Elections 2020: We need gender-responsive Manifesto – Oye Lithur

By Francis Ameyibor, GNA

Accra, March 2, GNA - Nana Oye Lithur, former Minister of Gender, Children and Social Protection on Monday advocated a gender-responsive Election 2020 manifesto towards achieving the goals of Agenda 2030.

Ghana Women Agenda 2030 re-invigorated in Beijing Declaration was christened at the 59th  session of the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women at New York in 2015.

She said for Ghana to achieve set goals of the Agenda 2030, political parties must commit themselves through their Manifestoes with clear commitment towards their implementation

Nana Oye Lithur was speaking to the Ghana News Agency in an interview in connection with the marking of the international women’s day on March 8, which is on the theme “I am Generation Equality: Realizing Women's Rights”.

The theme is aligned with United Nations Women's new multi-generational campaign, Generation Equality, which marks the 25th anniversary of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action.

The former Gender Minister noted that SDGs will not be possible without gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls, “we in Ghana must take a leap through political commitment as the nation prepares for the landmark elections in December”.

The former Gender Minister called for a comprehensive approach to implementing all 17 SDGs through the integration of gender perspectives across all government policies and programmes; “we can only achieve it if political parties commit to it in their manifestos”.

Nana Oye Lithur a Gender Advocate noted that political parties must explain plans and strategies towards eliminating all forms of gender-based discrimination and the removal of any statutes still permitting discrimination.

She explained that Ghana had made tremendous progress towards gender empowerment, although a comprehensive approach was still needed to increase women participation in power and decision-making.

She said Agenda 2030 was not a fight against men, or a struggle to dislodge men from any position, 'the importance of women's equal participation in decision-making is to achieve transparent and accountable government and administration for sustainable development.

Nana Oye Lithur acknowledged that despite the steady increase in women's political representation and participation in parliaments, they remained under-represented at the highest levels of political participation.

“We must move from rhetorics to actions and ensure that enabling laws and policies, solid institutional infrastructures, adequate financial resources, strengthening of participation mechanisms, and investment in sex-disaggregated data are put in place to guide national action,” she said.

Nana Oye Lithur appealed to political parties to use Election 2020 Manifesto to outline robust set of actions for translating ambitious development roadmap into reality for women and girls.

The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) adopted by UN Member States in September 2015 are a universal roadmap for people and planet, addressing the key challenges of the 21st  century, such as poverty, inequality and climate change.

She recounted that World leaders pledged measurable actions to tackle structural barriers and remaining challenges to the achievement of gender equality in their countries and said research underlined the benefit of women’s empowerment and gender equality for societies everywhere.

She said for instance, if women played identical roles to men in labour markets, as much as US$28 trillion could be added to global annual GDP by 2025.

She said Ghsna in 2015, adopted the Ghana Agenda 2030, which was a comprehensive 15-year agenda given major contributions civil society, including; women's and community-based organisations, feminist groups, human rights defenders and girls' and youth-led organisations.

It emphasised fully engaging with men and boys as agents of change and allies in the elimination of all forms of discrimination and violence against women and girls.

GNA

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