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The Deputy Chairperson of the Affirmative Action Bill Technical Committee, Mrs. Joana Adzoa Opare, has disclosed the Affirmative Action Bill will, this month, be sent back to Cabinet for onward passage to Parliament for consideration with the hope this time round it would be considered and passed into law.

She explained that with the work done on the Bill before the expiration of the last government, she expects little or no changes to it when it is tabled before Cabinet later this month so as to find a lasting solution to the low female participation in all sectors of the economy.

At a workshop organised by Friedrich Ebert Stiftung Foundation, a German political policy organisation and Abantu for Development for the Women Caucus in Parliament and other stakeholders, she lamented that passing the Bill into law was long overdue for Ghana, stemming from the fact that it had its affirmative action policy guideline since 1998.

The Chairperson of the Caucus and the Deputy Majority Leader, Ms. Sarah Adjoa Safo, said as leadership is focused on building the capacities of female members, it was also keen on increasing female representation in Parliament. She stressed the current Parliament had 37 women, a figure which did not represent the 52 per cent women population in Ghana hence the need to intensify capacity-building to get more women in Parliament.

Ms Safo noted that in the quest to increase women representation in Parliament, there should be capacity-building workshops for women and young ladies in the various constituencies.

"We need to mentor the women and ladies in the constituencies, so that we can get 50 per cent and more women representation in Parliament to facilitate the passage of bills or policies in favour of women,” she said.

"The current number of women representation shows we have a long way to go and a lot of work to do, but if we cannot achieve 50 per cent or more, the next generation will work to continue the fight to achieve it," she said.

On her part, the Programmes Manager of Abantu for Development, Mrs Hamida Harrison, indicated that there was a need for collaboration with Parliament because training women in Parliament would in turn promote social democracy, equality, peace and security in the country.

"We are confident that the training will establish women policy makers to promote access to leadership and equal representation in Parliament," she said.

The workshopwas on the theme, ‘Enhancing capacities towards a Gender Sensitive Parliament’.