SONA2021: Pass Affirmative Action Bill – Akufo-Addo to Parliament
President Akufo-Addo has asked parliament to work towards passing the Affirmative Action Bill (AAB).
Delivering his 6th State of the Nation Address (SONA) in parliament on March 9,2021, the president pleaded with the house to expedite action in passing the bill into law.
” I am pleased to inform the house that in the course of this session of parliament, the new Minister for Gender, Children and Social protection will resubmit to the House, the affirmative action bill ”
” I am pleading with the House on both sides to make one big effort to ensure its enactment” he said.
The Affirmative Action Bill is an act which supports a cause of action to remedy an imbalance.
Ghana’s Affirmative Action Bill defines Affirmative Action as “A set of measures adopted by the Government, public and private institutions to address a history of systemic discrimination and exclusion of women and to encourage their efforts towards addressing political, social, cultural, economic and educational gender imbalance in the public and private sectors in accordance with clause (4) of article 17 of the Constitution”.
The Bill when passed into law seeks to promote a progressive increase in active participation of women in public life from a minimum of 40% to a parity of 50% by 2030 in line with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
It will ensure that a critical number of women are in key positions in governance and public life and in decision-making spaces that will improve the lives of women generally and will also lead to consequential changes in existing laws and policies to improve the lives of women.
Though various efforts have been made by to balance political representation and participation between women and men, these efforts have not yielded desired results, mainly due to the low commitment and the political will to back such initiatives.
Ghana began its quest for an Affirmative Action Law as far back as 1998, where guidelines on the Law were passed by the Cabinet.
However, as at March 2021,the Bill has still not been passed. This is due to the low commitment on the part of stakeholders towards pushing for the passage of the Bill into Law.