Monday, March 31, 2008
Women asked to fight for empowerment
A news article in which Hajia Alima Mahama, the Minister for Women and Children's affairs stresses women's fight for empowerment.
Thursday, March 27, 2008
Improving Women’s access to Justice-
Improving Women’s access to Justice-
Relevance of Alternative Dispute Resolution
Daily Graphic,
Salome Donkor
The issue of three ‘royal’ widows of Mo who have undergone widowhood rites for more than nine years as a result of a feud between three gates of the Mo Stool, which has been pending before the Brong Ahafo Regional House of Chiefs for nine years, continues to draw condemnation from human rights advocates.
The Member of Parliament (MP) for Kintampo North, Mr Stephen Kunsu, reportedly described the practice being perpetrated in the name of culture, as inhuman and said it had brought to the fore the need for negative aspects of the country’s culture to be discarded.
Despite constitutional provisions that guarantee the rights of men, women and children, a number of women continue to be falsely accused and incarcerated in “witches’ camps” or “prayer camps” where they are held to “deliver” them of evil spirits.
These seem to give credence to the assertion that women as daughters, mothers and wives face several challenges in their efforts to access justice in both rural and urban areas due to a number of factors such as illiteracy and poverty.
The Women in Law and Development in
This, the organisation says, is in relation to matters concerning domestic violence, property acquired with a partner or entitlement due to inheritance, access and control to land or relating to a third party seeking maintenance, custody or paternity of a child. Within the government’s development agenda and various international agreements, one critical factor that requires consideration is women’s access to justice.
According to WiLDAF, under the country’s plural legal system where both customary and statutory laws work side by side to offer flexibility and individual choice, the ordinary woman is confused because she is often unsure which system of justice she should pursue. For a woman in the rural area, her best option is to use the customary legal system, which in most cases is “patently patriarchal and often not in her favour”. Should she choose the state legal system, she is confronted with challenges of physical access to a court of law and low economic power to hire the services of a legal practitioner.
Access to justice has many components and WiLDAF talks about three. The first is access to government or civil society sponsored legal aid services, which include access to information about legal rights and responsibilities, legal counselling, advice and representation, physical access to structures and mechanisms and the application of constitutional provisions on human rights and legislation to ensure justice for all manner of persons, irrespective of their social, political, economic or cultural standing.
To deliberate on the challenges associated with women’s access to justice, WiLDAF
Linked to these discussions, the dialogues will also focus on how women’s access to justice affects their participation in the country’s development process, and focus on women as a special group because of the challenges that confront them in their daily quest for justice in one conflict or the other.
To critically examine a number of important concerns within the country’s legal system, presentations by the panellists at the forum in Accra touched on topics including women seeking State Legal Aid Services: Successes and challenges; the role of Muslim and Christian religions in women’s access to justice; promoting Alternative Dispute Resolution in Ghana - Implications for women’s access to justice and the “Police Service Ensuring Women have Access to Justice, Gains and Challenges”.
Deliberating on the topics, the issue of settling disputes amicably at the community level with the involvement of Female Traditional Leaders (FTL) to safeguard the interest of women, cropped up and that also led to the essence of setting up Community Mediation Centres (CMCs) in parts of the country.
A write-up on CMCs states that they provide a platform where individuals or groups in dispute could resolve the dispute with the assistance of a trained third party neutral, referred as the Mediator.
The CMC is the initiative of the Legal Aid Scheme, with support from the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). The centres handle civil cases such as tenancy issues, employment disputes, family conflicts, maintenance and custody of children and such minor criminal cases that are permitted under the law such as assaults, acts tending to disturb peace, neglect of dependants and cases referred by the police, the courts and other social service providers.
The objective of the CMCs is to offer an alternative to adversarial, cumbersome and expensive means of conflict resolution to improve access to justice for all people within the community and to create awareness about mediation centres as a preferred alternative to the centres.
All these are geared towards promoting peaceful co-existence among members of the community, facilitating communication between those engaged in dispute and providing dispute resolution centres in the communities in order to offer the platform for those engaged in dispute to create their own solutions to their differences.
Dwelling more on promoting Alternative Dispute Resolution in
He explained that the problem with the traditional system of justice is that it operates in a society that is patriarchy controlled while the normal legal system is slow and complex and discourages women, especially those in the rural areas, from seeking justice under the system.
He said the next alternative is to widen the scope of Alternative Dispute Resolution and give gender training to the adjudicators to make them effective in promoting women’s access to justice.
The participants, however, cautioned that criminal cases, such as rape, defilement and incest are not to be dealt with under the traditional dispute resolution system but by the law courts.
The non-governmental organisations should help in training traditional leaders to appreciate the need not to mediate in such cases. They also called for the empowerment of women financially to address concerns that are raised by some family members in relation to the upkeep of children when a spouse is convicted for a criminal offence.They also called for an end to trial by ordeal under the traditional mediation scheme since it infringes on the fundamental human rights of victims.
