MP Beatrice Boateng had to overcome many obstacles when she ran for her seat in parliament. Credit: Jamila Akweley Okertchiri/IPS

By Jonathan Migneault and Jamila Akweley Okertchiri
ACCRA, Jul 12 2012 (IPS)

Beatrice Boateng, a member of parliament with the New Patriotic Party, Ghana’s official opposition to the ruling New Democratic Congress, has earned her place among the country’s lawmakers.

As she takes her seat in parliament, she does so having overcoming the numerous obstacles that face all would-be female politicians in Ghana, including defamation and financial difficulties.

It is little wonder then that when visitors observe Ghana’s legislators in action, one thing is immediately clear – there are very few women who sit in the West African country’s parliament.

In fact, the Inter-Parliamentary Union ranks Ghana as 120 out of 189 countries for female representation in government. Only 19 of 230 members of parliament in Ghana are women. That leaves female representation at 8.3 percent.

“It was not easy,” Boateng told IPS, referring to her second shot at parliament in 2004. “The men really ganged up against me.”

That year, members of her own party defamed her in the media. “They said I was a teacher and didn’t have money, so I was flirting with other party members for it,” she said. “They thought as a woman they could manipulate me to do whatever they wanted.”

Boateng went to court over the allegations and eventually won the case that year. She was granted a retraction in the newspapers, an apology and some financial compensation. But not before the case was adjourned 11 times.

She did not win a seat that year.

She would have to wait four more years before she finally won the chance to represent the New Juaben constituency of the Eastern Region in parliament. In 2008 she won a seat as an MP and has been serving for the last four years. She did not win the party nomination in her constituency for the 2012 election, though, and will not run for a second term.

But Boateng’s triumph in politics is a rarity here. And a Ghanaian NGO called Abantu for Development has teamed up with the country’s Department of Women to draft a political affirmative action law to open the doors for women who want to follow in Boateng’s footsteps.

“If we do not put in place special temporary measures, women will never make it into public office,” said Hilary Gbedemah, a lawyer and the rector of the Law Institute in Accra who has worked on the draft legislation.

Eight years ago, the NGO Leadership and Advocacy for Women in Africa or LAWA Ghana made recommendations for draft legislation on affirmative action. Though work towards the legislation only started four years ago, with the Department of Women creating the Affirmative Action Legislation Working Committee, a four-person committee responsible for creating the draft legislation, in May 2011.

While the sub-committee is yet to start drafting and sifting through the varied recommendations received, they are working toward a gender parity zone where no gender occupies more than 60 percent of public or political positions.

In 1995, the United Nations’ Beijing Platform for Action on Equality, Development and Peace, to which Ghana is a signatory, recommended a minimum of 30 percent female representation in decision-making positions.

So far, 37 countries across the globe have reached the Beijing Platform’s 30 percent marker for female representation in parliament. Of those countries, only three achieved the feat without affirmative action initiatives.

“We are hoping that when we get the affirmative action law to back the policies that we have, we will have the basis to hold political parties responsible to give support to women,” said Patience Opoku, principal programme officer and acting director with Ghana’s Department of Women.

Rwanda, South Africa, Tanzania and Uganda are among the African countries with affirmative action laws. They each have more than 30 percent female representation in parliament. Rwanda leads the world with 56.3 percent representation.

But in Ghana, several factors still prevent women from reaching decision-making positions.

When Boateng ran for parliament for the first time in 1996, she said her biggest obstacle was her finances. “I knew I needed money and I didn’t have it,” she said.

Though in 2004, during her second attempt to run for office, she was in a better financial position and was able to secure loans from banks. But by this time her children had also completed their schooling, and she had more cash available.

Ghana is traditionally a patriarchal society. “When we come home we are given different roles,” said Hamida Harrison, Abantu’s mobilisation manager. “Those roles have brought about this relationship that is superiority versus inferiority.”

Women are expected to raise children and have fewer opportunities for tertiary education and professional advancement.

“Men have the money,” said Gbedemah.

At the elementary level, boys and girls are evenly represented in Ghana’s schools.
“But by the time we come to the tertiary level boys outnumber girls almost three to one,” Gbedemah said. She said that a study by ActionAid International found that the public perception of girls’ education, household chores and early pregnancy are all factors that have contributed to the disparity.

To increase the number of young women in Ghana’s tertiary institutions, a form of affirmative action is currently in place as the entrance requirements for women remain lower than those for men. It points to a long history of affirmative action in Ghana. Kwame Nkrumah, Ghana’s first president, set aside 10 seats for women in Ghana’s parliament in the early 1960s. Though that policy fell out of favour after he was overthrown by a coup in 1966.

