Traditional Women Leadership (Pognamine) - Auslandsbüro Ghana
Workshop
Details
Workshop On Traditional Women Leadership (Pognamine) In The Upper West Region
The core business of the Centre for Indigenous Knowledge & Organisational Development (CIKOD) is to promote the integration of indigenous institutions and their knowledge systems into mainstream development interventions. The rationale behind this is CIKOD’s belief that the rural poor are best represented by their indigenous institutions. They have more trust in them because they understand them and can always rely on them as compared to the modern institutions like political parties, government officials and political leaders which they either do not understand or have little control over.
In the light of this, CIKOD has been engaged in providing organizational development support the Chiefs and Traditional Women Leaders in the Upper West Region as the mobilizers of rural communities to address rural poverty in the region. The problem is that the institution of “Pognaa” which is the female counterpart of the chief, although exists, is virtually invisible. Whenever there is a gathering of traditional authorities the “Pognabe” are usually left out. Their role is more functional than political as compared to the male counterparts. They are hardly consulted by the male chiefs when taking decisions. Yet they have the potential to represent the voices of women and children in the community – similar to roles played by queens in southern Ghana. For these reasons CIKOD, as part of its gender strategy, has been experimenting with the idea of encouraging the various traditional councils in the UWR to recognise and institutionalise the “pognaa” institution and give it some political authority in addition to the functional roles they already play. This has been partially achieved in Loho where the first pognaa was officially recognised and outdoored by the traditional council in 2006. CIKOD would want to see this success story replicated all over the Upper West Region. However, there are questions that have been raised at various quarters about possible dangers in doing this. For example:
- What criteria would the different Traditional councils use in the nomination and installation of the Pognabe?
- How much political authority should be given to the Pognabe?
- Is there not a danger of power struggles between chiefs and their Pognabe?
- What exact roles should chiefs confer on the Pognabe?
- How will the activities of the Pognaa be funded?
The purpose of the study was to collect perceptions about the relevance of the pognaa institution, expected roles (political, functional, etc), and the preferred criteria for nomination, installation and operationalization of the institution.
CIKOD therefore commissioned University for Development Studies who successfully carried out the study.
In order to present the results of this study, CIKOD and KAS are organizing a day’s workshop for the Upper West Regional House of Chiefs to present the findings for validation and action planning.
GOAL OF THE WORKSHOP
The main objective of the workshop is to present the findings of the study on the perceptions of the people of Upper West regarding the institution of traditional female leadership and its relevance in modern times and their formal integration into the Traditional Councils.
EXPECTED OUTPUTS
At the end of the workshop the following concrete outputs are expected:
- A workshop report outlining the views of different stakeholders that have been validated by the UWRHC.
- A Communiqué on practical steps to take for the opreationalization of the traditional women leadership institution within the Traditional Councils.
Participants to the workshop would be members of the Upper West Regional House of Chiefs.
VENUE AND DATE
The workshop will take place at the In-service Training Centre in Wa
on Thursday 6th to 8th May 2009.
For more information:
CIKOD
Mr. Bern Guri
Executive Director
+233- (0)244 32 77 98
KAS
Isaac Owusu-Mensah
Snr. Programme Officer
+233 (0)244 32 90 47
Partner