The Ameer of the Ahmadiyya Mission, Maulvi A. Wahab Adam, shared his thoughts on Islam’s attitude towards women’s rights and the role of the Muslim religion in women’s access to justice in an address read on his behalf by Amtush Shakoor Karim, a lecturer at the
He made reference to Safiah, who was accused of adultery by a
He said although he made a demand on all Muslim scholars and jurists in Ghana and across the world to cite one single verse of the Holy Qur’an to support their contention, since 2002, not a single verse had been cited from the Holy Qur’an to substantiate that claim until today and questioned the basis upon which Safiah was sentenced to death by stoning in the name of Islam.
He maintained that if the claim was true then justice demanded that the man who impregnated Safiah should also be stoned to death, but ironically, there was complete silence on that aspect of the prescribed punishment.
He stressed that severe sanctions, including suspension from the community, and where necessary, ex-communication await intransigent men and women.
In her presentation, the Queen of Juansa, Nana Afrakoma Boatemma, who touched on some challenges facing women who seek redress to disputes under the customary law, said in family related cases, the customary process for the resolution of such disputes are mediation and arbitration.
She said considering the cost of accessing the courts, especially for women, most of whom are poor and not well educated, there is the need to strengthen the ability of traditional authorities and sharpen their skills in dispute settlement to enable them mediate effectively in such matters, and generate their interest in such cases as well as to make their views heard.
In her presentation, Chief Superintendent (Mrs) Jessie Borquaye, Accra Regional Co-ordinator of the Domestic Violence and Victims Support Unit (DOVVSU) of the Ghana Police Service said the unit seeks, through its outreach programmes, to prevent crimes against women by educating them on their rights, what constitutes domestic violence, how to identify potential perpetrators and where to locate DOVVSU .
She said one major challenge facing the unit is that some women who report cases at against their husbands turn round to beg for their release and this happens when especially, family or church elders meet and the women are compensated and also advised to forgive the men for the sake of their children.
Tuesday, March 25, 2008
Women urged to participate in Local Governance
Women urged to participate in Local Governance
Daily Graphic, Tuesday, March 25, 2008. Page 11 (Women’s World)
Moses Dotsey Aklorbortu, Takoradi
Daily Graphic, Tuesday, March 25, 2008. Page 11 (Women’s World)
Moses Dotsey Aklorbortu, Takoradi
The Co-ordinator of Local Governance for German Development Services, (DED), Ms Annette Turman, has urged queens and other female traditional leaders to collaborate with district assembly members to ensure the rapid development of their respective communities.
She said queens must work together with assembly members to present a united front and develop relevant programmes and projects to meets the needs and aspirations of the people. “Today, women across the country are articulating the needs of their people and making strides to ensure that their interests and aspirations are met,” said Ms Turman.
She was speaking at a two-day workshop for queens drawn from all parts of the Western region, which had the theme, “Increasing Women’s Participation in Local Governance,” and was sponsored by DED, DANIDA, the Western Regional Coordinating Council, as well as the Ministry of Local Government an Rural Development. She said, since they were an embodiment of motherhood, queens needed to play crucial roles in decision-making at the local level to promote the growth and development of women, children and vulnerable groups in the communities.
Ms Turman said there was no doubt that women, especially traditional rules, had a vital role to play in the country’s socio-economic development, as well as the transformation of the rural economy. She said since queens were leaders, there was the need to educated and empower them with the needed skills to enable them reach out to their people and discharge their responsibilities effectively.
Ms Turman explained that for development to be made more relevant to the people, the grass roots [approach] should be included in the planning and implementation processes so that they could make the necessary input. She urged the participants to educate their people in their socio-economic and political rights. Ms Turman said working together with the local government administrators would not only ensure collective decision-making but also ensure probity and accountability.
The Western Regional Economic Planner, Mrs Olivia Opoku-Adoma, said apart from being partners in development, the queens also had a significant roles to play in inculcating moral values in the youth and expressed the hope that the workshop would provide the participants with knowledge that would benefit their communities. Mrs Opoku-Adoma, who is also the Regional Focal Person on HIV/AIDS, said the smooth implementation of projects greatly depended on how well the grass roots appreciated such programmes.
Thursday, March 20, 2008
To achieve gender equality, target men
To achieve gender equality, target men
The Ghanaian Times,
Yela Awunyo-Akaba –Through My Looking Glass
Our laws say women and men are equal but in reality, several disparities exist in the equitable distribution of resources and opportunities. As we work towards eliminating all forms of gender based discrimination, we’re apt to ignore the underlying reasons that make men perpetrators of abuse against females.
Sure, we have the Domestic Violence [Law] and [have] established DOVVSU but more incidents of rape, incest, wife beatings and other forms of harassment make their way into the news daily. If trends in the West with stricter enforcement of human rights laws can service as a yardstick, we are losing this war.
Few of our gender initiatives focus on men as the engine of changes even though our male dominated society offers the enabling environment allowing all forms of discrimination to thrive. Presently in Ghana, large proportion of women from all socio-economic backgrounds remain economically dependent on their male partners and most legislative decisions and social norms are crafted by male political, religious and traditional leaders.
