Advocacy, Public Awareness and Networking

ABANTU organises reflection seminars and public policy forums around the four thematic areas of governance, poverty, conflict and ICTs to sensitise its constituencies. Such meetings also enable the organisation to consult with policy makers, women's groups and the media on critical issues of concern from a gender perspective. The outcomes of such consultations feed into advocacy campaigns on issues relating to women's political participation, economic and social rights.

Through the Coalition on the Women’s Manifesto for Ghana, ABANTU as host organisation supports advocacy actions for the implementation of Article 7 of the CEDAW and the Critical Areas of the Dakar and Beijing Platforms for Action dealing with women's political empowerment, economic empowerment, conflict and peace building and access to education, science and technology. The Coalition will also be useful for advocating for the enactment of gender-sensitive ICT policies. Through our popular radio programme the Gender Forum we will host discussion programmes around the four thematic areas of governance, poverty, conflict and ICTs.

Downloadable Reports and Activities

- Speech delivered at the Ministerial Dinner on behalf of CSOs during the High Level Forum (HLF3) in Ghana in September 2008. The speech was delivered by Dr. Rose Mensah-Kutin, Convenor of NETRIGHT. Please click here for full text of the speech.

Second Biennial Conference (2005) of District Assemblywomen in Ghana. The second biennial conference became imperative to build on the experiences generated during The Women’s Manifesto development process by bringing together District Assemblywomen to deliberate on specific issues of concern to them and their communities and strategies towards District Elections 2006. The full report is highlighted above.

- First Biennial Conference (2003) of District Assemblywomen in Ghana. In August 2003, ABANTU for Development in collaboration with Actionaid-Ghana organised a District Assemblywomen’s Forum to explore the experiences of women who have participated in the local decision-making structures as a means of building on those experiences to enhance women’s participation in public decision-making, their effectiveness in their own locality and in the overall national level decision-making processes as well as identify the specific gender issues that should become cross-cutting considerations in the governance process. The full report is highlighted above.

- Women in Parliament. This is an incisive paper presented to the Institute of Economic Affairs in Ghana by Dr. Rose Mensah-Kutin. This paper looks at the international and African regional contexts, in terms of the factors that have contributed to women’s active participation in parliament. It does this by examining the extent to which processes of democratisation has facilitated the promotion of gender equality and women’s participation in public affairs generally. With specific reference to their participation in Parliament, the paper also looks at some of the strategies that have been used in some African countries, and draws out lessons that could contribute to the prospects for enhancing women’s participation in parliament in Ghana.