in Ghana, mostly elderly and widowed, are living like refugees in witch camps in parts of the north, hiding from witch-hunters who beat torture, or kill them.
Belief in witchcraft remains widespread in some communities, where witch doctors are believed to wield great power in tribal societies.
In some cases, witchcraft offers an easy explanation as to why one person is successful and another is not.
Death, illness, dreams, superstition or even visible signs of success may be enough to provoke accusations of sorcery.
The fate of a suspected witch often hangs on the word of another and although such suspects deny the charge, they are still presumed guilty in view of the fact that witchcraft is virtually impossible to disprove.
Some victims are stoned or lynched. The "lucky" ones are sent, or escape, to "witches" camps.
The Wikipedia encyclopaedia says witchcraft in various historical, anthropological, religious and mythological contexts, is the use of certain kinds of supernatural or magical powers.
A witch is a practitioner of witchcraft. The Online Etymology Dictionary states that mythological witches are often supernatural creatures. Historically, many people have been accused of witchcraft, or have claimed to be witches.
The Encyclopaedia Britannica defines witchcraft as the human exercise of alleged supernatural powers for antisocial and evil purposes (so-called black magic). A female believed to have such powers may be called a witch or sorceress; the male counterpart being named wizard, sorcerer, or warlock.
Belief in witchcraft survives in modern technologically developed cultures and remains a potent factor in most illiterate societies.
Mrs Lucy Addo, the wife of a reverend minister in Accra, says witchcraft exists and it is practised by people whose bodies are used as channels by demonic spirits.
She said some people want the easy way out of life and go in for “powers” to make them spiritually stronger and by so doing, open themselves up to be used by the demonic spirit.
Such people are not ready to learn the word of God and are ignorant of the fact that all powers in heaven and on earth have been given to Jesus Christ and those who believe and follow him, also have such powers and need not fortify themselves with the powers of ‘darkness’.
Quoting from the scriptures, she said Jesus cast out demons, healed the sick and gave power to His disciples to trample on snakes and scorpions without any fear.
She, however, pointed out that often, accusations of witchcraft are made after family or neighbours misinterpret menopausal mood swings to mean a woman is possessed by demons.
Mrs Addo said most people in the society are generally ignorant of the signs exhibited by women in their menopause who tend to be very emotional, forget easily, talk too much and get angry easily.
Mr Yaw Osei, an evangelist, said evil power is real and witchcraft is the use of it.
He said witchcraft calls upon the powers of the devil, just as a believer prays and believes in the power of God.
“If you believe in God, and believe in what the Bible says, then you must believe in the powers of evil as well. You cannot take one side and then completely discount the other side”, he said.
Women in Ghana are recognised under law as having equal rights with men in all spheres of life.
From the legal perspective, the 1992 Constitution, which has clear provisions guaranteeing the fundamental human rights of all citizens, recognises equality of all persons before the law and prohibits discrimination on the grounds of sex, religion, etc.
Article 12 of the Constitution guarantees every person in Ghana fundamental rights and freedoms and Article 17 provides protection against discrimination and enjoins the state to take steps to end all forms of discrimination on grounds of gender, race, colour, ethnicity, religion and creed, social and economic status.
In addition to the Constitution, there are national laws which address the issues affecting particular segments of the population.
In relation to women, laws have been passed over the years to improve their situation. These include the Marriage Laws, Intestate Succession Law, PNDC Law 111 (1985), Customary Marriage and Divorce Registration Law, PNDC Law 112 (1985), and the Domestic Violence Act 732 (2007). Amendments of the criminal law, now contained in the consolidated Criminal Code have provisions to protect women from harmful traditional practices such as female genital mutilation and to broaden protection against sexual violence.
Ghana also has obligations under international human rights instruments such as the United Nations Charter and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the Convention on Social and Economic Rights and the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), to protect the rights of vulnerable groups.
The state is also required under regional instruments such as the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights and the Declaration on the Disabled, to incorporate the provisions of these instruments into national laws.
In addition, there are commitments arising from various UN conferences on women. Examples are the 1985 Nairobi Forward Looking Strategies (NFLS), the 1995 Beijing Platform for Action (PfA) and the 2000 review of Beijing commitments, known as Beijing +5.
Furthermore, UN conferences such as the Vienna Human Rights Conference, the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) (1994), the Social Summit (1994), and more recently, the 2000 Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) have clear provisions for improving the status of women and promoting gender equality.
It is unfortunate that women continue to suffer various forms of discrimination in spite of these laws, and instruments, because of ignorance of women’s rights under the law and partly because of the poor performance of institutions tasked with legal education.
There is the need for sustained education on these laws and instruments by civil society groups and human rights organisations concerned with the rights of women, as well as the media, to reach more people with these laws to address some of these discriminatory practices against women.
Cultural practices which discriminate against women and prevent them from fulfilling themselves as full citizens of Ghana must change.
Article: Salome Donkor
The mere suspicion of witchcraft was enough for the youth of Gbarimani, a farming community in the Tolon/Kumbungu District of the Northern Region, to attempt to lynch a 52-year-old woman, Fati Adam.
She was dragged to the chief’s palace and held captive for three days without food, while being taken through some painful rituals to force her to confess.
The timely intervention of the police and the Northern Regional Co-ordinator of the Federation of International Women Lawyers (FIDA) helped to save the life of the woman, who had been branded a witch.
