The National Commission for Civic Education (NCCE) has expressed disappointment and concern over the low participation of women in the 2023 District Level Elections (DLEs) slated for December 19.

It said despite several efforts to promote women’s participation in governance and decision-making processes to bridge the gender gap and promote sustainable development, both at the national and local levels, the task of getting women to aspire for leadership positions remained a herculean challenge.

Mawuli Agbenu, the Upper East Regional Director of the Commission who expressed these concerns in an interview with the Ghana News Agency was reacting to the small number of women aspirants in this year’s election in the region.

Statistics from the Electoral Commission (EC) revealed that no woman had filed to contest in this year’s election in three out of the 15 Municipal and District Assemblies across the region namely; Garu, Tempane and Nabdam.

Apart from that, despite a total of 949 people filing to contest in the District Assembly elections in the region, only 25 are women.

Similarly, only 156 women out of the 1,936 have filed to contest in the Unit Committee elections across the region.

This, the Regional Director stressed, was, “woeful and we don’t even know how many of them will win” but encouraged Ghanaians to vote for more women in the upcoming election to increase the representation of women in decision-making structure at the local level.

He indicated that the participation of women in the decision-making process was not only crucial to addressing the numerous challenges confronting the growth and progress of women and children but a necessary ingredient to the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Agbenu said apart from the financial burden which was compelling many women not to put themselves up for leadership positions, there were some sociocultural norms and barriers that needed to be removed to strengthen and empower women towards taking up leadership roles in governance.

“When women are not represented at the decision-making table, their concerns, and interests and that of their children are mostly not considered.

“Apart from that, more than half of the workforce of the informal sector in this country are women and if they are not involved in the decision-making, it means that their economic opportunities and interests are not being taken care of, forcing them to remain in poverty,” he lamented.

He said while the NCCE would continue to intensify education for more women’s participation in governance, the government needed to honour the 1992 Constitutional provision by appointing more women into governance.

Joachim Elbazar, Nabdam District Director of the NCCE, told the GNA that women play a pivotal role in shaping families and society while contributing to the country`s economy, but their low participation in politics, particularly in the DLE, was defeating the advocacy for women’s empowerment.

“It is time women took the courage to contest for positions to lead and not see themselves as followers all the time because they can be better leaders as well, and I call on them to come out strongly in opportunities like this to make a case for themselves,” he stated.