Women groups in the Upper West Region have called on Parliament to pass the Affirmative Action Bill as soon as possible to increase women's representation in leadership roles in the public sector. Currently, women representation in Parliament stands at 15 per cent, which they said was inadequate as compared to the women's population against men in Ghana. The group said the Bill, if passed, would help change the social front of women and fight against debilitating issues against their wellbeing. Madam Lydia Darlington Fordjour, the Gender Equality and Social Inclusive Coordinator at Community Development Alliance (CDA), made the call at a Regional Civil Society Advocacy (CSO) Forum on the Affirmative Action Bill and Non-Profit Organisation (NPO) Bill Legislation held in Wa. She said women were an integral part of the liberation struggle and fight for Ghana's independence and wondered why after the attainment of independence, they should now be side-lined. 'Is this not an act of ungratefulness to the women front with the delay in passing the bill by parliament into law for all that while?' she quizzed. Madam Fordjour said any country that had not included its women in decision making processes could not be described as a serious country. 'It is high time the bill is passed to allow women representation in parliament and district assemblies in terms of those elected and appointed, and all other spheres of government progressions,' she said. Research had shown that there had been gender imbalances in all spheres; imbalances in terms of women representation and participation in the public sector, which needed urgent attention to promote gender equality for the progress of the country, she said. She challenged female tertiary students to be assertive and willing to take up leadership roles to build their confidence. Madam Mercy Dakogri, the Project Manager, Giving for Change Project at CDA, bemoaned the existence of a proposed national non-profit organisations (NPO) Bill that seeks to tax, regulate and limit t he operations and advocacy roles of civil society and non-governmental organisations (NGOs). She said CSOs and NGOs were development partners and it was wrong for them to be excluded during the formulation, drawing and implementation of a policy that sought to regulate their daily operations without their involvement in the documentation of the bill. She called for stakeholders' engagement to fine-tune the document to be accepted by all, adding; 'We demand that our voices be heard in this regard'. Madam Dakogri said there had been key issues regarding licences of incoming CSOs and NGOs registration to operate and the processes were time consuming. Those that were already operating had to renew their operations and pay taxes every year, even though their operations were charitable, and donor driven, she said. Some of the participants believed government's resources were inadequate and were not reaching rural women, hence welcoming the support of CSOs and NGOs to improve their livelihoods. On the part of the Affirmative Action Bill, the participants called on the government to give more scholarship opportunities to women to further their education and provide tax reliefs to private entities that created employment for women to narrow the gender disparity gap. Participants said the general election was approaching and that the country needed absolute peace from everyone, including Fulani herdsmen, to sustain the country's democracy. The Community Development Alliance, in partnership with STAR Ghana, organised the forum for 65 participants drawn from the Wa, Lawra and Jirapa municipalities, and Wa East, Wa West, Daffiama-Bussie-Issa and Sissala West districts attended the forum. It sought to provide a platform for the CSOs, women and youth groups, persons living with disability among others to advocate the passage of the Affirmative Action Bill and deliberate on the NPO Bill and identify areas for improvement. Source: Ghana News Agency