Policy-Baseline-Survey-Sefwi-Wiawso

Policy Baseline Survey

August 2012

Introduction and Purpose

The Gender Centre for Empowering Development (GenCED) undertook a baseline survey in the district of Sefwi Wiawso, primarily to promote and enhance the understanding of women and first-time voters on policy issues. The survey is part of a broader project goal to empower citizens to be politically active and also to influence local decision making. The survey data was analysed based on a number of thematic areas, namely; electoral participation and civic responsibility, party affiliation and political activity, transparency and inclusivity in local governance, women in local governance, and policy literacy.

The survey data was collected over 3 days and was based on a randomly selected district sample of 200 respondents representing a cross-section of the district population aged 18 years and above. All interviews were conducted one-on-one/face- to-face by trained field officers in a language of the respondent’s choice. The survey respondents were randomly selected to reflect the different constituents of people living in the rural (49.5 percent), semi-urban (20 percent) and urban areas (30.5 percent).

Brief Background

The Sefwi Wiawso District is one of the eighteen (18) districts in the Western Region of Ghana. Its capital is Wiawso. It is the seventh largest in the Western Region covering a total area of about 1,468 (square kilometers) which constitute about 6.8 percent of the total land mass of the region. Lying in the north-eastern part of the region, it is bordered to the north by Brong Ahafo Region. To the west, it is bordered by Juabeso and Bia District and by Aowin/ Suaman to the south. It is also bordered by Bibiani-Ahwiaso-Bekwai to the coast and Wassa Amenfi West to the south-east.

The Western region covers an area of approximately 239,221 square kilometers, which is 10% of Ghana’s total area.

Climate and Vegetation

The region has about 75% of its vegetation within the high forest zone of Ghana and lies in the equatorial climate zone that is characterized by moderate temperatures. It is the wettest part of Ghana with an average rainfall of 1600 mm per annum.

The vegetation of the district is made up of the moist semi-deciduous rain forest in the northern part, but turns into secondary forest as one moves southwards mainly due to human activities like tree felling and farming. There is about 70km coastline which is mainly of savanna vegetation. The district has several timber species and other non- timber forest products like rattan and bamboo. It also abounds in game and wildlife all of which offer opportunities to generate resources for development. Population

The total population of the region according to the 2010 Population and Housing Census is 2,376,021. The district population is 139,200 representing about 5.9 percent

2 of total regional population. The men are in the majority making up 50.1 percent of the district population with the women constituting 49.9 percent of the district population.

Economic Characteristics

The region is endowed with considerable natural resources which gives it a significant economic importance within the context of national development. It is the longest producer of cocoa, rubber, coconut and one of the major producers of oil palm. To top this up is the discovery of oil in commercial quantities, of which drilling has started.

The rich tropical forest makes it one of the largest producers of raw and sawn timbers as well as processed wood products. A wide variety of minerals, including gold, bauxite, iron, diamond and manganese are either being exploited or are potentially exploitable.

The major occupation in the region is farming, fishing, and animal husbandry.

Sample population More than half of the interviewees (52.5 percent) were women with 47.5 percent men. Ninety percent of the population had some form of education. Table 1 presents the different levels of education. Only 3.6 percent of respondents had gone up to the university level, whereas 10 percent had no formal education.

Table 1: Educational level of sample population Educational Level Percentage of sample population covered Primary 7.2 JHS/MSL 40 SHS 23.6 Technical/Vocational 13.3 Teacher training/nursing 1 Polytechnic 1.5 University 3.6 None 10 Data source: GenCED field data, July 2012

As many as 78.9 percent of respondents had some form of employment. Some were involved in trading (40.6 percent), farming (38.3 percent) whereas 15.9 percent were students. The rest were engaged in other small income generating activity ranging from hairdressing, carpentry, catering, nursing, etc.

A significant 60.5 percent of the sample population have resided in the district for more than 10 years; others had lived in district between 5-10 years (26.7 percent) while the remaining 12.8 percent have resided in the district for less than 5 years.

Electoral Participation & Civic Responsibility

Ghana’s 1992 Constitution and the laws of the country generally provide for a fair and non-discriminatory way of establishing citizenship rights. Voting is one of the fundamental civic rights enshrined in the 1992 constitution of Ghana. Specifically, Article 42 state’s “Every citizen of Ghana of eighteen years of age or above and of sound mind has the right to vote and is entitled to be registered as a voter for the purposes of public election and referenda.”

Recently, Ghana’s independent Electoral Commission (EC) completed its Biometric Voter Registration (BVR) exercise with an estimated 14 million persons registered to vote in the December 2012 Presidential and Parliamentary elections. This is the first time Ghana will be voting using the BVR. It cost the state an estimated USD45 million to complete the exercise. Participation in the BVR was very encouraging with 97.5 percent of respondents duly registered. Most of these may have registered with the intention to vote in the 2012 elections. Roughly 86 percent of respondents say they will vote in the December elections. Chart 1 shows the breakdown in terms of the percentages of women and men willing to vote in 2012.

