Women’s Rights in Ghana

What’s the Issue?

The saddest omission from the plethora of negative images and messages put out by the media and some charities is the resilience, capacity and solidarity of African women. Women are often invisible but crucial in conflict resolution, peace building, struggles against oppression, child protection, promoting education, campaigns against violence, caring for the sick and local economies.

The position of women in Northern Ghana makes them particularly vulnerable. Here it is a patrilineal society: so inheritance and succession pass through the male line. Traditionally, women do not own property, large livestock or land and so are unable to support themselves and their families. For those that are married they must rely on their husbands for support but it is often the case that this support is not enough as men often have more than one family to support. Despite the physical and physiological damage caused by the cultural practice of female genital mutilation (FGM), it is still practiced amongst many of the ethnic groups. Domestic violence is considered to be a normal part of married life and women are not able to make important decisions concerning their lives – such as decisions regarding reproductive health, their children and family planning. Women also have little or no say about important decision within their own communities and programmes supporting farmers are usually dominated by men’s issues and needs, ignoring the evidence that women provide 80% of farm labour.

Upon divorce, a woman also loses the right to any material assets acquired whilst married and is expected to marry a brother-in-law. If she refuses, she is made homeless and banished from the community. As she has no rights over her children, they stay behind. This is especially the case if the woman is of reproductive age. Thus wealth stays within the wider family.

What is African Initiatives doing?

The overall aim of African Initiatives programme in Northern Ghana is to improve the economic, political, social/cultural and environmental rights of women. Our experience is that women’s roles and positions are primarily defined within the culture - therefore work on women’s rights must start at this level. The second lesson is that for women to bring about positive change they need economic security, either income generation or access to productive land.
In collaboration with our partner, the Community Self Reliance Centre (CSRC), African Initiatives is supporting an on-going project working with sixteen different communities over a three to five year period, to tackle this discrimination and advocate for change. The project reaches over 1,000 women and men directly with a further 8,200 indirectly and seeks to bring about long term positive changes to the lives of women.

Education and Advocacy

Engaging with traditional leaders to discuss women’s rights and their place within their community, as well as sexual reproductive health issues such as family planning and HIV and AIDS awareness.
Facilitating the formation of Community Activist and Gender Activist Teams and providing training n women’s rights.
Conduct group dynamics and capacity building training.
Develop and disseminate educational materials on women’s rights, domestic violence and sexual reproductive health.
Research, network share and information with other organisations and NGOs working on women’s rights issues in the region.

FGM and Domestic Violence

Recruiting and training Domestic Violence Monitors in each community.
Raising awareness and advocating on discriminatory cultural practices and policies such as FGM and domestic violence and setting up appropriate support systems and documenting the occurrence in order to document ‘significant change’
Organising annual activities to mark the ’16 days of activism’ and highlight the incidence and effects of domestic violence.

Women’s Empowerment

Conduct interactive workshops around the theme of the ‘empowerment of women’.
Training women group leaders on advocacy, lobbying and negotiating in order that they can increase awareness and access to reproductive health services within their communities and help improve women’s access to productive resources such as land for farming.
Strengthening the capacity of members of the Bawku West Women’s Network (with members from each of the sixteen communities), by conducting training workshops, exchange visits and meetings.

Support for Women Farmers

Advocating within communities for women to be given farming land and cattle to support themselves and their families.
Conduct workshops on ‘land user rights’ and the effects of using agro-chemicals in farming.