Month: October 2022

The Rt. Hon Speaker of Ghana’s Parliament Alban Kingsford Sumana Bagbin has said the much talked about peace, justice and sustainable development would continue to elude the world without gender equality. According to him all of us must act collectively to ensure that no one is left behind in any aspect of our lives as the legislature is the heart and the life blood of democracy and good governance.

“Parliament is the home of the governed – that is the people and its composition ought to be a true reflection, and a mirror of the people it represents. This means that all the people must be equally represented, heard and given equal opportunities. Gender sensitive parliament is not about equality in numbers alone but a healthy parity in all aspect and perspective of gender”.

The Rt. Hon Speaker made this remarks on Thursday, October 13, 2022 when he addressed the on-going 145th Assembly of the Inter Parliamentary Union in Rwanda Kigali. And to show case that Ghana is in tune with the theme for the Assembly, the delegation of Ghana has four female and four male. It’s on the theme, “Gender Equality and Gender-sensitive Parliaments as Drivers of change for a more Resilient and peaceful world”

Gender equality he indicated, has been and continues to be a fundamental developmental and sustainability imperative and not just a human right concern given the current demographics of more than fifty percept of the global population being females; the equal participation of women in whatever society does is an imperative.

And there is clear evidence of global effort to achieve gender equality at a snail pace, the call in this Assembly for them to cure epilepsy and to speed up the pace is the right call and Ghana fully supports it, Mr. Bagbin emphasised. The Speaker told the Assembly, women empowerment initiatives found expression in the 1992 constitution and has produced two women chief justices in a role and a first lady speaker, one of his predecessors of parliament.

And since 1993, legislation on women property and spousal rights, financial inclusion and leadership gained prominence in the government and parliament’s agenda and in daily national discuss and parliament is currently working on a number of legislations in this direction. The increase in the number of women in Parliament of that of 11 per cent to the current 14.5 per cent is part of the efforts. This is definitely not much progress and unacceptable.

Since women constitute majority of the world’s population their interest must find expression in whatever we do, this is a panacea to ensure a more resilient and peaceful world, the reverse produces bitter poor non develop world, “evidence in today’s world speaks volume for its”, he said.

Kwaku Sakyi-Danso/Ghanamps.com/Rwanda/Kigali

On Wednesday, October 12, 2022, the Speaker of Chamber of Deputies of Rwanda Rt. Hon Donatilla Mukabalisa was elected to preside over the 145th Inter Parliamentary Union (IPU) Assembly being held in Rwanda.

In her acceptance speech she noted that every parliament has to pass legislation to enact to contribute to the economic and social transformation of their respective societies and in the same vain Parliament of Rwanda remain committed to its mission of doing its bit towards ensuring that equality remain high on the agenda in Rwanda.

And this cannot be achieved if their parliaments do not work with other parliaments, and this Assembly would make it possible for the Rwanda Parliamentarians share best practices with other parliaments and also learn from them which would enable them continue to be a more resilient parliament. Again, turning to the theme for the general debate on gender sensitive parliament as drivers of change for a more resilient and peaceful world, “I consider that the theme is well timed.

Gender equality in our various societies should start from our parliaments, because this would serve as an inspiration for our society with more women in Parliament working with men. It is easier to overcome complex challenges of the contemporary world”. Rt. Hon Donatilla further noted that, what they set out for themselves to achieve can come through joint efforts and people in all layers of our society can have their voices heard and their concerns addressed.

She remain convinced that these Assembly would be unique, it is a pivotal opportunity for them to share experience on how to tackle barriers to gender equality in our parliaments and hope the Assembly would help them come up with actionable plans and realistic resolution of which their parliaments would become more gender sensitive, and inspire our societies; and quoted the President during the international women day 2022, “equality is a right and not a favor, we must to even more and better to ensure that the next generation of our daughters and granddaughters inherit their aspiration has no limit”, to buttress her point.

Kwaku Sakyi-Danso/Ghanamps.com/Rwanda/Kigali

Ghana’s Speaker of Parliament Rt. Hon Alban Kingsford Sumana Bagbin on Wednesday, October 12, 2022 received his counterpart from South Korea who called on him at his request (I mean South Korea Speaker) at the ongoing Inter Parliamentary Union Assembly meeting in Rwanda Kigali.  According to him the Republic of Korea has been the true friend of Ghana in the past forty-five years that both countries have had diplomatic relations.