“In India, and in the Nordic countries, we found that when you increase women’s representation they tend to focus on things like health, sanitation, education and social services,” said Gbedemah.

Issues that are specific to women, such as maternal mortality and domestic violence, also receive more attention when a country has a higher proportion of female decision makers.

The Department of Women and Abantu want to have nationwide consultations on the draft affirmative action bill by the end of the year, before it goes to parliament. While it will not be ready for Ghana’s December election, they hope to have affirmative action in place for the 2016 elections.

Ghana has taken a major step towards reducing its under-five mortality rate by becoming the first African country to introduce two new vaccines for rotavirus and pneumococcal disease.

Gladys Otabil holds her son Gabriel as he receives the pneumoccocal vaccine at La General Hospital in Accra. Credit: Jamila Akweley Okertchiri/IPS

But a United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) official in the West African country says this measure will not be sufficient to meet the fourth United Nations Millennium Development Goal (MDG) to reduce the under-five mortality rate by two thirds by 2015.

Currently, 80 children out of 1,000 do not make it past the age of five in Ghana. According to UNICEF, Somalia has the highest infant mortality rate, at 180 deaths per 1,000 live births, and Sweden and Finland have the lowest at three deaths per 1,000 live births. (source: http://www.childinfo.org/mortality_ufmrcountrydata.php). In order to achieve the fourth MDG, Ghana would have to cut its under-five mortality rate down to 40 deaths per 1,000.

“Ghana is doing a lot, but I don’t think it’s enough,” said Dr. Anirban Chatterjee, UNICEF’s chief of health and nutrition in Ghana. He was referring to this country’s efforts with the new vaccines and the Health Service’s campaign to educate mothers on nutrition. “I think there is definitely scope and need for more improvement.”

Rotavirus and pneumococcal disease are the leading causes of diarrhoea and pneumonia in young Ghanaian children. Together they account for close to 25 percent of under-five mortality and are behind only malaria as the leading causes of child deaths here.

Now both the vaccines for rotavirus and pneumococcal disease are being given to young children before they reach four months of age. The measure is currently being rolled out across the country and to select hospitals in Accra. The GAVI Alliance, a public-private global health partnership, has helped fund the vaccines, which will be available for free to all Ghanaian children. More than 400,000 children in this country of 25 million people are expected to be immunised against both diseases.

The two new vaccines are expected to prevent 12,000 pneumonia-related deaths and another 10,000 deaths from diarrhoea, said Dr. Antwi Adjei, head of the expanded programme on immunisation at the Ghana Health Service.

On Apr. 26, Ghana’s Health Minister Alban S. K. Bagbin said in a press statement that the new vaccines would give this country the extra push it needs to meet the fourth MDG by 2015.

But for UNICEF, efforts to improve the nutritional health of children and provide them with vaccinations need to happen in tandem to reduce the under-five mortality rate. Chatterjee said malnourishment can sometimes double or triple the chances of dying from a condition like diarrhoea or pneumonia.

“Malnourished children are more susceptible to contracting the disease, having severe forms of the disease, and also dying from the disease,” he said.

Exclusive breastfeeding for the first six months of a child’s life is one way to prevent malnourishment in that crucial period. UNICEF has promoted the practice because it also helps create immunity to early childhood killers like pneumonia and diarrhoea.

In Ghana, 63 percent of children are exclusively breastfed during that period, which is relatively high compared to other developing countries. However, many women do not breastfeed their children because they are not aware of the benefits, or they work in an environment – such as the informal sector – where it is difficult to do so.

Adjei said that the Ghana Health Service has regular cooperation between departments such as vaccinations and nutrition. The service’s various departments are currently meeting for Child Health Promotion Week to develop new strategies and programmes related to child health.

One big challenge for the Ghana Health Service will be to reach all children with the rotavirus and pneumococcal disease vaccines. About 87 percent of children under one in Ghana have been immunised for tuberculosis, poliomyelitis, tetanus, hepatitis B, measles and several other childhood diseases. But reaching the last 13 percent has proven difficult.

“Wherever a person is, we have a responsibility to reach them and vaccinate them,” said Adjei. “Rising costs also make it more and more difficult.”

Some isolated communities around Lake Volta in central Ghana, for instance, can only be reached by boat. It is much more expensive for the Ghana Health Service to reach these small communities than to serve urban populations.