In recognition that it’s still mainly a man’s world, how should we be navigating the struggles to level the playing field for both men and women? We’ve burnt our bras to signal an end to traditional restrictions, campaigned for equal pay, contraception and reproductive rights and criminalised abusive behaviour successfully. It wil be diffucltu to find too may Ghanaian men who can publicly win a debate justifying biases against women. But still the prejudices abound despite all the noise we make about it.
The perpetrators have taken their activities underground and unless activists change their strategies, we will make no further progress. It seems our widespread vilification of men as the cause of women’s woes has produced a generation of young men who will not voice any contrary views about female empowerment for fear of being labelled bigots.
I realised that the male students in my Gender and Health class were reluctant to rock the boat during our class discussions. They expressed their outrage about the existing traditional practices such as female genital mutilation/cutting (FGM), the trokosi system, child marriage and harmful widowhood rites. Missing in their opinions however was the male perspective on abuse, power sharing within marriages and bridging the gender divide.
Since I cannot understand why a man will beat a woman he loves or why he would be reluctant to succeed encourage his wife to succeed in her career, I would appreciate some candour from our men. The debate should not be skewed to represent what the women want but what men should have the courage to express their true opinions about female empowerment.
Though a woman, I believe it is unfair that men have limited rights to their unborn child and cannot override medically sanctioned abortion if the woman favours one. Our courts are more likely to offer an ex-wife primary custody of a child and we more easily dismiss reports of spousal abuse committed by wives.
Even if such situations remain in the minority, the absence of activists urging all of us to consider, the situation from the male point of view leaves our gender policies and positions seriously flawed. The cracks show up because our mothers still feel unable to leave an abusive relationship even when social support is available. Career women are more likely than men to be single, divorced or childless? The rising rates of violence against women also tell us something is wrong with our action plan.
The law to punish perpetrators have been tightened and advocacy efforts have increased awareness within the general population. The main method used to stop the violence against women and children is criminal prosecution and incarceration. While it is necessary to punish wrong doing especially when it violates others’ human rights, the statistics should tell us the status quo is not working.
All the men who perpetrate any form of abuse were once innocent babies incapable of hurting a fly. Along the way, they morphed into hulks capable of harming the women and children in their lives. Why have we not clamped down on the mothers who excuse every form of unruly behaviour in their sons with the pet phrase, “boys will be boys”? Isn’t it mothers who hold their little girls and allow their genital parts to be mutilated and together their husband give their young girls away in early marriages?
Many of these gender initiatives that have made any headway enjoyed the approval of the men at the helm of affairs. Even before the trokosi system was outlawed, advocates who were often male held extensive discussions with fetish priests. They sought to sensitize the priests to the detrimental effects of enslaving girls and persuaded them to accept alternate forms of compensation. This led to series of consultations with the deities and painstaking back and forth dialoguing before the priest agreed to release their slaves.
The increased reportage of FGM cases in northern
If we get past out opinion that most men are Neanderthals incapable of changing their ways, we can then begin to solicit their views to help end all forms of discrimination against women. It is possible that because of the socialisation our men, we have to try to effect behaviour change using other means than aggressive confrontation? It is possible if we begin to look at abuse as a crime that affects even the perpetrators, we can encourage men to seek help instead of concealing their weaknesses?
Whenever abuse or violence occurs within a relationship or family, its far reaching repercussions affect all of is as a society. We can choose outright condemnation or include male participation as a key component in our initiatives for change.
Making aid responsive to gender needs-The EC/UN Partnership
Making aid responsive to gender needs-The EC/UN Partnership
Daily Graphic, Thursday, March 20, 2008. Page 17 (Women’s World)
Salome Donkor
Daily Graphic, Thursday, March 20, 2008. Page 17 (Women’s World)
Salome Donkor
It is widely acknowledged that gender equality is not only crucial in itself but is a fundamental human right and a question of social justice. The United Nations Fund for Women (UNIFEM) recognises that women will only benefit from the new aid architecture if gender equality is recognised as a key component of poverty reduction and national development.
Evidence however shows that gender equality has not fared well in the broader aid effectiveness agenda. The Head of Delegation of the European Commission (EC) to Ghana, Mr Filiberto Ceriani, at the launch of an EC/UN Partnership on Gender Equality for Development and Peace in Accra recently maintained that gender inequalities are still ingrained in the cultural, social and political systems of many countries.
To make national development agenda responsive to gender parity and women’s needs and to push forward the agenda of the new aid architecture, the last five years have been marked by a number of global initiatives and commitment to improve on the use of aid in developing economies and ensure that increased levels of aid effectively address today’s development challenges.
Mention could be made of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) that commit developed and developing countries to meeting the needs of the word’s poorest by 2015 and the Monetary Consensus that established ownership, alignment and harmonisation in development assistance.
Furthermore the 2004 Marrakech Roundtable on Managing for Development Results that established aid effectiveness and increases in its volume and the most recently adopted Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness in March 2005, are both geared towards aid effectiveness.
The link between these commitments and the visionary promises made by countries to advance gender equality in the Beijing Platform for Action (BPFA), the Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) and the Millennium Development Goals (MDG) and Security Council Resolution 1325 needs to be clarified and strengthened.