And when he gets back to Ghana he is going to inaugurate the Ghana Korea Parliamentary Friendship Association; “we have a lot of private Korean firms in Ghana and Korea is a household name – Samsung, you can rest assured that we would be supportive of all efforts coming from your government”.

Speaker Bagbin, further emphasized on the need to work together, indicating that “we would be supportive of all initiative from your government; Korea has done well, they are a bit ahead of Ghana in everything particularly in the creation of a green smart cities. And now their ports and rails infrastructure, a Korea company constructed the tallest building in the world in Dubai and there is that confidence in them, he stated.

The Speaker revealed that he has been to Korea on several occasions. He has been to Korean as part of the business community that came to Korea, when he was the Water Resource and House Minister and had to come to Korea to do good business, and that visit enhanced his interest in Korea and had to get some of their books to read about the Korea miracle.

Kwaku Sakyi-Danso/Ghanamps.com/Rwanda/Kigali

Speaker of the South Korean National Assembly Rt. Hon Kim Jin-Pyo said Ghana remains its key partner in the West African sub-region and the diplomatic relations between both countries have lasted for the past forty-five years. According to him Ghana is a stable democracy in the West African sub-region and acknowledged the role president Nana Akuffo-Addo played as Chair of ECOWAS contributing to regional integration, stability and economic development.

He made those remarks during a meeting in Rwanda- Kigali when he called on the Speaker of Ghana’s Parliament Rt. Hon Alban Kingsford Sumana Bagbin on Wednesday, October 12, 2022 at his hotel. Other members of the Korean National Assembly that followed the Speaker are Kim Tae-nyeon member of the National Assembly, Jin Sun-mee member of the National Assembly and Yu Eui-dong member of the National Assembly.

Further in his remarks he pointed out that he understand his counterpart from Ghana is call the father of Ghana’s Parliament and has dedicated himself to the democracy of Ghana for the past thirty years and “I am happy with the efforts you have made to enhance the ties between Korea and Ghana”. “We have increased the size of our economic cooperation fund to Ghana and our inter parliamentary exchanges have increased; this meeting can serve as another impetus for facilitating for bilateral exchange between the two parliaments”, he said.

He further revealed that he has approved in recent times the Korea- Ghana Parliamentary friendship association, and hopes this would enhance the ties between the two parliaments, and he would encourage more Korean companies to invest in Ghana. Also, he disclosed that in the areas of automobile industry he hopes they can open a new assembling plant in Ghana and he hopes all goes well, “I will like to ask for your kind support, I am hoping we can expand relations in expanding cooperation in digitalization infrastructure development in ICT”

Again, they are happy to support Ghana as they provided speed boats in piracy fight on the Gulf of Guinea and ask for Ghana’s support in their bilateral cooperation’

Kwaku Sakyi-Danso/Ghanamps.com/Rwanda/Kigali

As to how the Inter Parliamentary Union (IPU) is address gender related issues which will not be just a talk shop, Secretary General Martin Chungong at a media briefing in Rwanda Kigali on Tuesday, October 11, 2022 said they don’t only preach gender equality but walk the talk. According to him IPU itself is gender sensitive and some thirty percent of the participants are going to be women,stating that this was not the case some time ago when it was less than twenty percent.

And attributed the progress made in this regard to the stringent measures that they have put in place that is statutory measures to ensure that delegations are gender balance and if you come to IPU without women in your delegation you forfeit part of your right as a member; you lose voting rights.

And this has helped drive on the numbers. You also assume that when we talk about gender equality every parliament has the capacity to implement gender equality that is not true; many country’s struggle to do that. That is why the IPU has a capacity building programs for parliament to encourage them and provide skills and knowledge on how to achieve gender sensitivity.

In addition, they have also learnt that in other to achieve gender equality you also need to address on women empowerment and emancipation and from statistics it has shown that women are not immune to violence. There are violence against women on the account of their political involvement, he said. That is why the IPU has in recent years played emphasis on mechanism to address robustly the phenomenal of violence against women and more importantly violence against women politicians which has the potential of discouraging women politicians involve in political life.

Another, problem is the lack of financial and economic empowerment of women. This is one area that the IPU is working on with other parliaments to see how laws can be put in place for women to enjoy greater economic and financial assistance. And like the Rwanda’s Speaker of Chambers of deputies, Rt. Hon Donatilla Mukabalisa said, when women have access to resources those resources are efficiently utilized to the benefit of society, he stated.

Kwaku Sakyi-Danso/Ghanamps.com