High Cost Of Dowry, Others Top Agenda Of Women Group In 2013

Campaign against high cost of dowry, violence against women and witchcraft and empowerment of widows as well as girls seeking their livelihood on the streets of cities in Ghana are atop the agenda of the Savannah Women’s Empowerment Group (SWEGG) in the year 2013.

At the end of a two-day meeting attended by over one hundred SWEGG members from different professional backgrounds in the Upper East Regional capital town of Bolgatanga last December, the group outlined a series of initiatives to be embarked upon to raise the status, political voice and socio-economic wellbeing of women in the largely rural and impoverished regions of Ghana.

A wide array of women’s organization leaders who addressed the meeting, urged SWEGG to build a stronger united front to advance women’s equal rights and economic justice. Some placed strong hopes for support for women’s agricultural and economic empowerment in the advent of the Savannah Accelerated Development Authourity (SADA).  

A gender advocate and former Deputy Upper East Regional Minister Lucy Awuni who opened the meeting, observed that improvement of women’s role in all sectors of the country’s economy could only be achieved if they were given equal opportunities as men at the grassroots and national levels during decision making processes. 

 “Women are always pushed back by men” she observed, adding “But when you are the head of everything, you don’t want to give that power away, and that is why men do that. They refuse to see us – the decisions that they take are in their own interests. In development, when we give ideas, they say go and get the water. But women have their own knowledge of issues and we should handle our issues as we like. We ought to be part of every decision: we want this school here, borehole here - our choices.  Take a bold step and influence all your community women to be included in everything” she charged participants. 

Ms. Awuni said, “Some say there are not enough educated women to be in decision-making, but in actual fact every woman is educated in one way or another.  They may not write, but if they talk to you and you see how they manage their home – you’ll know that this woman is educated!’’ 

SWEGG members in the Upper West Region this year will continue to advocate for a reduction in the high cost of dowry or customary marriage rites that make it difficult for young men and women to marry. The negative results of this unfavourable cultural practice include rampant sexual lifestyles thus making victims involve bringing forth bastards, engaging in unsafe abortion practices due to unwanted pregnancies, and also face the risk of acquiring sexually transmitted infections and diseases.  

For now, SWEGG members in that region say “there is broad agreement even among traditional leaders, that making marriage affordable is a key to stable families”, thus in 2013, they will work with traditional leaders and district assemblies to develop bylaws that would bring reform to the current dowry system in the Upper West Region.

For SWEGG members in the Upper East Region, they agreed to shift from an initial priority on improving the social and legal position of widows to economic empowerment. “We see very effective groups already working on the serious problems faced by widows” says the Upper East Regional Coordinator of SWEGG, Ms. Veronica Munya.

Nationally, various advocacy groups including women lawyers are working to change the legal framework to protect widows from being denied of their assets and social status when their husbands die.  So SWEGG according to Ms. Munya will now focus on economic empowerment, where they would work to put better farm equipment in the hands of women who were already active in the agricultural sector.

Members of the Savannah Women Empowerment Group in the Northern Region also decided to continue with the issue of female head-porters commonly referred to as kayaye. Since 2011, they have focused on this problem as well as health issues, domestic violence, witchcraft and other cultural practices that prevent women from taking leadership roles. In 2013, they plan to intensify work with women chiefs and other traditional leaders to address these issues. 

Meanwhile, SWEGG is a legally registered non-governmental organization founded in 2009.  According to Ms. Amina Montia, Convener of SWEGG, membership of the group already includes almost 2,000 women who were teachers, attorneys, medical doctors, accountants, female chiefs, farmers, traders, politicians and other medical practitioners.

She welcomed men who believed that women hold important keys to economic development in Northern Ghana to endeavour to support the group, adding that, the meeting in Bolgtanga was a real turning point at which SWEGG members confirmed leadership teams in each of the three regions. Therefore, all the regions, she noted, will begin to develop programs to attack such persistent problems as high cost of dowry, kayaye and education of girls, mother and child health, profitable work opportunities for women and solid political representation at local and national levels.