Wa assembly to renovate Wa Naa's palace

ACP-EU Ministerial Committee meeting opens on Thursday

Nana Konadu calls for human resource improvement

Wa (Upper West), 10^th November 99

The Wa district assembly has voted 12.5 million cedis to the Ghana Museums and Monuments Board to rehabilitate the Wa Naa's palace.

The palace which is one of the major tourist attractions in the region has been abandoned for nearly two years because there is no immediate replacement for Wa Naa Momori Bondiri the second who died in January 1998.

Under the Wala customs, nobody except a care-taker can occupy any rooms in the palace when the chief dies. This has therefore led to the neglect of the palace and has started to deteriorate.

Speaking to the GNA in an interview at Wa on Wednesday, Alhaji Ali Seidu Pelpuo, Wa district chief executive explained that even though a case involving a replacement is still in court there is the need to maintain the palace.

He said the funds for the renovation had to be released by the assembly to avert an clash among the various 'gates' of the paramountcy who are all claiming ownership of the palace and wanted to maintain it.

Alhaji Pelpuo said it is only the "Salangnas" who have the right to maintain the palace and therefore called on the Ghana Museums and Monuments Board to consult them before starting the renovation exercise.

Alhaji Pelpuo said the absence of a paramount chief is militating against the development of the Wala traditional area and appealed to all contestants to the skin to resolve their differences to enhance development of the area.

The DCE said land and ethnic disputes are emerging in the traditional area of late due to the absence of a chief and called on all the stakeholders to do away with rancour and bitterness.

He called on them to adopt measures that would speed up the installation of a new paramount chief so that the palace will be fully utilised.

" It will be useless for us to pump so much money to maintain the palace if there is nobody to occupy it" he explained.

Mr. Jude Armstrong Goo, registrar of the Wala traditional council said the absence of a paramount chief has brought everything in the traditional area to a standstill and appealed to the feuding factions to strike a compromise to enable them to elect a new chief.

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Accra (Greater Accra), 10^th November 99

Ghana will host the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP)-European Union (EU) Development Finance Co-operation Ministerial Committee Meeting from Thursday to Saturday in Accra.

A press release by the ACP-EU secretariat in Accra on Wednesday said the meeting will among others discuss a number of issues including the debt problem, private sector role in the development process and measures to speed up the implementation of projects approved for financing under the convention.

The meeting is expected to adopt a declaration which could be incorporated in the framework of the Successor Agreement to the Lome IV Convention, the release added.

The Development Finance Committee was established by the ACP-EU Council of Ministers to assist in the monitoring and evaluation of programmes and projects being financed under Lome IV. Ghana is the current chairman of the committee.

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Accra (Greater Accra), 10^th November 99

The First Lady, Nana Konadu Agyeman Rawlings on Wednesday called for hard work and improvement of the human resource base on the country.

She condemned stereotyping of education which, she said, continues to worsen the plight of people, especially women.

The First Lady was speaking at the opening of two-day national consensus building forum in preparation for the sixth African Regional Meeting.

The meeting, scheduled for November 22 to 27, 1999 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, will discuss the integration of measures to prevent and eliminate violence against women and trafficking in women and other women-related issues.

Nana Konadu observed that media organisations continue to advertise products and programmes that continue to "condition the people to believe that those are the only roles for women."

She appealed to the Association of Women Broadcasters and other women media institutions to help monitor and reverse advertisements and programmes that keep women in stereotype positions.

Nana Konadu noted that the achievement of equality and the fight against all forms of discrimination against women would not be easy saying "changing the mentality of society is not easy."

Dr Mary Grant, Member of the Council of State who presided, called for review of the intestate succession law to give recognition to legal and recognised wives and children.

Dr Robert Dodoo, Head of the Civil Service, urged the Public Services Commission to ensure that public institutions implement gender sensitive programmes.

He said a number of measures have been taken to promote equal opportunities and rights of women in the civil service.

These include career development of women already in the service, creation of women's desk at the Head of Civil Service, revival of Civil Service Ladies Clubs, review of code of conduct to protect women's rights and opportunities in workplace and recruitment and promotion based on merit, fairness and equality.

Dr Dodoo stressed the need for the Ministry of Finance to allocate more funds to enable ministries, agencies and departments to implement gender sensitive and sector plans.

Dr. Moses Mukasa, UNFPA representative, said outmoded traditional practices did not allow women and children to exercise their choices in terms of decision making on health, education, childbirth and marriage.

Dr. Mukasa said these are only done by adult males adding that "today human rights recognises that all human beings have the same rights and that women are free to make their own choices."

He said harmful traditional practices such as female genital mutilation and domestic violence is so much rooted in tradition in some countries that it is impossible to erase it from the minds of people.

He called on policy makers to allow girls the same legal and economic freedoms as boys.

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