Data source: GenCED field data, July 2012 An assessment of those who voted in the immediate past election 2008 (see Chart 2) and those who intend to vote in 2012 also provides some hope. If achieved, the number of both sexes who intend to vote in 2012 will exceed those who voted in the 2008 election. Quite an insignificant few – 11.8 percent men and 15.5 percent women may have registered under the BVR for other reasons other than to vote. Again, it is important to tread cautiously in order not to make any generalisations about the districts voter participation as the low number of voters in 2008 can be partly explained by people’s absence from the constituency during the election – 29.6 percent of all respondents said they travelled outside the constituency at the time of the 2008 election. A sizeable number, 33.8 percent were also underage and therefore ineligible to vote.

Data source: GenCED field data, July 2012

Chart 3 also provides an overview of people’s participation in the last District Assembly (DA) election. It is interesting to note that, a significant proportion of both sexes exercised their franchise in the last local assembly election. Traditionally, DA elections have often been poorly patronised due to its non-partisan nature. It will be interesting to monitor subsequent DA elections to see if same levels of participation are maintained.

Data source: GenCED field data, July 2012 The survey sampled views of respondents regarding voting for a female parliamentary candidate. The majority were in favour of voting for a female parliamentarian (see chart 4) in the upcoming elections, although no woman has presented herself as a parliamentary candidate to be voted for in the past two elections. An assessment of representation in the last two parliamentary elections is presented in tables 2 and 3 below. The men have dominated the scene in the past two elections. It will be interesting to see if this scenario changes in the future.

Data source: GenCED field data, July 2012

Table 2: Sefwi Wiawso - 7 December Parliamentary Election Results 2008 Rank Candidate Name Party Votes % 1 Evans Paul Aidoo NDC 22,556 49.9 2 Kwaku Afriyie NPP 22,156 49.0 3 Kingsley Sarfo-Nyamekye CPP 517 1.1 Data source: www.ec.gov.gh

Table 3: Sefwi Wiawso - 7 December Parliamentay Election Results 2004 Rank Candidate Name Party Votes % 1 Evans Paul Aidoo NDC 26,095 60.4 2 Dr Kwaku Afriyie NPP 16,855 39 3 Atiao Kwaku PNC 276 0.6 Data source: www.ec.gov.gh

Party affiliation and political activity A significant 46.1 percent of the sample population are ‘floating ’voters as they do not belong to any political tradition. The ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC), New Patriotic Party (NPP), and the Progressive People’s Party command support of 17.9 percent, 16.7 percent and 10.3 percent of the sample population respectively (see chart 5). The Convention People’s Party (CPP) also enjoys a little over 7 percent support. The political parties are faced with the challenge of winning support of the 46.1 percent of the sample populace who do not belong to any political tradition. This will depend on how effectively the parties are able to engage and sell their ideas to them.

Data source: GenCED field data, July 2012 Political participation is very low in the district. As many as 88.4 percent of the sample population said they were not politically active. Further analysis shows that both men and women were inactive. Only 31.9 percent (men) and 21.8 percent (women) had ever participated in meetings organised by political parties.

Close to 37 percent of the sample population had an idea of what a political manifesto was. The men were more informed than the women in this regard (see chart 6). This is not surprising as 79.8 percent of respondents said they were unaware of political parties educating the electorates on their party manifestos.

Data source: GenCED field data, July 2012

Fifty-four percent of those interviewed said they had no knowledge of their party’s ideology. It was not their primary reason for belonging to a political party. Some belonged or liked a party for no specific reason (42.9 percent); some were influenced because other members of their family belonged to a particular party (21.4 percent); while the rest espoused different reasons. Only a few (16.7 percent) said their decision to belong to a political party was influenced by political philosophy/ideology.

The engagement of both sexes by the political parties in the district has generally been moderate, although the women seem a little worse off with more than 40 percent having little or no engagement with the political parties (see chart 7). This may partly explain their lack of knowledge when it comes to ideologies and manifestos.

Data source: GenCED field data, July 2012

Transparency & inclusivity in local governance Ghana’s local government system is premised on the element of participatory democracy. The decentralisation reforms were also intended to foster transparency, responsiveness, and accountability. By law, members of the Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDAs) are supposed to meet electorates before every meeting of the assembly. They are also enjoined to consult the electorate on issues to be discussed in the assembly, and collate their views, opinions, and proposals for submission to the assembly.

In addition MMDAs must provide their constituents with feedback on the general decisions of the assembly and the actions taken to address the problems of concern. Indeed, the local government Act (Act 462) mandates local government bodies to involve local people in development planning, implementation and monitoring at the grassroots level. But what is the popular experience here in the context of Sefwi Wiawso?

The survey indicates low levels of citizen engagement with the assemblies. Participation in local governance is generally weak. Majority of respondents seem reluctant or unable to take advantage of whatever opportunities decentralisation reforms have created for popular participation.