The ten-year review of the BPFA and the five-year review of Resolution 1325 affirmed that commitments to gender equality were not matched by concerted or consistent implementation or by financial support through official development assistance or government budgets.
To address these challenges and to ensure that gender equality is at the heart of all development policy to achieve aid effectiveness has resulted in a landmark initiative that has brought together the EC, UNIFEM and the International Training Centre of the International Labour Organisation (ILO), in the EC/UN Partnership on Gender Equality for Development and Peace.
Ghana is one of the 12 countries chosen to pilot the EC/UN Partnership. The other countries are Cameroon, The Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Ghana, Honduras, Indonesia, Kyrgyzstan, Napal, Nicaragua, Papau New Guinea, Suriname and the Ukraine.
The initiative involves the identification of strategies to support and strengthen national planning processes and consultations on gender and aid effectiveness in 12 countries, with representatives from government, national women’s machineries, NGOs, EC delegations and multilateral organisations, including UN Country Teams.
In Ghana, the Partnership is also to expand capacities of gender equality advocates and experts to promote greater responsiveness to gender equality in aid effectiveness processes, in the lead up to and following the 2008 Ghana High-level Forum on Aid Effectiveness.
It is being implemented in response to the International Donor Community’s new “Development Consensus” that seeks to address aid effectiveness and gender equality in the country’s national development planning and implementation process.
The project which is a follow-up to a crucial conference that was jointly organised by the EU/UNIFEM in November 2005, aims at mainstreaming gender parity issues and other pro-poor interventions in the national development framework to address the plight of women and the “vulnerable” in society.
The launch of the programme in Ghana was also used to present a mapping study by the EC/UN Partnership on Gender Equality for peace and Development.
The study looked at the status of women and gender equality in Ghana, aid to Ghana, aid modalities, alignment, ownership, harmonisation, managing for results and mutual accountability.
The report of the study, which was presented by Ms Afua Ansre, National Programme Co-ordinator of UNIFEM, called on the government and donors to ensure that the Ghana Joint Assistance Strategy, which is to operate from 2007-2010, presents an example of how harmonisation might work for gender equality.
It also urged the government to increase support to the Ministry of Women and Children’s Affairs and called on donors to revitalise their gender mainstreaming approached to ensure that gender is not disappearing from projects and sector and budget programmes.
The various speakers emphasised that making aid responsive to gender needs in responsive budgeting, would help governments to probe into whether men and women fared differently under existing revenue and expenditure patterns.
This they maintained, will provide the government the opportunity to understand and appreciate how various social groups responded differently to development policy change over time.
The Chief Advisor to the President, Mrs Mary Chinery-Hesse, who launched the programme, underlined the need for such a mapping study to take into account both the paid and unpaid economic contributions of women.
She mentioned that the work of women within the household or community, such us the upbringing of children, nursing the sick and elderly, managing household resources and consumption, protecting the environment should be acknowledged in addition to those activities that are ultimately reflect in market transaction which tend to be captured by national statistics.
The importance of ensuring that the new aid modalities empower women, by making gender equality a core value and goal at all levels of development co-operation, is significant and it is important that gender equality and women’s empowerment will be the basis for greater co-ordination among donors and increased ownership of development processes by national governments.
Let’s involve Women in Conflict resolution-Attafuah
Let’s involve Women in Conflict resolution-Attafuah
Daily Graphic,
Rebecca Quaicoe Duho
The Executive Director of the Justice and Human Rights Institute, Dr. Ken Attafuah, has stated that the social role of women as good negotiators in times of conflicts has been undermined through the negative effects of some cultural and traditional practices. He said in some communities in
According to him since women suffer the most when they are conflicts such as tribal or civil wars, involving them in the negotiations for peace, most often helps to arrive at a lasting solution to such crises.
Dr. Attafuah, who made the statement at a day’s seminar to mark this year’s International Women’s Day (IWD) in
The seminar, organised by the Department of Women, which is under the Ministry of Women and Children’s Affairs, brought together women’s groups, some members of the international communities and non-governmental organisations who deliberated on the global theme, “Investing in women and girls.”
He said when women were involved in finding solutions to such problems, they often came with compromising positions that suited both parties better.
Dr. Attafuah, who was speaking on the topic, “Investing in protecting the rights of women and girls in
He said although gender equality had been identified as an essential tool for development in a nation, 64 per cent of the world’s illiterate population had been identified to be women and that, according to him, was a negative factor for the realisation of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).
Dr. Attafuah, who is also the former Executive Secretary of the Commission for Human Rights and Justice (CHRAJ), said issues of gender equality must be factored into the nation’s development framework to ensure that it benefited women and girls.
He advised parents not to exploit their daughters for financial gains and said that led to the betrothal of girl below 18 to older men thereby making such girls suffer mental and psychological trauma.
An International Gender Consultant, Ms Jane Kwawu, spoke on the topic, “Investing in eliminating inequalities faced by women and girls, a pathway to
She said the most important aspect of investing in women and girls was making finance available to educated the girl-child, and added that this would mean making a conscious investment in girls for them to become women of substance to contribute to the development of the nation’s economy.
