Have we lost our Priority as A People?
Four years after gaining independence, Ghana acknowledged the inevitable contribution of women and the productivity their activism brings to national development. This conviction amongst others birthed the National Council of Women in 1960. The purpose of the council was to acknowledge the contribution and activism of women towards the struggle for Ghana’s independence. It was meant to empower and proactively benefit women, through the establishment of vocational training and day care centers. Since then, the country has also signed various regional and international protocols with the aim of achieving gender equality. The vision kept thriving until 1979, when the government of Ghana adopted an affirmative action policy document to increase women’s participation in mainstream governance. A quota was set – women were to make up 40% of all state and public boards, councils, commissions and committees. But the ambitious affirmative action bill is yet to yield any definite outcome. In fact, quota targets have not materialized.
Six decades after independence, women make up only 13.1% of the members of the legislature. According to the World Economic Forum’s 2017 Global Gender Gap Report Ghana lags behind other sub-Saharan countries such as Rwanda and Namibia. These have achieved 20% or more female parliamentary representation.
We found that gender objectives have gained recognition and public policy momentum. And there has been progress, especially in terms of female participation in primary and secondary education as well as female literacy rates. But there are still big gaps. These include the fact that female participation in tertiary education remains low as doe’s employment in professional and technical jobs.
The above history provides insight and an appreciation of where we’ve come from as a nation in our quest to encourage and empower women to thrive for greatness both in private and corporate life.
However, and quite ironically the deliberate actions of governments in recent times thwarts the gains we continue to make as a nation taking after our forebears and similarly defeats the advocacy and empowerment drive and or discourse that we’re championing as a nation and by extension a continent-Africa.
Why would condoms be cheaper than menstrual pads? Infact, why would sanitary pads be classified as luxury items? I shudder to think that as a nation we’re not getting our priorities right at all. The cost on menstrual hygiene products is exorbitant due to the import duty that importers have to contend with a daily basis.
Menstrual pads are products that are a necessity and not a luxury. For it breeds confidence and self-esteem. We must be deliberate about the kind of policies we formulate for the people we lead. It is absurd for any discerning citizen to think that menstrual products are for luxury and hence should taxed whiles condoms are given tax exemptions. Why must we reduce the dignity of our women and motherhood to such colossal ridicule?
A just society is not possible until and unless women and girls have agency over their lives. It needs to challenge harmful social norms and belief systems including via gender transformative education where they impact poor people the most. – Oxfam
We cannot be superintending over systems that seeks to jeopardize the future of motherhood and necessities and then anticipate formidable institutions in the end. The House of Representatives of Ghana and by extension Africa must thrive to do due diligence in terms of policy craft to ensuring that as a continent we uphold the dignity of womanhood and not thwart the gains we’ve amassed over the decades.
Government must heed the clarion call by Civil Society Organizations and other stakeholders to ensuring that the tax on menstrual hygiene products is totally scraped whiles empowering local industries to boost local production of these important products that engenders confidence and dignity of womanhood. More so, that government should expedite actions on a comprehensive effort aimed at making sanitary products affordable and intensifying public education on menstrual hygiene.
Women and adolescent girls’ ability to care for their bodies while menstruating is an essential part of their fundamental human right, poor menstrual health and hygiene therefore represent an affront to this right. Including the right to work and go to school insufficient resources to manage menstruation such as sanity pads and clean water, worsen the already existing social and economic inequalities. It further undermines human dignity and attacks the confidence of girls and women.
It must be our collective effort as a people to contribute to building of a fairer, healthier, gender-responsive Ghana and Africa at large that acknowledges and work towards achieving the vision for sanitation and hygiene under Goal 6 of the sustainable development Goals which opines that by 2030, achieve access to adequate and equitable sanitation and hygiene for all paying special attention to the needs of women and girls and those in vulnerable situation.
A.K. Zabari Jnr
Purpose Driven Innovation – Ghana
0243842562/0208879449