The local government actors do not report back to the communities frequently to explain the outcome of decisions taken regarding development/local governance. Assembly members and political parties do report back to the communities occasionally. More than half of the respondents blamed key actors - Unit Committee members, District Chief Executive, and the Member of Parliament (MP) for not

8 reporting back to them regarding development and issues of local governance. This is highlighted in chart 8 below.

Data source: GenCED field data, July 2012

Meanwhile, the Assembly man/woman is often the first point of contact for respondents whenever they have specific concerns to do with the Capitation Grant, National Youth Employment Program (NYEP), and the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) among others. Most people would rather not contact anyone when affected by any of these issues. This implies a lack of trust between the community members and duty bearers in the district.

The active involvement of women in the local governance decision making processes is critical in ensuring gender equity and making sure the specific needs of women and children are addressed. However, an assessment of the consultative processes in the district reveals that most women are only consulted occasionally or not at all in the decision making processes. Chart 9 shows how both sexes rate the way women are consulted on issues before decisions are arrived at in the district.

Figure 1Data source: GenCED field data, July 2012

It therefore comes as no surprise when again both men (63 percent) and women (72.8 percent) acknowledge the fact that issues affecting women/young girls are also not adequately addressed in the community (see chart 10). One may presume that this is so because, women and children are not taken into account when policies are being formulated at the district level. Almost 56 percent men and 41.2 percent women are of the opinion that women issues are taken into account when policies are being formulated or designed in the district (see chart 11). This is an interesting finding as it draws attention to a lack of capacity and also failure of the district assembly to implement policies targeted at women and young children to achieve desired effect. More research is required here to ascertain the truth.

Data source: GenCED field data, July 2012

Radio is the commonest medium for accessing information on local governance issues. Close to 69 percent of the sample population access information through the local radio stations, while television comes second (25.1 percent).

Women and local governance The survey set out to ascertain the extent to which women generally participate in political activity in the district. Ghana has taken important steps towards achieving greater gender equality and promoting women’s participation in politics, in line with the UN Convention for the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW). As a practical demonstration of this commitment, in 1998 cabinet adopted an affirmative action policy which established a 40 per cent quota for women’s representation on all government boards, commissions, committees and other official bodies. In 2001, the government followed this up by the creation of a Ministry of Women and Children’s Affairs (MoWAC).

Despite these interventions at the national and international levels, women’s participation in local governance and representation at the DA level remains dismally low. In 1994, women made up about 3 percent of elected members, rising to 5 percent in 1998 in the country (Ofei-Aboagye, 2000, p. 4).

About 47 percent of respondents say women in the district are encouraged to contest public offices. A sizable proportion of the female sample population (42.7 percent) also affirmed this position. Even though this is a positive development, it is not certain which groups encourage the women. A significant proportion of survey respondents (62.2 percent) say there are no women advocacy groups in Sefwi Wiawso that support or build capacity of other women to contest for public offices.

Policy Literacy

The survey reveals a paucity of knowledge when it comes to the policy issues. Most respondents had no knowledge or poor knowledge on major policy issues such as climate change and its effects, oil and gas policy, the NHIS and Capitation Grant, and the Medium Term Agriculture Sector Investment Plan to mention but a few (see charts 12, 13, 14 & 15). This lack of knowledge means most respondents are not well informed to influence policies in these key thematic areas.

Data source: GenCED field data, July 2012

Data source: GenCED field data, July 2012 A review and assessment of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) in Ghana touches on some of these policy issues. With barely three years to reach the United Nations MDGs timeline, it is evident that Ghana’s progress in achieving the MDGs is mixed. The country is largely on track to achieve the MDG 1 target of reducing by half the proportion of the population living in extreme poverty and also to achieve universal primary education.

However, progress on other targets such as reducing the maternal mortality ratio by three quarters by 2015 is off track. Maternal mortality ratio reduced from 451 per 100,000 live births in 2008 and is estimated to be further reduced to about only 340 per 100,000 by 2015, instead of the MDG target of 185 per 100,000 by 2015. It is unlikely also that the 2015 target of reducing the child mortality rates will be easily met. The slow progress has been of great concern to policy decision makers to the extent that Maternal Mortality has been declared a national emergency.

These issues are well known and overly emphasised at the national level but lack visibility at the decentralised local levels. Chart 15 shows that quite a significant percentage of women and men had no knowledge of the NHIS and the capitation grant intervention that had been introduced by government to enhance access to health and education across board. Yet again, significant numbers had no clue what the policy on girl child education was as depicted in chart 16 below.

Data source: GenCED field data, July 2012

GenCED must embark on an outreach on policy literacy project that will enable community members particularly women and the youth, deepen their understanding of these policy issues to enhance their proactive engagement to influence political decisions and the policy making processes in general. An assessment of people’s understanding on other policy issues is depicted in the remaining charts below.

Data source: GenCED field data, July 2012