The Minister for Women and Children’s Affairs, Hajia Alima Mahama, said investing in women and girls had a multiplying effect for a nation’s development, stressing that government would continue to support efforts that promote both the economic and social emancipation of women and girls, through the provision of facilities, such as micro-credit finance and the promotion of health and girl-child education.
A member of the Committee of the Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), Mrs Dorcas Coker-Appiah, who also took the participants through “Investing in strengthening gender management systems in Ghana for development,” said there was need for a national gender policy document that would clearly spell out how to address gender inequalities in the country. She said for that to happen, MOWAC should be put in a position where it would be able to coordinate the activities of other ministries, departments and agencies to ensure that they mainstream gender in all their activities.
Tuesday, March 18, 2008
Select females for running mates
Select females for running mates
Daily Graphic,
Donald Ato Dapatem
The National Chef Imam, Sheikk Usman Nuhu Sharubutu, has added his voice to the call on the flag bearers of the various political parties to appoint qualified females as their running mates for this years’ elections.
He said the Muslim religion did not frown on women taking leading positions and roles in the governance of the country; therefore, he supported the idea of women taking active part and assuming the position for President or Vice-President of the country irrespective of that female’s religion.
Sheikh Sharubutu, who spoke through an interpreter, was sharing his views on the call by sections of society that it was time women took up positions as running mates to the flag bearers of the various political parties in the country.
Some popular females name that have come up include Hajia Alima Mahama, Ministry for Women and Children affairs; Mrs Oboshie Sai-Cofie, Minister for Information; Mrs. Betty Mould-Iddrisu, Director of Legal and Constitutional Affairs Division of the Commonwealth Secretariat and Mrs. Leonora Kyeremanteng.
When asked if he would endorse a women president or vice-president, he noted that currently, a lot of women had acquired great knowledge and training and were making great impact on lives of other women in society in general, therefore there should not be any objection to their taking up such responsibility.
He noted that the Islamic religion requires that people who want to assume leadership positions acquire adequate knowledge, and that if women aspiring to be president or vice-president are qualified, capable and endorsed by the majority of the people that should be alright. He stated that the Islamic religion considered someone first as a Muslim ahead of his or her gender.
One example of women who have acquired knowledge, experience and attained higher political positions, Sheikh Sharubutu mentioned Members of Parliament (MPs) and Ministers of State with specific mention of Hajia Mahama, who is a Muslim. He added that with the current democratic process, the person who would be chosen should be the choice of the people, adding, “You cannot assume a leadership position without the anointing of Allah.”
Woman beats up Husband …at arbitration
Woman beats up Husband …at arbitration
The Ghanaian Times,
Anita Nyarkoh
Official of the Domestic Violence Support Unit (DOVVSU) trying to settle a dispute between a husband and wife could not believe their ears when the man told them that he left home because his wife had been assaulting him. But as proceedings were going on to reconcile the, the wife, Yaa Serwaa, 38, slapped her husband (name withheld) twice compelling the DOVVSU officials to immediately arrest her while her husband was given a medical form to enable him attend hospital.
Disclosing this to the Times yesterday, Inspector Irene Oppong of the Unit said last Tuesday, Serwaa reported to DOVVSU that her husband had abandoned the family. Upon this, the husband was invited to report to respond to the accusation.
On Thursday, March 13, when the husband reported at the Unit, DOVVSU officials sat the couple down to arbitrate the matter.
After Serwaa had narrated her grievances, and her husband responded that her left home because he could not withstand the wife’s beatings, Serwaa allegedly slapped him twice on the cheek. As if it was not enough, she shouted in Akan; Yereko fie a, mebo wo asen sei which literally translates, “I will beat you more when we are going home.”
Narrating his ordeal to DOVVSU, the man said during the first fives years, his wife hit him anytime there was a misunderstanding over housekeeping. He said when her was involved in a car accident and had to use crutches, his wife would take his crutch form him and hit him with it when there was a misunderstanding.
He said fed up with the situation, he left the marriage home eight months ago to rent a house at Dansoman where his 20 year old daughter has been visiting him to collect money for the family upkeep. Asked why he had all the while not reported the matter to the police, he said it was because he thought his wife would change.
Saturday, March 15, 2008
ActionAid advances Women’s Empowerment
ActionAid advances Women’s Empowerment
Daily Graphic,
Salome Donkor
A major commitment of a number of governmental and non-governmental organisations and human rights advocacy groups is to design sustainable interventions to help bring about qualitative improvements in the lives of the people.
They do so by using the rights-based advocacy strategies to ensure that the different needs of various social groups; men and women, and particularly the most vulnerable groups in the society, especially women and children, are met.
One organisation that has made strides in this area by advancing women’s empowerment programmes is the ActionAid Ghana (AAG), which has worked mainly with the poor and vulnerable people in deprived communities in the country since the inception of its Country Programme in 1990, with the aim of ensuring food security and improving their livelihoods.
The key focus of attention of the operation of sector policies of AAG, an affiliate of ActionAid International (AAI), is in the areas of education, health and women’s rights. Its programmes are implemented using advocacy strategies designed to hold government and governmental agencies accountable to the communities.
