BACKGROUND

Introduction and Context

Like most countries in the sub-region of Africa, women, the major population in Ghana, still face discrimination in all spheres of endeavor – political, economic and social.

Through a combination of factors, Ghanaian women have faced exclusion from decision making, especially in the public sphere right from colonial times through modern state administration, persisting even today.

The most important of these factors are: (a) tradition and customary practices that reinforce the subordination of women making it difficult to conceptualize and accept women’s leadership; (b) persistent low levels of women’s education; (c) and women’s multiple productive and reproductive roles.

For a Sub-Saharan African country, Ghana seems to be doing relatively well in its attempts to establish democratic governance. But in the Ark Foundation’s view, a democracy that excludes effective representation of the majority of the country’s population is a defective form of democracy.

It is also disheartening that the number of women in decision making positions of whatever kind, from local community level, through national policy and administrative levels is, to say the least, insignificant.

There is general acknowledgment that factors such as tradition, notions of women’s inferiority, general low levels of female education, and the burden of women’s multiple roles undermine women’s participation in leadership at all levels and especially in the political and public space.

Despite this acknowledgment, there still remains the huge challenge of ensuring that women’s issues and gender inequities are addressed in a pragmatic, systematic way by governing authorities and policy makers in Ghana.

Because of women’s minimal participation, issues regarding women’s human rights protection, anti-violence policies and laws, removal of gender discrimination through transformation of structures and institutions, and achieving the much needed attitudinal change through systematic education, sensitization and targeted advocacy are not being tackled with the urgent attention deserved.

For Ghana’s democracy to be meaningful, increasing women’s participation and indeed strengthening women’s presence in civic advocacy, lobbying, human rights protection, social and development policy formulation and implementation, etc., is a must.

Women’s experiences and women’s voices need to be heard to make a difference in political processes and policies. Ghana’s international obligations towards achieving equality, non-discrimination and social justice must be made real through the bold initiatives of committed women in leadership at all levels.

Without the necessary skills and knowledge that can enable women to face the challenges of leadership, women who dare to assume a leadership role often set themselves up for failure in our society.

Faced with almost insurmountable barriers, only a systematic approach to the development and provision of programs that can empower women to take their rightful places in leadership at any level can make a difference.

Our training programs target young women at all levels: those contemplating higher education, those who’ve already obtained a first (bachelor’s) degree and those who are or have finished working on a second degree such as law.

Our programs not only complement existing academic programs offered in universities as well as on-the-job training, they also provide learning environments that are specifically designed to nurture and encourage women’s participation in learning.

In fact, our Institute is currently one of the only options available to women in Ghana for engaging in meaningful discussions on topics such as: “Theories of Leadership;” “Ghana’s Constitutional Framework;” “Personal Development & Empowerment;” “Understanding Affirmative Action and Balancing Career and Personal Life.” (A partial list of some of the topics taught during the 6-day Women’s Leadership, Human Rights and Democratic Participation” training course.)

The training courses also provide participants and alumnae of the Institute opportunities to deliberate on critical national issues and send communiqués and policy advocacy briefs to the President, Cabinet and relevant policy makers, stating their concerns. These briefs are followed up at the relevant institutions to find out what government is doing about a particular issue.

One such strongly word communiqué dealt solely with the government’s obligation to ensure gender balance in political and public appointments. Within a month two women were appointed chairpersons of the Boards of Public Institutions of significant importance.

The Institute’s alumnae believe that their communiqué made a difference to the President’s choice of appointees at the time. Linking young women trainees with advocacy opportunities and skills to influence policy is a unique feature of the WLHRI that needs to be explored further as excellent opportunities for creating and achieving change.

THE PURPOSE

The WOMEN’S LAW AND HUMAN RIGHTS INSTITUTE (WLHRI) PROGRAM was established to engage in capacity building through Training, Advocacy based on the themes of Women’s Human Rights, Women’s Leadership Development and Social Development issues, including Child Rights and Law.

The Ark’s activities under this program have been carefully crafted with the aim of drawing attention to the leadership, participation, human rights and human development issues of women in Ghana to engender the necessary policy, legislative or societal action for change.

The (WLHRI) of The Ark Foundation has thus conducted programs since March 2000 to train and educate and thereby raise the level of advocacy of women’s leadership and human rights in Ghana.

After successfully running programs primarily for women for 5years, the Program is expanding and being strengthened to respond more effectively to the need for raising a critical mass of women leaders and gender advocates; for the purposes of heightening advocacy and gaining better recognition for women’s human rights protection in Ghana. It is the only Program of its kind currently in Ghana.

The Ark is thus building on the previous successes of the Institute for a self-sustaining and expanded training, education and resource center that will be available to a growing audience.

We also seek to continue building on the relationships we have with various partner organizations to increase the scope and diversity of training programs offered to women in various professional sectors as well as young women in pre-university and university-level education programs.

Though the primary focus of the Institute is on women, young men who believe in the values of human rights, social justice and gender equality will also be given the opportunity to participate in the Institute’s programs.

Vision and Mission Statement

Affirming the vision of The Ark, Ghana which is “…a society in which men and women are truly equal in all spheres and endeavours of life…”,the WLHRI’s specific mission is to “foster respect for women’s leadership, human rights and empowerment through transformational and cutting edge training and capacity-building program delivery to our clients and target groups”.