A small number of Ghanaians also do not take vaccinations due to religious or traditional beliefs. Adjei said, for example, that the local Twi dialect has only one word for “medicine,” and it does not differentiate between preventative vaccines and drugs used to treat diseases. He said it is difficult to overcome such beliefs.

“Fortunately for us these are isolated cases,” he said.

La General Hospital in Accra was one of the first institutions to offer the vaccines in the capital on Friday, May 4. About 40 mothers were gathered at the hospital with their crying infants in tow, as they waited for their turn for their children to be inoculated.

Gladys Otabil was at La General Hospital with her two-month-old son Gabriel.

“All I understand by the addition of the two vaccines is that they will protect my child from any disease and sicknesses,” she said. Otabil added that she was also advised to breastfeed her son for the first six months of his life.

The roll out will expand to other hospitals in Accra, and across Ghana, in the coming weeks.

By Jonathan Migneault, Berlinda Chochoe Nortey, and - -
ACCRA, Feb 29 2012 (IPS)

When Jack Sabadgou left Ghana for Switzerland 10 years ago, he left his infant daughter behind to be raised by her mother. Now he wants his child back, and he is running out of time in a bid to save her from the banned traditional practice of female genital mutilation.

Florence Ali, the president of the Ghana Association for Women’s Welfare, has dedicated her life to the fight against female genital mutilation. Credit: Jonathan Migneault/IPS

“The issue is a sickness,” says Sabadgou from his home in Switzerland. He says his mother does not understand that her cancer has nothing to do with evil spirits or her granddaughter.

“I don’t want to lose two people,” he says, fighting back tears. “I love them both.”

Female genital mutilation was criminalised in Ghana in 1994. The United Nations and the World Health Organization (WHO) have condemned the procedure, which involves the removal of a woman’s external genitalia, including the clitoris and inner labia.

The WHO says the practice has no health benefits and causes only harm. It can result in recurrent bladder and urinary tract infections, cysts and infertility.

But in villages like Bawku, the practice continues in secret.

And Sabadgou’s desperation to save his daughter from this is palpable even a continent away.

Sabadgou returned to Ghana in early February to gain legal custody of his daughter so that he could take her to safety in Switzerland. He filled out paperwork and spoke with Bawku’s leaders about his concerns with FGM, but his pleas fell on deaf ears. He has since returned to Switzerland.

In Ghana’s northern regions FGM is generally practiced between December and February. Sabadgou believes his daughter has until December before her life will irreversibly be changed for the worse.

Florence Ali, the president of the NGO the Ghana Association for Women’s Welfare, has been Sabadgou’s only ally in Ghana.

Before dedicating her life to the fight against FGM, Ali was a midwife. Women and their unborn babies died in her care due to complications from female genital mutilation.

One woman was not able to deliver her baby due to the scarring of her vagina. Ali was not equipped to do a Cesarean section and the mother and child died.

Mariama Yayah, the director of Ghana’s Department of Children, says FGM is practiced in Ghana to strip women of sexual pleasure and ensure they stay faithful to their husbands.

Many in Ghana’s northern regions see the practice as a normal part of womanhood, she says.

Sabadgou plans to return to Bawku in December to let the girls there know that the practice is not acceptable.

“It’s going to be a fight,” he says. “It’s not going to be easy.” He says no one in his village supports his stance against FGM. But it is a belief, he says, that he is prepared to die for.

In Ghana, people who practice the banned procedure can serve five to 10 years in prison if they are prosecuted. But authorities are not doing enough to curb the practice, says Sabadgou.

The WHO estimates that 92 million girls in Africa over the age of 10 have undergone FGM and there are only 22 countries on the continent that have laws against the practice. Mali, for example, has no law banning female genital mutilation.

In 2008, the World Health Assembly passed a resolution to eliminate female genital mutilation.

Ali says that in 2011 an assembly of African leaders in Malabo, Equatorial Guinea, supported a draft resolution from the U.N.’s 66th ordinary Session of the General Assembly to ban FGM worldwide. “We are hoping that at the next General Assembly meeting, we (will) have a worldwide ban on FGM,” she says.

For Sabadgou the fight against FGM in Ghana starts with awareness. “We need to talk about the issue,” he says. “It needs to start now.”

He says the country’s media has not done enough to denounce the custom and he wants ministers from Ghana’s northern regions to discuss the issue in parliament.

Ghana’s Department of Children has done advocacy on the issue but its resources are limited.

Ali’s organisation is even more strapped for cash. She has a cramped office next to a schoolyard in Accra. Hundreds of children play in a football field outside while she raises her voice to discuss her fight against FGM over the surrounding noise.