Operating in collaboration with the Ministry of Women and Children’s Affairs, Ark Foundation, Abantu for Development and other civil society organisations in the main thematic areas, AAG works in six regions in the country, namely Greater Accra,
In each of the regions, AAG helps in building the capacity of people to strengthen their institutional capacities to implement effective strategies, focusing on small scale farmers, particularly women.
This is in view of the recognition that despite being the producers of food, women are said to have limited access to productive resources and majority of them remain below the poverty line.
Women’s rights activities recorded the highest expenditure for 2006 as against education since the inception of the Country Programme (CP) in 1990 and this was meant to promote women’s empowerment to address issues of inequalities affecting women, especially in the areas of leadership.
Briefing the Daily Graphic on the operations of the organisation over the years and strategies for the future, the country Director of AAG, Mrs Adwoa Kwateng-Kluvitse, said the advancement of women’s rights remained a key issue on the organisation’s agenda and that this was promoted through its community advocacy work with its related partners and community organisations.
She said in all these regions, women’s issues are taken on board through training programmes for community partners in the six regions to ensure that they were more sustainable.
Consequently, in 2006, AAG concentrated its work on neatly packaged priority themes of education, women’s rights and food rights, using various methodologies to assist communities to facilitate processes that would lead to their collective development. It also worked, to some extent, on HIV/AIDS and in human security in conflict and emergency situations.
Mrs Kwateng-Kluvitse said it was important that women knew their rights and demanded that what was enshrined in the country’s Constitution was implemented to safeguard their rights.
As part of its work on women’s rights, AAG has been working closely with individual women and women’s networks to encourage women to contest in elections. A significant proportion of the organisation’s support to women involved getting them to see themselves as worthy of public decision making positions.
Mrs Kwateng-Kluvitse touched on some negative traditional practices and mentioned the issue of witches camps that operated in some parts of the country. She described the issue as difficult and complex and said the underpinning power dynamics of the problem needed to be looked at, by examining the expressed needs of women and children in these camps, and drawing up relevant interventions to save them, considering the fact that some of them did not want to go back home.
In the same vein, AAG organises annual Girls Camp, participated in by young girls from all the regions for 10 days, to expose them to women mentors, including doctors, lawyers, broadcasters, nurses and other professionals, to inspire them to aspire to greater heights and make them focus well academically.
The camp had been running for the past five years and every year 100 participants are assembled at the
Similarly, in the Upper East Region, a local partner of AAG also trained 20 women in bread baking and cloth weaving and provided them with ovens, weavers and an amount of GH¢60 each to start their new businesses.
She said through education and enlightenment, the roles of queens were being modernised and given the value that they deserved. In that respect, AAG has also been able to involve queens in the Greater Accra Region in alternative dispute resolution (ADR) mechanisms after the system was first launched at Mayera, near Nsawan, last year, adding that the impact had been positive with the courts getting some people to resort to ADR.
As part of its accountability process, AAG began to adopt an honest, regular and qualitative process of sharing and learning encouraged at all levels, thereby enhancing transparency and mutual respect.
She said the organisation was willing to open itself up to its beneficiary communities and consequently, Accountability Notice Boards had been erected in the communities to display and make transparent the work the organisation had been doing, especially how funds raised were used, with an avenue being created for feedback.
According to the Country Director, ActionAid
She said these programme had helped to strengthen their stature and encouraged them to overcome the high level of stigmatisation.
Since women and children are disproportionately affected in disasters, AAG launched a disaster risk reduction survey to assess the impact of the floods in parts of the northern regions last year, purposely to enhance community resilience.
Mrs Kwateng-Kluvitse said there was the need for a medium to long-term response to the plight of farmers in the affected regions for the next planting season to ensure that their farming activities were not affected.
She said the Ministry of Food and Agriculture needed to consider providing planting materials to farmers at subsidised rates and pointed out that AAG was seeking funding to provide seedlings for the farmers free of charge.
“As a country, we need to add value to our primary products and address the issue of post-harvest losses to end poverty. By so doing, we can protect the most vulnerable communities and attain a hunger-free society in 2015, in furtherance of the MDGs,” she said. She said challenges facing the organisation were enormous but not surmountable, adding that “my team is succeeding in the face of the challenges due to co-operation and hard work from all the staff”.
ActionAid advances Women’s Empowerment
ActionAid advances Women’s Empowerment
Daily Graphic,
Salome Donkor
A major commitment of a number of governmental and non-governmental organisations and human rights advocacy groups is to design sustainable interventions to help bring about qualitative improvements in the lives of the people.
They do so by using the rights-based advocacy strategies to ensure that the different needs of various social groups; men and women, and particularly the most vulnerable groups in the society, especially women and children, are met.
One organisation that has made strides in this area by advancing women’s empowerment programmes is the ActionAid Ghana (AAG), which has worked mainly with the poor and vulnerable people in deprived communities in the country since the inception of its Country Programme in 1990, with the aim of ensuring food security and improving their livelihoods.
