Three Ghana-based civil society organisations, the Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA), West Africa Network for Peacebulding (WANEP), and the Foundation for Security and Development in Africa (FOSDA), have jointly commenced a project aimed at enhancing the voices of women in the media.

The project, which is titled "Increasing Women's Voices and Participation in Public Discourse in Ghana" - and funded by IBIS-Ghana, seeks to influence gender policies and practices among the media and political parties in Ghana in order to increase the participation of women in public discussions and debates.

All over the world, women's participation in governance and decision-making processes is considered crucial for the overall development. However, despite the many interventions aimed at increasing women's participation in public discourse and in Ghana's politics, the critical missing link has been an ineffective utilization of the media as a tool to promote gender parity at all levels.

Currently in Ghana, there is also the perception that opinions of a person's qualities and capabilities are highly influenced by one's contributions in media programmes. The project therefore banks on the media's agenda setting capability as an effective tool for addressing stereotypes and gender imbalances.

The project will work with 24 media houses (television and radio) selected from six regions across the country. It will also involve the five main political parties - NDC, NPP, CPP, PNC and PPP.

In collaboration with women's rights organisations and activists, a database of experts in various fields who could serve as interviewees, panellists or guests on media programmes will be compiled and made available to the media. A media- gender equality monitoring instrument has also been developed to monitor and report on monthly basis, level of women's participation in the target media. The project will be implemented from August 2013, till December, 2014.