The Stunted Growth of Gender Development THE SOCIOECONOMIC AND POLITICAL CONTEXT

Considering the enthusiasm with which the birth of the NCWD was heralded, one would have expected gender policy development to have reached its heights by now. Unfortunately, after 26 years of the NCWD, the much expected success story has turned into a mirage of some sort. As a matter of fact, indications have been that the council might have suffocated to death along with its policy development focus if the past 20-year political dispensation, which squeezed furiously at the council's breath had not been removed eventually through elections.

The problem with national machineries throughout the world is that they do not operate in a vacuum, "but have to work with international organizations, governments or supervising authorities, various stakeholders and interest groups, clients and beneficiaries", and are normally under pressure to conform to the requirements of all the above parties in view of their need for resources and acceptance." In Ghana, the political pressure and their attendant economic effects from the programs of the past immediate regime which ruled as the Provisional National Defence Council, (PNDC) and then as the National Democratic Congress,NDC, virtually hindered the NCWD from making progress. A study of the socioeconomic and political context in which the NCWD found itself between succeeding political regimes illustrates this observation and confirms the view of the NCWD that all past governments, expect the PNDC and NDC, were supportive of its works and gender policy development programs.

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During this period Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, Ghana's first President, the idea of the birth of the NCWD had not yet been conceived, but that regime "is credited with the first affirmation action program for women in Ghana." Gender matters, were given a boost by virtue of the regime's blend of nationalism and socialism, which, recognizing the relevance of involving women in politics, gave them equal opportunities in education and work.

It also, reserved ten seats in the legislature for them, encouraged the entry of women into nontraditional employment and made market women influential in the ruling Convention Peoples Party (CPP) The overthrow of the regime in 1966 has been described as "a setback for the nascent gender equality policies.

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The inception of this era saw the birth of the NCWD, Ghana's version of the national machinery proposed by the UN for the promotion of gender development. As its response to commitments it made to the UN following the declaration of the International Decade for Women, the first of the military regimes of the era, the National Revolutionary Council (NRC) established the NCWD in 1975 by decree (NRCD 322, 1975).

To ensure that the newly created national machinery operated smoothly, the NCWD was given a clear mandate, function and role. It was also given an administrative body whose structure, membership physical location, and sources of funding were unambiguously defined, and had free hand in carrying out its mandate while still having access to the center of power.

Realizing that women were not fully integrated into national development, the first function assigned to the NCWD was the integration of women into development. Besides this, the council was clearly given advisory, liaison, monitoring, evaluation and reporting functions and had the mandate to report to government and to represent it in national and international spheres. It has no explicit function to implement projects, but was allowed to do so by the omnibus clauses which allowed it to do other things incidental or conducive to the exercise of its stated functions.

With this clear identification of its essence, and its operations coinciding "with the 70's proliferation of income-generation projects for women all over Africa," the NCWD soon diversified into project implementation, particularly income- generating projects.

The NCWD's efforts at gender development, coinciding with an era of global recognition and activism on women's issues and a general willingness of all governments to show commitment towards halting the subordination of women, benefited immensely.

Generally all the governments that emerged in that era, both military and civilian, were supportive of the work of the NCWD, and did not interfere, politically, in its activities. This situation coupled with the UN's gender -balance activist programs in the 1970's provided a rare opportunity for Ghanaian women to make strides.

Unfortunately for the Council, however, the socioeconomic and political instability which marked the late 1970s and 1980s did not create the right climate for sustained activities on gender equality. The next political era set in, through a coup d'etat, resulting in a 20-year period of instability and tremendous difficulties for gender development and the work of the NCWD.

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Among Ghanaians, the viewpoint that the contiguous eras of the Provisional National Defense Council (PNDC) and of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), came to shatter the relative stability enjoyed by the NCWD in its work of promoting gender development, is no secret.

Despite its past strenuous efforts and great strides, which clearly put the issue of women's rights in the public domain, there was sufficient evidence of disaffection on the part of the PNDC/NDC governments towards its work. Soon after settling down to work, the government did three things - it challenged the NCWD's project implementing role, effected frequent changes in the location of the NCWD in the government bureaucracy, and in the executive leadership of the body. All these took place after the NCWD had been brought under public scrutiny and some of its meetings had been invaded by groups of young women believed to be government agents

The challenge brought up against the project implementing role of the NCWD went a long way to reduce the Council's stature dramatically and reduced the strength of its force as the national machinery for gender development. To many Ghanaians, this action was as a breach of faith and a neglect of the interest of the people since the action represented the closing of a critical avenue of resource mobilization for Ghanaian women. In fact, the forced reorientation of the Council's focus resulted in a loss of confidence, influence and status, having the multiplier effect of weakening its ability to address issues which government found too sensitive to handle. The situation also reduced the Council's ability to mobilize women around specific gender issues.

The policy of frequent relocation the legal character and in commission's situational location of the NCWD, also, to a large extent, fractured the status and work performance. Within the era, the Council was moved to and fro its original Ministry of Foreign Affairs location, the office of Mobilization and Social Welfare, the office of the Vice-president, the office of the Head of the Civil Service and to the office of the President. Additionally, the policy of moving the physical location of the Council's office to and fro various buildings and termination of the appointment of some of the professionals working on the Council completed the confusion that engulf the operations of the council.

On top of all these difficulties came the abrupt dissolution in 1986 of the NCWD's governing board and installation in its place of an Interim Management Committee (IMC). This was followed with a law, which bound the IMC to be made up of a chairman and nine other persons all of whom were to be appointed by the PNDC. Although room was made for the appointment of an Executive Secretary and a governing board, the stage had been set to change the terms of appointments from the relative independence the council enjoyed under the previous governments. In the previous regimes, Council members were appointed on the basis of institutional representation while the executive secretary's appointment was based on merit and qualifications. Since the PNDC, both Council members and the Executive Secretary are now hand-picked." Surely, the reaction to the effect that "those hand-picked will not like to rock the boat and so will do as the government wishes." was as obvious as it was predictable.

And when in the midst of all these destabilizing circumstances, the NCWD was left to find its own feet in the muddle of the recession from the effects of PNDC/NDC Structural Adjustment Program (SAP), its marginalisation became real. These devastating acts of politicization of the NCWD and gender development programs in the country through the PNDC/NDC's marginalisation program had their roots in the persistent desire for the domination of the Ghanaian political space by the 31st December Women's Movement (DWM) headed by the then First Lady and wife of the President, Mrs. Konadu Agyeman-Rawlings.

N.Agyeman- Rawlings

It has been argued that the only way the DWM, a self proclaimed women's wing of the then ruling PNDC/NDC government, could have perpetuated its dominance over national issues relating to gender which were already in the province of the NCWD, was to erode the status and strength of the NCWD and break its back resolutely, destructively and decisively.
Certainly, under such devious and disenchanting circumstances, the NCWD and gender policy development could not have helped falling into the coma they eventually declined into. top

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