Special Projects

Elections

Ghana held both parliamentary and presidential elections in December 2004. WiLDAF-Ghana held a number of activities leading up to the elections, including:

• Preparing a briefing paper on gender equality provided to aspiring parliamentarians prior to constituency debates
• Participating in two training workshops for aspiring parliamentarians in Kuamsi and Accra
• Co-moderating some of the debates
• WiLDAF Ghana is now registered with the Coalition of Democratic Election Observers, under the auspices of the Centre for Democratic Development. Two members of staff were election observers.
• WiLDAF Ghana undertook a 9-month project on voter education, encouraging women, especially those in the rural areas, to understand the importance of casting their votes on Election Day. Communities that benefited included Ekumfi Eyisam in the Central Region, Tarkwa and Nawule in the Western Region.
• An event was held for new female parliamentarians in February 2005.

Voter education in Ekumfi village, November 2004

International Women’s Day

Like any women centered organisations, we link our work to the international agenda as a means of sharing and learning from others. Such an approach encourages diversity of activities at the same time consolidating our national level activities.

In 2005, International Women's Day (March 8th) was celebrated through a church service at Osu Presbyterian Church that highlighted women's achievements internationally as well as in Ghana, while also drawing attention towards existing problems confronting Ghanaian women. The event focused on the importance of the Protocol on the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa.

In 2004, International Women’s Day was celebrated with a non-denominational church service at the Calvary Methodist Church in Adabraka, Accra. It was followed by a procession/walkathon through the principal streets of Accra in conjunction with the Domestic Violence Bill Coalition. WiLDAF printed and distributed stickers and posters with inspirational gender sensitive messages. A factual news article was carried by two popular newspapers. These events received impressive media coverage.

International Women's Day Program 2005, Osu Presby Church

16 Days of Activism on Violence against Women

Some three years ago, WiLDAF Ghana carried out an arts competition amongst children on violence against women and children. The artwork produced by these children from schools in the Western and Volta Region have been compiled in a publication called “Violence against women through the eyes of a child.” The publication was launched in a colourful ceremony in the Volta Region to commemorate the 2004 16 Days of Activism on Violence against Women campaign.

Members of WiLDAF Ghana organised seminars across the country to draw attention to the need to eradicate violence in our society. Emphasis of these activities was on the current debate on the Domestic Violence Bill.

Effective implementation of women’s rights

One of WiLDAF’s areas of priorities is advocacy for the adoption and implementation of women’s rights instruments both internationally and nationally.

• Since the adoption of the Protocol on the Rights of Women by the African Union in Maputo, Mozambique in 2003, WiLDAF has un-relentlessly continued its advocacy activities in all its country focal offices and at the sub-regional level to get at least 15 AU members to ratify the Protocol to bring it into force by early 2005.
• In Ghana a seminar was organised for civil society organisations to share with them outcomes of a workshop organised by WiLDAF/FeDDAO, Togo in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. The outcome was the re-affirmation by civil society groups to keep pressure on the relevant governmental bodies to expedite the process of ratification. An action plan was drawn up for activities in 2005 to get the sector Ministry to take the requisite initiative in the process of ratification.

• Beijing + 10 Review Process: In 2004, WiLDAF Ghana assisted in the development of the Ghana country report that fed into the West African regional report, which was presented to delegates at the African Regional NGO Forum in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

• Commission on the Status of Women: In line with WiLDAF Ghana’s commitment to share information with its members and the wider civil society, a seminar was held in June 2004 to disseminate outcomes of the Commission on the Status of Women 48th Session which had occurred in March. Following from recommendations made at that seminar a proposal was developed to carry out a study under one of the themes ‘Men and Boys as Partners for Gender Equality.’ A CSW meeting was held in New York in 2005 to discuss progress since the World Conference on Women in Beijing in 1995.

• Commonwealth Platform for Action on Gender Equality (CPoA): At the Women’s Affairs Ministers of Commonwealth countries (WAMM) in Fiji, civil society representatives had speaking rights at the ministerial meeting and had the opportunity to discuss various themes and issues in workshops—an exemplary best practice of government-civil society partnership. WiLDAF Ghana shared information on this meeting with organisations across Africa. We provided copies of the CPoA to delegates at the NGO Forum in Ethiopia at a caucus meeting.
• Additionally, to feed into the Beijing + 10 Review meeting in New York in 2005, WiLDAF Ghana began collecting case studies of government-CSO partnerships on gender equality from three West African countries – Ghana, The Gambia and Sierra Leone – under identified themes of the CPoA. A compilation of such case studies from across the Commonwealth will be launched in New York by the Commonwealth Foundation in association with WiLDAF.

• Women’s Manifesto: As a member of the Women’s Manifesto Coalition and in consultation with Abantu for Development (initiators of the Manifesto project), WiLDAF Ghana organised two consultative workshops in Takoradi and Ho on the Manifesto for civil society organisations, traditional leaders and government agencies. It was to collect views from persons from the Western and Volta Regions to feed into the document.
• Additionally, to enable many more people to have the benefit of knowing about the Manifesto, three community durbars were held in Tarkwa and Nawule in the Western Region and in Ekumfi Eyisam in the Central Region on the Women’s Manifesto. WiLDAF Ghana members also received information on the manifesto. Several radio stations in our two focal areas of operations hosted officials of WiLDAF Ghana to discuss the Manifesto as a tool for moving the women’s agenda forward.

• Domestic Violence Bill Coalition: No debate on the women’s agenda has been as sustained as that of the domestic violence bill. Our contribution to the debate has been to involve rural communities as the debate unfolds from Accra where coalition meetings are held. The Domestic Violence Bill has become one of the key documents used in our legal literacy work across the country. We have also had occasion to make presentations on the Bill to many associations.

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