ProNet North, a Non Governmental Organisation (NGO) is undertaking projects in four districts of the Upper West Region to promote women’s participation in politics.
The project dubbed: “ProNet’s Women in Politics Project”, is being implemented in Nadowli, Jirapa, Lawra, and Lambussie-Karni Districts. It started in June 2011 and is expected to last for a period of 20 months.
The project is in collaboration with Concern Universal Ghana and funded by the European Commission.
Ms Nerissa Piehiba Bankpiebu, ProNet North Livelihood and Sustainability Programme Manager, at a dialogue session with political parties in Wa, said about 2,300 women in 52 communities across the four beneficiary districts were sensitized.
In addition, 121 Gender Peer Educators and 70 Local Government Officials received training in local government conflict resolution.
Ms Bankpiebu said the dialogue session was aimed at whipping up the pro-activeness of political parties and government towards gender mainstreaming in electing and appointing women to higher offices and positions of trust.
“This is envisaged to equip political leaders and appointing authorities with the consciousness of appointing women who are tried and tested to get the opportunity to contribute their quota to national development”, she stated.
She said through the project, an Inter-Party Women’s Alliance (IWA) was formed to carry out advocacy across the targeted districts to boost women’s interest in National and Local Government elections.
This according to Ms. Bankpiebu had already yielded some level of positive results as they witnessed an increase in women’s participation in the last Local Government election in the target districts.
She mentioned inadequate publicity on electoral processes, high illiteracy rate among women as well as the negative attitude of some men, including chiefs towards the project as some of the challenges militating against the successful implementation of the project. GNA