Enhance inclusion of women and vulnerable groups in governance. (GHKS0001)

Commitment ID

GHKS0001

Commitment Title

Enhance inclusion of women and vulnerable groups in governance.

Problem

We recognize the gaps and admit that persons with disability, women, and the youth especially in our jurisdiction are not actively involved in the governance and decision-making process at the local level to influence policy priorities.
The General Assembly for instance, which is the highest decision-making body of the Municipal Assembly is heavily male dominated. It is made up of 57 assembly members, with 2 person with a disability represented and only 5 female representatives. Notwithstanding, the secretariat is heavily male dominated, also, over the periods there have been few female representatives at town hall meetings, community engagements, and other social accountability forums including persons with disability. The low level of participation of vulnerable groups in subnational governance is induced by low capacity and empowerment to express opinions, socio-cultural and economic impediments, and a language barrier in the delivery of meetings also affects their participation which in turn affects the number and the implementation of gender and vulnerable based programmes and activities contained in the Action plan and budget of the Assembly.
The commitment seeks to enhance the participation of women, youth, and PWDs in subnational governance to ensure inclusive and participatory governance and effective, accountable institutions. This will be done by improving service delivery and engaging vulnerable groups in policy designing, implementation, and monitoring.

Status quo

Over the period efforts have been made to factor gender-responsive and social programs that economically empower women and the vulnerable in the Assembly’s Action plan and budget. The Assembly has reliable data on PWDs in the municipality together with their leadership and has engaged them extensively on social intervention programs. Also, as part of efforts to improve the lives of the vulnerable is implementing the government-initiated Livelihood Empowerment Against Poverty Programme (LEAP), the Assembly have provided cash, income generation items, capacity building, education, and health support schemes to extremely poor households and PwDs. There is also an established Gender Desk responsible for the championing, advocating, sensitization the public on women empowerment issues. However, the Assembly is under-resourced to support gender-responsive planned activities.  The Assembly is in the process of mapping out youth groups in the Municipality to identify their needs, collaborate and engage them in decision making. Despite the interventions, there are gaps and difficulties in empowering vulnerable groups and involving them in decision-making, building local leadership, and enhancing collaboration among government, civil society organizations, local communities, and vulnerable groups.

Action

The Assembly proposes the following actions:
- Empower women and persons with disability through sensitization, training, and capacity-building programmes on human rights, local governance, and legal frameworks to encourage them to take up roles and positions in governance.
- Strengthen, support, and empower the activities of the youth parliament in the municipality by collaborating with its leadership to encourage the youth in participating in decision making and governance. Develop a framework to create an enabling environment for the representation of youth groups in Assembly plans preparation, implementation, and monitoring and provide a platform for easy access to information.
- Given the representation of vulnerable and marginalized groups in Municipal Assembly meetings to enhance the quality of participation and inclusion by identifying and nominating Ambassadors/Role Models among the women/disability groups to build their confidence level and provide leadership and motivation.

How will the commitment contribute to solving the public problem described above?

The solutions and actions outlined are aimed at achieving:

1. Increased female participation and inclusion of women and persons with disability in public engagements, local governance and decision making.
2. Reduced discrimination against vulnerable groups.
3. Empowered youth groups and a vibrant youth parliament having a voice and influence on development policies.
4. Empowered women and PWDs in leadership positions
5. Gender desk officer empowered to engage in sensitization of women.

What long-term goal as identified in your Open Government Strategy does this commitment relate to?

Empowering and ensuring inclusion of women and vulnerable groups in governance will ensure accountability, transparency and improve citizen participation in a manner that when all vulnerable groups are represented at Assembly meetings and are empowered to actively participate in decision making, groups become informed on public delivery services and all PwDs and gender responsive activities among others. Active participation and representation at meetings and forums will allow for comments, questions, enquiry, and feedback to all. With and efficient Citizens Complaint Centre of the client service and social welfare office of the assembly will ensure timely access to information is to help improve service delivery.

Primary Policy Area

Inclusion

Primary Sector

Cross-sectoral

What OGP value is this commitment relevant to?