“It is not easy to combat FGM but we are still fighting to flush it out of the system,” Ali says. “We have a long way to go to fight against FGM. Everybody has a role to play.”

Excerpt:

When Jack Sabadgou left Ghana for Switzerland 10 years ago, he left his infant daughter behind to be raised by her mother. Now he wants his child back, and he is running out of time in a bid to save her from the banned traditional practice of female genital mutilation.

Florence Ali, the president of the Ghana Association for Women’s Welfare, has dedicated her life to the fight against female genital mutilation. Credit: Jonathan Migneault/IPS

Sabadgou’s daughter, Yuma, is now 13 years old and she lives in the village of Bawku, in northern Ghana, where people still adhere to traditional practices, including FGM. After Yuma’s grandmother was diagnosed with breast cancer, she blamed her illness on evil spirits, which, she claims, punished her because her granddaughter has not yet been cut.

“The issue is a sickness,” says Sabadgou from his home in Switzerland. He says his mother does not understand that her cancer has nothing to do with evil spirits or her granddaughter.

“I don’t want to lose two people,” he says, fighting back tears. “I love them both.”

Female genital mutilation was criminalised in Ghana in 1994. The United Nations and the World Health Organization (WHO) have condemned the procedure, which involves the removal of a woman’s external genitalia, including the clitoris and inner labia.

The WHO says the practice has no health benefits and causes only harm. It can result in recurrent bladder and urinary tract infections, cysts and infertility.

But in villages like Bawku, the practice continues in secret.

And Sabadgou’s desperation to save his daughter from this is palpable even a continent away.

Sabadgou returned to Ghana in early February to gain legal custody of his daughter so that he could take her to safety in Switzerland. He filled out paperwork and spoke with Bawku’s leaders about his concerns with FGM, but his pleas fell on deaf ears. He has since returned to Switzerland.

In Ghana’s northern regions FGM is generally practiced between December and February. Sabadgou believes his daughter has until December before her life will irreversibly be changed for the worse.

Florence Ali, the president of the NGO the Ghana Association for Women’s Welfare, has been Sabadgou’s only ally in Ghana.

Before dedicating her life to the fight against FGM, Ali was a midwife. Women and their unborn babies died in her care due to complications from female genital mutilation.

One woman was not able to deliver her baby due to the scarring of her vagina. Ali was not equipped to do a Cesarean section and the mother and child died.

Mariama Yayah, the director of Ghana’s Department of Children, says FGM is practiced in Ghana to strip women of sexual pleasure and ensure they stay faithful to their husbands.

Many in Ghana’s northern regions see the practice as a normal part of womanhood, she says.

Sabadgou plans to return to Bawku in December to let the girls there know that the practice is not acceptable.

“It’s going to be a fight,” he says. “It’s not going to be easy.” He says no one in his village supports his stance against FGM. But it is a belief, he says, that he is prepared to die for.

In Ghana, people who practice the banned procedure can serve five to 10 years in prison if they are prosecuted. But authorities are not doing enough to curb the practice, says Sabadgou.

The WHO estimates that 92 million girls in Africa over the age of 10 have undergone FGM and there are only 22 countries on the continent that have laws against the practice. Mali, for example, has no law banning female genital mutilation.

In 2008, the World Health Assembly passed a resolution to eliminate female genital mutilation.

Ali says that in 2011 an assembly of African leaders in Malabo, Equatorial Guinea, supported a draft resolution from the U.N.’s 66th ordinary Session of the General Assembly to ban FGM worldwide. “We are hoping that at the next General Assembly meeting, we (will) have a worldwide ban on FGM,” she says.

For Sabadgou the fight against FGM in Ghana starts with awareness. “We need to talk about the issue,” he says. “It needs to start now.”

He says the country’s media has not done enough to denounce the custom and he wants ministers from Ghana’s northern regions to discuss the issue in parliament.

Ghana’s Department of Children has done advocacy on the issue but its resources are limited.

Ali’s organisation is even more strapped for cash. She has a cramped office next to a schoolyard in Accra. Hundreds of children play in a football field outside while she raises her voice to discuss her fight against FGM over the surrounding noise.

“It is not easy to combat FGM but we are still fighting to flush it out of the system,” Ali says. “We have a long way to go to fight against FGM. Everybody has a role to play.”

(END)

The incessant buzzing of mosquitoes was the first sign that there was something wrong. While Bernard Akumiah could clearly hear the small insects, there were none within his vicinity.

