Increasing women’s political participation in Ghana
In Ghana, UNDEF is working to enhance the crucial role that women play in strengthening democracy through increasing their participation in governance. Implemented by The Gender Center for Empowering Development (GCED) the project uses training to build women’s capacity to engage in party processes and to act as agents of change by recruiting other women. It further aims to mainstream gender in political parties and processes. In collaboration with the parties, the project addresses structural, economic and cultural barriers to young women’s participation in politics.
Since its launch in March of 2022, the project has surveyed political parties to ascertain levels of female participation, and held trainings for political party leadership and young women in the region to better understand the important role of gender in politics, and elements of governance. The project has also produced radio programming focused on highlighting the role of women in political parties.
This important work comes as a draft Affirmative Action Bill, to help address the gap in women’s participation in decision-making, awaits approval by Parliament. Enhancing the capacity of young women through the proposed activities will help contribute towards the achievement of the government’s objective of increasing women’s participation in decision-making also outlined in the National Gender Policy.
