Elected assembly women in the Upper West, Upper East and Norrthern regions are urging the ministry of local government to institute measures that will enable elected assembly persons to carry out their duties effectively.
According to them because they are not paid and are direct in contact with the people, there is a lot of pressure is on them. They therefore called for a fair disbursement of the district assemblies common fund among brilliant but needy people in their communities.
The assembly women said the funds are sometimes given to children who don’t need support but because of their connections with people involved in the distribution of the funds.
They suggested that government should have organized at least two weeks orientation before they were sworn in as assembly members. They made the call during a two days’ training organized by Foundation Of Security and Development Agency (FOSDA) in collaboration with local government ministry.
The workshop for assembly members was to reflect on their campaign promises, understand the work of the district assembly, improve upon their advocacy skills and address challenges facing women. In all, 29 women representing thirteen districts assemblies in the three northern regions attended the workshop.
An assemblywoman from Upper West region, Madam Vivian told Zaa News that a boy was not able to continue his education due to lack money and when she contacted the assembly for support, she was told the funds had been used to support teachers and medical students.
“How can you support people who don’t want to work the district and leave poor ones who real need the funds?” Vivian quizzed.
Executive Director of Foundation for Security and Development in Africa (FOSDA) Afi Yakubu expressed her disappointment over the poor performance of women who participated in the 2015 district assembly elections.
Some of the issues that impeded their quest to get involve in local governance, Madam Afi said, was lack of understanding of the assembly works, lack of capacity such as networking and sustaining their campaigns among others.
According to the Madam Yakubu, the much talked about affirmative action by the various political parties are lip-service adding that women numbers are reducing every year in the primaries.
All the three women who contested the ruling National Democratic Congress primaries lost and the party is going to the 2016 general elections without a single women from the region.
The opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) had one woman elected as its parliamentary candidate and if she fails to win in the 2016 elections, there will be no women parliamentarian from the northern region.
This, Madam Yakubu said, was detrimental to the enhancement of Ghana’s democracy.
By;Lilian Walter/zaaradio.com
