WiLDAF Political Participation Project

Project: Getting more women into politics

Location: Ghana, Western, Volta & Central Regions

Partner: Women in Law and Development in Africa-Ghana (WiLDAF-Ghana)

The situation

In Ghana, women’s participation both in policy-making and government representation is one of the lowest in the region. Women account for only

• 19 out of the 230 positions in Parliament
• 11 out 170 local government executives

Such low numbers limit women’s ability to:

• contribute to development
• reduce poverty
• achieve gender equality

Although there are no legal barriers to women’s political participation, overt and covert practices continue to limit women’s abilities to compete fairly with their male counterparts.

Women face many barriers when trying to enter the political arena, including:

• the costs involved
• the partisan nature of politics in Ghana
• the traditional beliefs around women’s roles

What Womankind is doing

With funding from UK Aid, Womankind and our partner WILDAF are:

• Providing practical support, training and resources for 300 women to participate in local and national decision-making spaces
• Training 100 people to form COWIGs (Coalition of Women in Governance) and educate others on supporting women’s participation in their communities
• Raising awareness with 11,520 people about women’s right to participate
• Disseminating information to 440,000 Ghanaians through the media about women in politics
• Pushing all the main political parties to have women constituting 40% of their members and to eliminate social barriers that stop women entering politics

What we have achieved so far

With the support of the project a 21 year old Muslim woman, the youngest aspirant in the recent elections, has just been elected as a District Assembly member.