The key focus of attention of the operation of sector policies of AAG, an affiliate of ActionAid International (AAI), is in the areas of education, health and women’s rights. Its programmes are implemented using advocacy strategies designed to hold government and governmental agencies accountable to the communities.
Operating in collaboration with the Ministry of Women and Children’s Affairs, Ark Foundation, Abantu for Development and other civil society organisations in the main thematic areas, AAG works in six regions in the country, namely Greater Accra,
In each of the regions, AAG helps in building the capacity of people to strengthen their institutional capacities to implement effective strategies, focusing on small scale farmers, particularly women.
This is in view of the recognition that despite being the producers of food, women are said to have limited access to productive resources and majority of them remain below the poverty line.
Women’s rights activities recorded the highest expenditure for 2006 as against education since the inception of the Country Programme (CP) in 1990 and this was meant to promote women’s empowerment to address issues of inequalities affecting women, especially in the areas of leadership.
Briefing the Daily Graphic on the operations of the organisation over the years and strategies for the future, the country Director of AAG, Mrs Adwoa Kwateng-Kluvitse, said the advancement of women’s rights remained a key issue on the organisation’s agenda and that this was promoted through its community advocacy work with its related partners and community organisations.
She said in all these regions, women’s issues are taken on board through training programmes for community partners in the six regions to ensure that they were more sustainable.
Consequently, in 2006, AAG concentrated its work on neatly packaged priority themes of education, women’s rights and food rights, using various methodologies to assist communities to facilitate processes that would lead to their collective development. It also worked, to some extent, on HIV/AIDS and in human security in conflict and emergency situations.
Mrs Kwateng-Kluvitse said it was important that women knew their rights and demanded that what was enshrined in the country’s Constitution was implemented to safeguard their rights.
As part of its work on women’s rights, AAG has been working closely with individual women and women’s networks to encourage women to contest in elections. A significant proportion of the organisation’s support to women involved getting them to see themselves as worthy of public decision making positions.
Mrs Kwateng-Kluvitse touched on some negative traditional practices and mentioned the issue of witches camps that operated in some parts of the country. She described the issue as difficult and complex and said the underpinning power dynamics of the problem needed to be looked at, by examining the expressed needs of women and children in these camps, and drawing up relevant interventions to save them, considering the fact that some of them did not want to go back home.
In the same vein, AAG organises annual Girls Camp, participated in by young girls from all the regions for 10 days, to expose them to women mentors, including doctors, lawyers, broadcasters, nurses and other professionals, to inspire them to aspire to greater heights and make them focus well academically.
The camp had been running for the past five years and every year 100 participants are assembled at the
Similarly, in the Upper East Region, a local partner of AAG also trained 20 women in bread baking and cloth weaving and provided them with ovens, weavers and an amount of GH¢60 each to start their new businesses.
She said through education and enlightenment, the roles of queens were being modernised and given the value that they deserved. In that respect, AAG has also been able to involve queens in the Greater Accra Region in alternative dispute resolution (ADR) mechanisms after the system was first launched at Mayera, near Nsawan, last year, adding that the impact had been positive with the courts getting some people to resort to ADR.
As part of its accountability process, AAG began to adopt an honest, regular and qualitative process of sharing and learning encouraged at all levels, thereby enhancing transparency and mutual respect.
She said the organisation was willing to open itself up to its beneficiary communities and consequently, Accountability Notice Boards had been erected in the communities to display and make transparent the work the organisation had been doing, especially how funds raised were used, with an avenue being created for feedback.
According to the Country Director, ActionAid
She said these programme had helped to strengthen their stature and encouraged them to overcome the high level of stigmatisation.
Since women and children are disproportionately affected in disasters, AAG launched a disaster risk reduction survey to assess the impact of the floods in parts of the northern regions last year, purposely to enhance community resilience.
Mrs Kwateng-Kluvitse said there was the need for a medium to long-term response to the plight of farmers in the affected regions for the next planting season to ensure that their farming activities were not affected.
She said the Ministry of Food and Agriculture needed to consider providing planting materials to farmers at subsidised rates and pointed out that AAG was seeking funding to provide seedlings for the farmers free of charge.
“As a country, we need to add value to our primary products and address the issue of post-harvest losses to end poverty. By so doing, we can protect the most vulnerable communities and attain a hunger-free society in 2015, in furtherance of the MDGs,” she said. She said challenges facing the organisation were enormous but not surmountable, adding that “my team is succeeding in the face of the challenges due to co-operation and hard work from all the staff”.
EU/UN gender programme launched
EU/UN gender programme launched
Daily Graphic,
Rebecca Quaicoe Duho
A European Union (EU)/ United Nations (UN) Partnership on Gender Equality for Development and Peace has been launched with a call on the Ghana Statistical Service (GSS) to collect a comprehensive data along gender lines for development purposes. A comprehensive approach to data collection is said to be crucial to a sustainable and equitable economic growth and human development in the country.
