Gender Inequality: The Negative Impact on Decisions of The Tamale Metro Assembly

GENDER INEQUALITY continues to be a huge challenge in the governance structures and processes of many state and non-state institutions in Ghana, right from the central government to the local government level.  Perceptions and attitudes towards women coupled with traditional and cultural setups have culminated in low representation of women in leadership positions including the government.  For instance, of the 275 legislators currently in the seventh parliament, the percentage of male legislators is as high as 89.1 percent compared to female which is 10.9 percent according to the country's Electoral Commission (EC).  The story is not so different at the local level as there are more male Assembly members  than females . According to the EC, of the 137 women who contested the 2011 District Level Election (DLE) in the Northern Region, only 19 were elected. The Tamale Metropolitan Assembly (TMA) has only one female in a 64 member house and no female representation in Parliament.  It is important to also note that all District Planners, Coordinating Directors, heads of various government institutions in the various Assemblies in the region are also male. This imbalance results in decisions that are often inimical to the well-being of women and the vulnerable and their livelihoods or economic resources in the city of Tamale.   The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) especially goal 5, seeks to address key challenges such as poverty, inequality, and violence against women and girls.   Although 47 per cent of world business leaders according to the UN Women say they are in favour of gender quotas on corporate boards, women remain underrepresented in leadership and management level positions in the public and private sectors.   "Less than one-third of senior- and middle-management positions are held by women. While 39 per cent of countries worldwide have used some form of quota system to increase women’s representation in politics, parity is far from reality—as of 2017, only 23.4 per cent of all national parliamentarians are women" the UN Women said in a report.  According to the report, women worldwide make 77 cents for every dollar earned by men globally in the labour market. But sadly, due to the low representation of women in the TMA, when economic decisions such as decongestion of a city of traders are taken by city authorities, there is usually hardship at home. It is worth noting that about 80 percent of traders in two of its biggest markets, the Tamale Central and Aboabo markets are women.    Tamale Central Business District Children more often than not drop out of school owing to lack of money for their general upkeep because mummy or daddy is affected by decongestion.  Additionally  a significant number of these women traders do not own shops and therefore have to carry their wares on their heads and hawk  to sell. There are also those who sell their wares on tables in open spaces inside the markets and around the pedestrian precincts outside the markets.  Besides the markets serving as places of commerce for traders, transport operators such as members of the Ghana Private Road Transport Union also do business there. Their vehicles occupy a significant space of the inner and outside perimeters of the markets. This practice of transport operators and traders using the same venue for business, over the years, has contributed to unnecessary human and vehicular congestion. The safety of hawkers particularly from the rural parts of the TMA and other adjoining rural districts and their communities and other pedestrians and road users is also of concern to residents of the city. There have been serval attempts at decongesting the city in the past by city managers. Unfortunately, these have been considered a knee-jerk reaction and poorly thought through measures aimed at addressing the congestion problem but not representing a people centered action, nor are they compliant with the considerations of community or interest group engagements as stipulated in various international frameworks such as the SDGs and the New Urban Agenda.  The actions of the TMA though laudable to ensure a clean and safe, environment for all, have led to lots of hardships to families as many traders can’t support the essential needs of their family.  With a rise in unemployment facing the youth particularly girls, trading in the city centre is their only option. And even though the city authorities need to clear the city of filth, in doing so to ensure the safety of drivers, pedestrians and traders, it is also imperative to take into considerations their livelihoods and engage appropriately with each stakeholder to draw their support for the exercise to benefit the city.  On May 15, 2017, the Mayor of Tamale, Iddrisu Musah Superior ordered a decongestion exercise to be carried out in the central business district, targeting traders who sell on pedestrian walkways and in the frontage of stores around the Tamale central and Aboabo markets.  The objective of the decongestion exercise was to ensure discipline on the streets devoid of congestion and unnecessary filth. The exercise was carried out by the Tamale Metro Assembly’s decongestion taskforce comprising of personnel from the police, military, immigration, fire service and prisons. The taskforce was charged to remove all unauthorized structures as well as sack vendors/hawkers from the streets.  Thousands of traders were disgruntled. Many felt the mayor was insensitive to their plight as citizens of this country. They wondered why in the absence of employment opportunities, the mayor would choose to stop them from seeking a living by hawking in the streets.  Many of the traders including Maame Abubakari, a secondhand clothes seller, were stopped from selling on the streets in the central business district area. As a result of the decongestion, her business collapsed and she lost all her working capital.   “I stayed in the house for about 2 months without any work to do. I have 8 children I am taking care of. Life was very difficult for me and my family”, she recounted in an interview with her. She reiterated the need for the city to be accessible to all, while simultaneously, considerations of livelihood should also be of priority concern to city authorities with emphasis on the need for exhaustive engagements and education.  She advocated that, authorities should always ensure people understand their priorities in order to support implementation instead of resorting to rough and arbitrary destruction of goods and property of the very people they are expected to protect. Maame indicated that, but for the generous support of her creditor, she doubts if she would have been able to stand on her feet again. “My creditor visited me at home when I was sick…. that is in the immediate aftermath of the decongestion exercise. I told her I didn’t have money to do the business again and she gladly told me she was ready to give me some goods to sell if only I’m interested”, she explained. Maame Abubakari Selling Her Wares Sule, also a secondhand clothes seller said they (traders) were asked to go and sell around the West Hospital area and Kukuo. “When we went there, for more than a month nobody was buying our goods. Some people’s business collapsed and they had to sit at home”, he lamented. But after weeks of persistent agitation coupled with a ‘hide and sell’ tactics adopted by some of the traders to sell their wares, little by little, most of the traders came back onto the streets and pedestrian walkways to sell. On behalf of other traders, Sule and Maame appealed to the Tamale mayor to allow them to sell on the streets only on Saturdays and Sundays and the rest of the days they can find an alternative place to go and do business.     Considering the congested nature of the Tamale central and Aboabo markets, many including freelance journalist Philip Liebyang, have called for rehabilitation of community markets such as the Kukuo and Lamashegu markets as well as the need for the construction of new markets and recreational spaces.  However Philip fears that lack of adequate consultations with stakeholders including women, physically challenged persons and children will continue to reduce the future actions of the TMA to an impartially planned agenda to bring further hardships to city beneficiaries, and this will bring about more unemployment among residents of the city.  “If the Kukuo market is completed and a new one build at Lamashegu, these will reduce significantly the increasing congestion in the Tamale central and Aboabo markets as well as the central business district”, he opined.  Tamale is plagued with many issues as the TMA attempts to implement its programme of action befitting a city. Communities have unplanned roads, nonexistent home addresses to ensure compliance of tax on properties, inadequate street lighting and poor sanitation among others.  These issues could be solved through appropriate engagements among city authorities, traditional leaders, city centre interest groups, traders, women, youth and children to ensure people buy into the city agenda  and support in ensuring that all including women have their voices heard in the city that is expected to be their identity. One thing is clear as one interacts with the affected traders of the recent decongestion exercise. Whereas many have gone out of business and unable to fend for their families adequately, those who are still persistent, now find it difficult to break even simply because there are restrictions that are not allowing them to sell in some places. By Joseph Ziem and Fati Alhassan. The Authors of this Article are both Freelance Journalists based in Tamale.