Women's Organizing and Citizenship in Ghana

Women's Organizing in Ghana

• Women's ability to organize for collective action, influence policy changes, and enjoy citizenship rights are interconnected.
• Women's organizing in Ghana has a long history, dating back to the colonial period, with initial efforts to establish associations promoting women's interests.

Post-Independence Period

• Two national organizations were formed in the post-independence period, which later merged to form the National Council of Ghana Women.
• The National Council was an integral part of the Convention Peoples Party (CPP) but was disbanded when the government was overthrown in 1966.

1966-1980s

• A gap in national organizing occurred, with local women's welfare groups emerging in the absence of a national organization.
• In the early 1980s, political conditions led to the establishment of new national women's organizations, including the Federation of Ghana Women and the 31st December Women's Movement (DWM).

1980s-1990s

• The DWM, led by Mrs. Rawlings, dominated the women's organizing landscape, enjoying close relations with state institutions and donor agencies.
• Independent women's organizations were squeezed out of the public arena and alienated from the national machinery for women, the National Council on Women and Development (NCWD).

Challenges to Women's Organizing

• Political instability, repression of mass movements, and economic liberalization have damaged efforts to build a strong civil society base for women.
• Close to 30 years of economic liberalization have created the need for small, quick-response organizing for effective participation in policy dialogue.
• NGO-ization has been identified as a key challenge facing women's movements globally since the 1990s, characterized by a lack of mass base, connection, and accountability, and donor dependence.

Consequences of NGO-ization

• NGO-ization has led to the substitution of NGOs for civil society and mass movements, and a short-term, project-based approach that favors magic bullets over long-range, broad agendas for women's rights and gender equality.
• Three decades of NGO-ization have been identified as a key factor in the lack of progress on women's rights worldwide, as NGOs lack the capacity for sustained change and struggle to deal with the state and powerful forces on a footing of strength.