Upper West: Female Assembly Members from the Upper West Region have received leadership capacity-building training to strengthen their participation in local governance and decision-making processes at all levels of society.
According to Ghana News Agency, the training was organised by ActionAid Ghana (AAG) in collaboration with the Upper West Regional Department of Gender. The initiative aimed to deepen women’s understanding of the provisions in the affirmative action law and aligns with AAG’s Strategic Priority (SP3) of its Seventh Country Paper, focusing on promoting Active Citizenship, Accountability, and Gender Responsive Public Services. This effort also contributes to achieving the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 5, which seeks to achieve gender equality and women’s empowerment by 2030.
A total of 35 female Assembly Members participated in the two-day workshop focused on building confidence, understanding of assembly structures, advocacy, and stakeholder engagement. Addressing the participants, Madam Abiba Nibaradun, the Upper West Regional Programmes Manager of ActionAid Ghana, encouraged women to leverage the Affirmative Action Law and prepare themselves for leadership roles. She highlighted the importance of women’s inclusion in decision-making processes, noting that women, despite constituting over 50 per cent of the country’s population, remain underrepresented in leadership roles.
Madam Nibaradun mentioned that AAG has supported women in various ways to contest district-level elections, but only four women were successfully elected as Assembly Members in the recent elections. She emphasized the need to demystify socio-cultural barriers hindering female participation in leadership and urged participants to network and learn from each other for effective participation in Assembly sessions.
In the 2023 district-level elections, 24 women contested for assembly member positions compared to 706 men, with only four women elected and 32 appointed. At the unit committee level, 64 women vied for roles against 1,833 men, highlighting the significant gender disparity.
Madam Charity Batuure, the Upper West Regional Director of the Department of Gender, encouraged the women to uphold integrity and accountability, stressing that credibility is the foundation of effective leadership. She also mentioned the formation of a network of female Assembly Members to provide continuous training and support.
Some participants expressed gratitude for the training. Madam Josephine Angsoayir, an elected Assembly Member for Zambo-Kpee Electoral Area in Lawra Municipality, said the workshop empowered her to contribute meaningfully during Assembly sessions and lobby for development projects. Similarly, Madam Rose Naele, an appointee at the Wa West District, felt inspired to contest future elections and better serve her community.