Bernard Akumiah said that government needs to recognise mental illness as a legitimate health concern. Credit: Jamila Akweley Okertchiri/IPS

The buzzing of mosquitoes eventually turned into voices coming from nearby rooms. The voices sounded as though they were in French, a language neither Akumiah nor his brother, with whom he lived, could speak.

The year was 1982 and the experience of hearing mosquitoes that did not exist was the first sign Akumiah, then a young man with his whole life ahead of him, had schizophrenia. The mental disorder, which can now be treated with the right combination of antipsychotic drugs, is characterised by paranoid delusions and auditory hallucinations that are often paired with social dysfunction and anxiety.

But Akumiah’s diagnosis changed his life. Like many others with schizophrenia, he has been a victim of stigma.

“At first I had a lot of family support, they would even bring me food so I didn’t eat the food prepared at the hospital but when I was discharged, somewhere along the line, there was something like discrimination,” Akumiah said.

Stigma is a major impairment to mental health treatment in Ghana. The country is expected to pass a new Mental Health Bill by the end of March that could greatly improve mental health services if it is properly enforced.

Now 59-years-old, Akumiah has managed to control his illness by taking powerful antipsychotic medication every day. He is a volunteer with the Mental Health Society of Ghana and dedicates much of his free time to reducing the stigma associated with mental illness in the country.

He remains one of the lucky Ghanaians who are able to live normal lives with a severe mental illness.

He said the government needs to recognise mental illness as a legitimate health concern. “When you fall sick your family rejects you,” Akumiah said. “So who should take care of you? The government must accept and embrace people with mental illness with their whole heart and not by word alone but by deed.”

It is estimated that 98 percent of Ghanaians with mental illnesses never receive treatment. There are only three mental health facilities in the country, all located in the more populated south. In the poorer north there are no mental health services at all. There are more than 24 million people in Ghana but only 12 psychiatrists.

Ghana spends about one percent of its annual healthcare budget on mental health. Mental health practitioners estimate that as much as 10 percent of the population suffers from a mental illness of some kind. Dr. Akwasi Osei, director of the Accra Psychiatric Hospital, the largest facility of its kind in Ghana, has said that at least seven percent of Ghana’s total healthcare budget should be set aside for mental health.

“Our system for mental healthcare is quite poor,” said Osei.

Accra Psychiatric Hospital currently has 800 patients but only 500 beds. In the men’s ward patients are strewn about the floor of an open courtyard. Most are in a groggy state, thanks to their medication, and ask for better food or for a way out. Some said they get visits from family members but many others have been abandoned by their kin.

Osei said mental illness is not a priority in Ghana because of the stigma associated with it. That stigma manifests itself in three ways: against the condition itself, the patient and the mental health practitioner.

“The main thing is fear of the unknown,” said Osei. “People don’t know exactly what mental illness is and what causes it. And we are credulous beings. We want to believe. And if you want to believe and you don’t understand then you find superstition. Superstition becomes an antidote to ignorance, so we turn to associate superstition with mental illness.”

That superstition is most evident in the prayer camps scattered around Ghana. People with mental illnesses are often chained in the camps as preachers pray for their miraculous recovery.

But Ghana’s mental health practitioners and advocates believe the country’s new Mental Health Bill could help end the stigma against mental illness and allow for better treatment across the country.

The Mental Health Bill was first put before Parliament in 2006. It has gone through its first and second readings and is now at the committee stage. Humphrey Kofie, executive secretary of the Mental Health Society of Ghana, said the country’s health committee has assured him the bill will be passed by the end of March 2012.

Kofie said the bill would help protect the human rights of people who suffer from a mental illness. People who are known to be mentally ill in Ghana, for instance, are often prevented from voting during elections. Kofie said the Mental Health Bill would put an end to that kind of discrimination.

Osei said the new bill would be one of the most progressive pieces of legislation of its kind in Africa. “Healthcare will be community oriented instead of institutionalised, a mental health board and a trust to collect funds for mental healthcare will be established, it will provide enforcement power to end rights abuse and department for public education to further reduce stigma and train as well as monitor traditional healers,” he said.

The bill would also provide additional funding for mental healthcare in Ghana. There are no numbers for additional funding yet.

But Kofie said the law would need the proper legislative instruments to be put into practice.

Ghana’s Disability Rights Bill, passed in 2006, has still not been enforced. The country’s institutions are still largely inaccessible to people who have physical disabilities. Kofie has feared that the situation could be similar for the Mental Health Bill.

“The future is the legislative instrument,” he said.

Excerpt: