Increasing women’s participation
Women’s participation in civil and political processes in Ghana has been steadily dropping since independence. Women account for merely 11% of parliament and 8.7% of heads of local government or district assemblies. This impinges on women’s ability to access and exercise their human rights.
WOMANKIND’s partner, the Ark Foundation, empowers and equips women, between the ages of 18 and 45 years, with leadership and women’s human rights advocacy skills so that they can participate in decision-making within their communities, universities and colleges, workplaces and in the political sphere.
Another WOMANKIND partner, Women in Law and Development – Ghana, is lobbying hard for the government to enforce quotas to increase women’s representation in both local and national government.
WOMANKIND is also working with the Foundation for Security and Development in Africa, in conjunction with UNIFEM, to support a radio project in the conflict-prone northern region. Women are able to voice their opinions and tell their stories to both promote peace and encourage debate on women's socio-economic needs.
Reducing violence against women and links to HIV and AIDS
For six years WOMANKIND supported the Nkyinkyim Anti-Violence programme to reduce violence against women. This was in collaboration with the Gender Studies and Human Rights Documentation Centre (Gender Centre), together with six implementing partners: Amasachina Self Help Association, ASSID, CEDEP, BEWDA, CENSUDI and GAWU. This programme used Community- Based Action Teams (COMBATs) to provide support to poor, rural women experiencing violence in Ghana.
The Gender Centre, a long-standing partner, has researched the links between HIV and AIDS and patriarchal socio-cultural practices (for example, polygyny and wife inheritance) as well as the acceptability of violence against women –- all of which can make women disproportionately susceptible to HIV and AIDS.
Although Ghana’s current HIV-prevalence rate (at 1.9%) is low compared to other countries in Africa, some regions are as high as 8.9%. WOMANKIND’s partner, the International Federation for Women Lawyers – Ghana, provides legal support and advice to women who may be HIV-positive themselves or have family members whom they need to care for, which can affect their ability to access legal support, such as the maintenance of children.
Updated: 15 December 2008
