In September 2024 a long anticipated Affirmative Action Bill (AA Bill) was signed into law in Ghana. But you would hardly know it in early 2025 following parliamentary and presidential elections and the appointment of new cabinet ministers. Granted, the AA Bill is mostly ‘aspirational.’ For example, it suggests that: “14. The Government shall ensure progressive gender balance in public office, governance and decision-making positions,” including in ministries and a host of other public offices. The Bill does not indicate, however, how gender balance is to be achieved, nor what the consequences are if gender balance is not achieved. According to the schedules at the end of the Bill the goal for the 2024-2026 period is 30 percent women in public office, among other positions.
The law was passed too late in 2024 to affect the December parliamentary elections in Ghana and, indeed, the outcome of those elections was very disappointing for women’s representation. There was no increase in the number of women in parliament in Ghana from the eighth to the ninth parliaments, and Ghana remains ranked at an embarrassingly low 15 percent women in parliament. But Ghanaians might have expected the newly elected president to take at least the spirit of the AA Bill into account when making his cabinet appointments. Sadly, that has not been the case, as the Affirmative Action Coalition and others have observed.
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