The Chief Advisor to the President, Mrs Mary Chinery-Hesse, who made the call at the launch in
The EU/UN partnership project, which would be implemented by UNIFEM with support from the International Training Centre of the International Labour Organisations and the Ministry of Women and Children affairs, is aimed at supporting the integration of gender equality as a key driver of development in the country. The occasion was also used to begin a Nation Consultation on mapping Study on Aid Effectiveness and Gender Equality in
The EU/UN partnership aims to identify approaches with which to integrate gender equality and women’s human right into new aid modalities, in accordance with the Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness adopted in
The declaration is an international agreement to which ministers, heads of agencies and other senior officials adhered and committed their countries and organisations to continue to increase efforts in harmonisation, alignment and managing aid for results with a set of monitorable actions and indicators.
Mrs Chinery-Hesse said, “as we pursue the strategy of gender mainstreaming, we should recognise that especially in
In this way, she said, “we would eliminate the risk of women’s needs being lost in the mainstream when conditions are not ripe for them to compete on the same footing as men.”
She said the importance of collecting and disseminating statistical information in respect of gender issues was crucial to planning and evaluation, adding that data assumed meaning and usefulness for this purpose if there is disaggregation along gender lines.
The Deputy Minister for Finance and Economic Planning, Prof. George Gyan-Baffour, said the government would continue to show commitment toward addressing gender equality and equity issues as reflected in the GPRS II. He said the national budget statement and the economic policy of government had shown strong commitment towards addressing gender equality and equity issues.
The Head of Delegation of the European Commission to
He said the European Commission had committed to channel 50 per cent of government to government assistance through national planning and budgeting frameworks, adding that for the EC, general and sectoral budget support would increasingly become the preferred mode of aid delivery. He said the partnership programme would support the integration of gender equality as a key driver of development in the context of aid effectiveness.
The National Programme Coordinator of UNIFEM, Ms Afua Ansre, said the project would be focused on 12 pilot countries, namely
Wednesday, March 12, 2008
Women must insist on rights-Deputy IGP
Women must insist on rights-Deputy IGP
The Ghanaian Times,
By Times Reporter
The Deputy Inspector-General of Police, Elizabeth Mills-Robertson, has charged women to refuse to accept the status quo; they should ask questions.
She said it was about time women changed the way they perceived themselves and other women, saying, “Let us not take lightly, our human dignity. You are an inferior being because you are women?- No, it is not true.”
Mrs. Mills-Robertson said this when she addressed a forum organised by the Women’s Desk of the research department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Accra on Friday, to mark International Women’s Day which fell on Saturday, March 8.
It was also addressed by the Director of Immigration, Elizabeth Adjei and the Chief Director of the ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ellen Nee Whang. “Women should be seen as the hope and engine of growth and development in homes, places of work, society and country.”
Mrs. Mills-Robertson called on women to rise up and fight against the perception that they are sex objects who should be treated with contempt. She entreated women who were senior in age, social standing and rank to make it a point to encourage their colleagues and subordinates.
Ms Adjei, tracing the contribution of women in national development from the biblical days to this period, said there was so much potential in women which remained untapped. She, therefore, called on women not to be content with their achievements but to strive for excellence.
On her part, Mrs. Nee Whang, stated that it would not be long before the fight for equality would be won. She advised them to remain focused and continue to play meaningful roles in the development of the country.
Mrs. Priscilla Ankomah, head of the Women Desk, explained that the forum was organised to draw attention to the need to recognise the capabilities of women.
C.J. urges women to aspire for higher levels
C.J. urges women to aspire for higher levels
The Ghanaian Times,
David Adadevoh
The Chief Justice, Mrs. Georgina Theodora Wood, has urged women to build their capacity and aspire for higher levels in their careers.
“We need to make good use of numerous training opportunities available to us in order to stand tall in whatever positions that we find ourselves,” she said, at a forum organised by the Standard Chartered Bank in Accra last week as part of activities to mark the International Women’s Day to interact with staff and clients on addressing gender issues in the corporate world.
The forum was on the theme, “Women in Leadership in
She attributed her success in being the first female Chief Justice [in
Mrs. Wood said although she had the ambition to rise to the highest level in the judiciary, her appointment as CJ came as a surprise because it was during the nomination process that she realised that had hard work had been noted by her colleagues, who highly recommended her. She stated that her experience has shown that women were more capable of taking up managerial roles and all they need is equal opportunities and encouragement from their male counterparts.
On gender issues in the judiciary, CJ Wood said the institution had been fair in female appointments and that her appointment attests to that. She said there were plans to fast track cases that affected women and children. In addition, the establishment of family tribunals will empower women, especially those in the rural areas, to demand their fundamental human rights. The CJ challenged women to work hard, upgrade their skills and live within the confines of biblical principles to succeed in life.
She commended Stanchart for providing an avenue through its Gender Diversity and Agenda saying, “I believe the agenda that organisations like yours are driving will help make a sustainable difference in the lives of our female workforce.”
Nana Araba Abban, Chairperson, Diversity and Inclusion Council of the bank, said the International Women’s Day reminded it management to create an inclusive environment for women to maximise their potential. “At Stanchart, we focus on nationality, ethnicity, disability and gender. We strive to identify the barriers in each of these and work towards being the company that breaks them. Our celebration of this day demonstrates our commitment,” she added.
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