Accra — An Official of Women in Law and Development (WiLDAF), Bernice Sam has described the 2007 budget allocation of 0.2 percent of total budget given to the Ministry of Women and Children's Affairs (MOWAC) as very low.

Speaking at a Public Forum Organised by the Integrated Social Development Centre (ISODEC) on the 2007 budget statement presented recently to Parliament by the Minister for Finance and Economic Planning, Ms. Sam said taking into consideration the work load lined up for the Women's ministry, the amount is woefully inadequate.

To carry out its projects for 2007, the ministry has been allocated an amount of 34 billion cedis.

This is in sharp contrast to other ministries that were allocated trillions of cedis.

The Ministry of Education Science and Sports got the largest chunk of the national cake of ¢11.3 trillion to beat Ministry of Health which followed with ¢5.637 trillion.

Ministry of Transportation, ¢3,852,574 , Ministry of Local Government Rural Development and Environment, ¢1,196,327 million, Ministry of Agriculture ¢1,206,050 million ,Ministry of Water Resources, Works and Housing, ¢1,869,568 million, and Ministry of Defense, ¢1,059,337 million, Others are Common Fund Administrator ¢1,458,501 million, Ministry of Interior ¢1,479,510 million, Energy Ministry, ¢956,690 million, Ministry of Finance and Economic planning, ¢891,890 million, Ministry of Trade Industry and PSI, ¢758,519 million, Ministry Of Lands Forestry and Mines, ¢720,617 million , Office of Government Machinery, ¢572,394 million and Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Regional Cooperation and NEPAD, ¢678,956 million among others.

According to Bernice Sam, what is more serious about the issue is that while the allocation is small, the women's ministry is expected to carry out a lot of activities listed by the Finance Minister which the money cannot support.

MOWAC is expected in 2007 to among others conduct a Gender Needs Assessment of relevant Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) and develop Sector and District Gender Planning and Budgeting Guidelines/Manuals and Training Modules.

MDAs will also be trained to mainstream gender and child-related cross-cutting issues into their Medium Term Development Plans.The Ministry will also collaborate with the Ghana Statistical Service to collect sex-disaggregated data in all districts and train MDAs on gender data analysis and planning.

The data collection instruments developed will serve as essential tools for improving the disaggregate data during the proposed National Population Census by the Ghana Statistical Service (GSS) in 2010.

The 2007 budget expects MOWAC to implement the African Development Bank/MOWAC Gender Capacity Building Project at the District level. Under this project, the capacities will be built in District Gender Profile preparation, sex-disaggregated data collection, and Gender policy analysis.

The objective is to assist government to address core poverty and vulnerability issues of women in a more effective and results-driven manner, continue the dissemination of Government Policies and programmes particularly at District and Community levels with the objective of increasing participation in the implementation of GPRS II and contributing towards the achievements of the MDGs.

It will also build stronger Gender policy implementation partnership with MDAs and Development Partners to achieve planned results and also organize specific activities for women's participation in "GHANA AT 50" celebration including an International seminar for Ghanaian Women in the Diaspora.

On the economic empowerment of women, especially in rural job creation to increase incomes, the budget said MOWAC will again collaborate with Micro Finance and Small Loans Centre (MASLOC) to extend Micro-credit to over 10,000 women engaged in economically viable ventures with increasing job creation multiplier effect.

The targeted women will be trained in financial management skills and other good business practices that will increase their incomes and the recovery rate of their loans.

The Women's Ministry will also start the construction of a new office accommodation to house its two newly created departments, collaborate with National Development Planning Commission and the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning to undertake gender budgeting across all sectors and also for District Assemblies to enhance Government efforts at addressing critical issues relating to providing safety nets for the rural poor and marginalized, many of whom are women and children.

"All these activities are aimed at increasing the socio-economic status of women in Ghana and helping Government achieve the Development Policy Targets of GPRS II and the critical areas of the Millennium Development Goals," the budget said.

Ms. Sam believes the women's Ministry deserves more. "Do we walk the political talk? She asked.

According to her, Ghana has signed and ratified international and regional conventions that protect the rights of women such as the UN Convention for the Elimination of All forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) and as such government is obliged do give the women's ministry more money to carry out its activities.

She also said affirmative action is needed to encourage more women to take up political positions as well as other top national jobs.

But not all the men at the meeting agreed with Ms. Sam.

A male participant at he meeting asked Ms. Sam whether the funds allocated to the other ministries did not cover women as well.

Condemning affirmative action, this participant said women should occupy positions by virtue of merit and not necessarily by their biological features.

The President of the Legon Economic Students Society (LESS) Adu Owusu Sarkodie said sometimes women themselves shy away from the political offices and other offices of authority.

But Raymon Ayine held a different view, "If women are given the chance, they have what it takes to make decisions work," he said.