A report in the February 16, 2008 edition of the Daily Graphic, indicated that a detachment from the Northern Regional Police Command was attacked by some residents of the town when it went there to effect the arrest of two persons for allegedly molesting Adam Fati.
The irate youth also vandalised a vehicle belonging to FIDA which the police used to effect the arrest of the suspects.
The two persons, identified only as Alidu and Nantogma, were suspected to have molested Adam Fati, a mother of eight, who had been accused by the two of masterminding the death of her stepson through witchcraft.
She told the police that she was forcibly taken to the chief’s palace by Alidu, who together with his partner, placed some chains round her neck, manhandled her and asked her to confess to being behind the death of her stepson, but she pleaded innocence.
A number of such women in Ghana, mostly elderly and widowed, are living like refugees in witch camps in parts of the north, hiding from witch-hunters who beat torture, or kill them.
Belief in witchcraft remains widespread in some communities, where witch doctors are believed to wield great power in tribal societies.
In some cases, witchcraft offers an easy explanation as to why one person is successful and another is not.
Death, illness, dreams, superstition or even visible signs of success may be enough to provoke accusations of sorcery.
The fate of a suspected witch often hangs on the word of another and although such suspects deny the charge, they are still presumed guilty in view of the fact that witchcraft is virtually impossible to disprove.
Some victims are stoned or lynched. The "lucky" ones are sent, or escape, to "witches" camps.
The Wikipedia encyclopaedia says witchcraft in various historical, anthropological, religious and mythological contexts, is the use of certain kinds of supernatural or magical powers.
A witch is a practitioner of witchcraft. The Online Etymology Dictionary states that mythological witches are often supernatural creatures. Historically, many people have been accused of witchcraft, or have claimed to be witches.
The Encyclopaedia Britannica defines witchcraft as the human exercise of alleged supernatural powers for antisocial and evil purposes (so-called black magic). A female believed to have such powers may be called a witch or sorceress; the male counterpart being named wizard, sorcerer, or warlock.
Belief in witchcraft survives in modern technologically developed cultures and remains a potent factor in most illiterate societies.
Mrs Lucy Addo, the wife of a reverend minister in Accra, says witchcraft exists and it is practised by people whose bodies are used as channels by demonic spirits.
She said some people want the easy way out of life and go in for “powers” to make them spiritually stronger and by so doing, open themselves up to be used by the demonic spirit.
Such people are not ready to learn the word of God and are ignorant of the fact that all powers in heaven and on earth have been given to Jesus Christ and those who believe and follow him, also have such powers and need not fortify themselves with the powers of ‘darkness’.
Quoting from the scriptures, she said Jesus cast out demons, healed the sick and gave power to His disciples to trample on snakes and scorpions without any fear.
She, however, pointed out that often, accusations of witchcraft are made after family or neighbours misinterpret menopausal mood swings to mean a woman is possessed by demons.
Mrs Addo said most people in the society are generally ignorant of the signs exhibited by women in their menopause who tend to be very emotional, forget easily, talk too much and get angry easily.
Mr Yaw Osei, an evangelist, said evil power is real and witchcraft is the use of it.
He said witchcraft calls upon the powers of the devil, just as a believer prays and believes in the power of God.
“If you believe in God, and believe in what the Bible says, then you must believe in the powers of evil as well. You cannot take one side and then completely discount the other side”, he said.
Women in Ghana are recognised under law as having equal rights with men in all spheres of life.
From the legal perspective, the 1992 Constitution, which has clear provisions guaranteeing the fundamental human rights of all citizens, recognises equality of all persons before the law and prohibits discrimination on the grounds of sex, religion, etc.
Article 12 of the Constitution guarantees every person in Ghana fundamental rights and freedoms and Article 17 provides protection against discrimination and enjoins the state to take steps to end all forms of discrimination on grounds of gender, race, colour, ethnicity, religion and creed, social and economic status.
In addition to the Constitution, there are national laws which address the issues affecting particular segments of the population.
In relation to women, laws have been passed over the years to improve their situation. These include the Marriage Laws, Intestate Succession Law, PNDC Law 111 (1985), Customary Marriage and Divorce Registration Law, PNDC Law 112 (1985), and the Domestic Violence Act 732 (2007). Amendments of the criminal law, now contained in the consolidated Criminal Code have provisions to protect women from harmful traditional practices such as female genital mutilation and to broaden protection against sexual violence.
Ghana also has obligations under international human rights instruments such as the United Nations Charter and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the Convention on Social and Economic Rights and the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), to protect the rights of vulnerable groups.
The state is also required under regional instruments such as the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights and the Declaration on the Disabled, to incorporate the provisions of these instruments into national laws.
In addition, there are commitments arising from various UN conferences on women. Examples are the 1985 Nairobi Forward Looking Strategies (NFLS), the 1995 Beijing Platform for Action (PfA) and the 2000 review of Beijing commitments, known as Beijing +5.
Furthermore, UN conferences such as the Vienna Human Rights Conference, the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) (1994), the Social Summit (1994), and more recently, the 2000 Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) have clear provisions for improving the status of women and promoting gender equality.
It is unfortunate that women continue to suffer various forms of discrimination in spite of these laws, and instruments, because of ignorance of women’s rights under the law and partly because of the poor performance of institutions tasked with legal education.
There is the need for sustained education on these laws and instruments by civil society groups and human rights organisations concerned with the rights of women, as well as the media, to reach more people with these laws to address some of these discriminatory practices against women.
Cultural practices which discriminate against women and prevent them from fulfilling themselves as full citizens of Ghana must change.
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