Policy Baseline Survey JOMORO August 2012 Introduction and Purpose The Gender Centre for Empowering Development (GenCED) undertook a baseline survey in the district of Jomoro 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. Analysis of the survey data was done 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 the language of the respondent’s choice. District location, Size, and culture The Jomoro District is one of the eighteen (18) districts in the Western Region of Ghana. Its capital is Half Assini. The Western Region includes Ghana's southernmost location, Cape Three Points, where "Sweet crude oil" and "crude oil" was discovered in commercial quantities in June 2007. Jomoro District, which used to be part of the then Nzema East Municipal, was created by Legislative Instrument 1394 in 1988. The District lies between Latitudes 040 55’ – 050 15’ N and Longitudes 020 15’ – 020 45’ W and is bordered on the North by Wassa Amenfi West and Aowin Suaman districts, Nzema East Municiapl on the East, La Cote d’ivoire to the West and the gulf of Guinea to the South. The size of the district is 1,344 sq.km. The culture is dominated by the Nzema, Wassa, Aowin, Sefwi, and Ahanta sections of the Akan culture; the main languages spoken are Fante, Wassa, Sefwi, Ahanta, Nzema, and English. The religions are predominantly Traditional Akan religion and Roman Catholicism. The founder of modern independent Ghana, Kwame Nkrumah, was born in the Western region. Sample population An equal number of males and females interviewed (100/100). In terms of education, nearly 86.8 percent of the population had some form of education. Table 1 presents the different levels of education. Only 1 percent of respondents had gone up to the university level, whereas 13.1 percent were illiterate. Table 1: Educational level of sample population Educational Level Percentage of sample population covered Primary 22.2 1 JHS/MSL 30.8 Page SHS 25.8 Technical/Vocational 2.0 Teacher training/nursing 0.5 Polytechnic 1.0 University 1.0 Other 3.5 Illiterate 13.1 Data source: GenCED field data, July 2012 As many as 78.1 percent of respondents had some form of employment. Most are engaged in small income generating self-employment-trading (24.6 percent), whereas 15.0 percent were engaged in agriculture and non-agriculture activities. The survey respondents were randomly selected to reflect rural (36.2 percent), semi-urban (16.8 percent) and urban population (47.0 percent). Electoral Participation & Civic Responsibility Ghana’s 1992 Constitution and the laws of the country generally provide a fair and non-discriminatory way of establishing citizenship rights. Voting is one of the fundamental civic rights of people 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 Electoral Commission (EC) completed its Biometric Voter Registration (BVR) exercise with an estimated14 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. The BVR was successfully executed in Jomoro going by the survey responses. Most respondents (98 percent) were registered, although some of those who registered in the BVR did not necessarily intend to vote. Chart 1 shows the percentages of the male and female population who wished to vote. 84.4 percent of the females who registered in the BVR said they will vote, whereas 88.7% of the males said they will vote out of the 95.5 percent that registered. 2 Page Data Source: GenCED field survey, July 2012 An assessment of the population that voted in the 2008 election provides positive indication that if achieved, the number of both sexes who intend to vote in 2012 will exceed those who voted in the 2008 election as depicted in chart 2. Data Source: GenCED field survey, July 2012 Again, there’s a need 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. 36.1 percent of all respondents said they travelled outside the constituency at the time of the 2008 election. A sizeable number 21.3 percent were ineligible as they had not attained the voting age. 3 Chart 3 also provides an overview of citizen’s participation in the last district assembly election. It is quite encouraging in the context of Jomoro and survey Page respondents given the numbers that voted in the last District Assembly elections. The respondents who were unable to vote some said was because they had travel, were not interested etc. Traditionally, DA elections have often been poorly patronised due to the non-partisan nature. This is informative as a baseline data that will build into future. Data source: GenCED field survey, July 2012 The study sampled views from respondents regarding voting for a female parliamentarian. The majority were in favour of voting for a female parliamentarian (see chart 4). This view may be informed by the performance of the current Member of Parliament (MP) who is a woman. Data source: GenCED field survey, July 2012 4 Page Party affiliation and political activity The two dominant political traditions i.e. the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) and the majority opposition group, the New Patriotic Party (NPP) enjoy high popularity among the sample group. This confirms the political preference of the general population as the Presidential candidates for the NDC and NPP performed well in the 2008 election. Data source: GenCED field survey, July 2012 Other political parties are playing catch up, but have the opportunity to appeal to the 24.9 percent of respondents who do not belong to any political party. This may depend on how effectively the parties are able to engage and sell their ideas to win support of so-called “floating voters.” 56 percent of those who belong to a political party play an active part in their party’s activities while some 43.7 percent were inactive. The men are more politically active compared to the women. Close to 49 percent of the male respondents had participated in political meetings compared to 42 percent for female respondents. Generally, 50.3 percent of the respondents have no clue what a political manifesto is, although political parties undertake some education on their political manifestos. It appears the mode/methods of educating the community on manifestos have been ineffective. The men were also more informed on their political party’s manifestos in comparison to the women as depicted in chart 6. 5 Page Data source: GenCED field survey, July 2012 Close to 60 percent of those interviewed said they had no knowledge of their party’s ideology (see chart 6). It was not the primary reason for belonging to a political party. Some of the reasons espoused are; it is the party of my family (27.6 percent), and I don’t have a specific reason for my choice (22.4 percent). Only a few (16.4 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 has generally been weak, 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 survey, 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 6 meeting of the assembly. They are also enjoined to consult the electorate on issues to Page 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 makes it mandatory for 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 Jomoro? The survey indicates weak 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.