The Canadian High Commission in Ghana on Tuesday 28th May held discussions with FOSDA and GenCED on promoting inclusive political participation in the upcoming Ghana 2024 General Elections. The meeting was particularly concerned about the low participation of women and youth in the Ghana’s political and electoral processes and discussed possible alternatives to addressing the identified challenges.
In a presentation, FOSDA recommended policy and institutional reforms that focuses on strengthening the enforcement mechanisms of gender quotas to make them more effective in increasing women’s representation. FOSDA beliefs this means passing the Affirmative Action Bill into law and reforming Parliament itself to ensure gender equality in numbers and positions.

This call was made during the session with the Embassy/High Commission working group on Election preparations at the Canada High Commission official residence on the theme “Inclusive Political Participation in Ghana’s 2024 Elections”.

In a presentation Mrs. Magdalene Kannae (FOSDA’s Board Member) noted that the high level of monetization of politics in Ghana coupled with women’s financial constraints, low levels of education, intimidations, cultural stereotypes, traditional roles, and in recent times push-back against the gender equality agenda work together to inhibit their political participation at national and local levels.
She recounted that even though Ghana currently has 40 (15%) female MPs, it falls short by 3% compared to the 1960s when women participation was 18% owning to the deliberate Affirmative Action. She added that women political participation still looks gloomy considering their limited participation in the recent outcome of the local government elections and political parties primaries.

Ahead of the December 2024 elections, Mrs Kannae called for the engagement of the Women Mediators Network (WomNet) as a key strategic group in promoting inclusive political participation through electoral violence monitoring and mediation, digital campaigning for women aspirants and the revitalization of the Women Situation room.
She also highlighted on the need to support the youth to engage political parties with the 2023 Ghana Youth Manifesto that highlights gender-sensitive recommendations from the perspective of young women and men.