Blogging & Tweeting Day Against Sexual Harassment & Gender Violence

Today is Blogging & Tweeting Day Against Sexual Harassment & Gender Violence in Egypt, Sudan, Lebanon and Syria.

The hope is to call for a change in the rampant harassment that women in these countries face every day.

There will be a meeting by Nazra for Feminist Studies and HarassMap tomorrow, 21st June, 2011 to share thoughts on the blogging and tweeting experience. Location: 44 Talaat Harb St. , Cairo, Egpyt.

Check out the link on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=170454286351470

Coming Soon! The Launch of The Witches of Gambaga

The launch of The Witches of Gambaga is scheduled for Tuesday, 15th February, 2011 at the British Council Hall, Accra, Ghana at 10:00am.

So what is this film about? Curious? Read on!

The Witches of Gambaga is a haunting 55 minute documentary film about a community of women condemned to live as witches in Northern Ghana. Made over the course of 5 years, this disturbing expose is the product of a collaboration between members of the 100 strong community of 'witches', local women's movement activists and feminist researchers, united by their interest in ending abusive practices and improving women's lives in Africa. Painful experience and insight combine to generate a uniquely intimate record of the lives of women ostracized from their communities. Told largely by the women themselves, their incredible stories and struggles are rendered comprehensible to a wide range of audiences by the director’s narration. Completed in July 2010, Fadoa Films Ghana and UK, Directed by Yaba Badoe, Co-produced by Yaba Badoe and Amina Mama.

• Winner, 2010 Black International Film Festival Best Documentary Award.
• Has been selected to be screened at FESPACO 2011
  

REVIEWS of The Witches of Gambaga

"An excellent exploration of how women are victimized ...a valuable resource for understanding how to end this problem." Cornelius Moore, California Newsreel

“An admirably unsensational but powerfully affecting reminder of the terrible influence still wrought by superstition on the lives of so many women.” Geoff Andrew, film critic, British Film Institute

“A brave and brilliant production” Hope for the African Village Child Trust

“...will go a long way to promote the rights of women...” African Women’s Development Fund


Click here to see the trailer of the film on You Tube.



Yaba Badoe is a Ghanaian-British documentary filmmaker and writer. A graduate of King’s College Cambridge, she worked as a civil servant in Ghana before becoming a General Trainee with the BBC. She has taught in Spain and Jamaica and has worked as a producer and director making documentaries for the main terrestrial channels in Britain. Her short stories have been published in Critical Quarterly and in African Love Stories: an anthology edited by Ama Ata Aidoo.In 2009, her first novel, True Murder was published by Jonathan Cape. Her TV credits include: Black and White, a ground-breaking investigation into race and racism in Bristol, using hidden video cameras for BBC1; I Want Your Sex, for Channel 4 and a six-part series, VSO, for ITV. African Love Stories is now available in Swedish from Tranan publishers under the title Kärlek x 21.



Amina Mama is a Nigerian feminist activist, researcher and scholar, who has lived and worked Nigeria, South Africa, Britain, the Netherlands and the USA. She spent 10 years establishing the University of Cape Town’s African Gender Institute and is founding editor of the African journal of gender studies, Feminist Africa. She authored Beyond the Masks: Race, Gender and Subjectivity (Routledge 1995), Women’s Studies and Studies of Women in Africa (CODESRIA, 1996), and co-edited Engendering African Social Sciences (CODESRIA 1997). She is currently developing a transnational activist research initiative on gender and militarism and pursuing her interest in documentary film. ‘The Witches of Gambaga’ is her first film.
She currently lives in Berkeley and works at University of California, Davis as Professor and Director of Women and Gender Studies.

What is Women's Empowerment?

Through the various projects, the Pathways of Women's Empowerment have been learning about women's empowerment in different contexts and how they translate into women's everyday lives, policy interactions among others.

Below are videos interviews of some the researchers of the West Africa hub talking about what they understand by women's empowerment and what has come up in their research work in relation to women's empowerment.

Takyiwaa Manuh


Akosua Adomako Ampofo



Dzodzi Tsikata



Awo Asiedu



Nana Akua Anyidoho


Akosua Darkwah



What is your own understanding of women's empowerment? What experiences, observations or research has informed your definition of women's empowerment?

Do share your thoughts,
Akofa.

Women suffer from forced eviction

Women suffer from forced eviction
The Ghanaian Times; Tuesday, June 15, 2010; Page 22 (Regional News)
No author indicated

A human right advocate on Women and Housing for Africa has painted a pathetic picture of how women and children suffer force eviction either by individual landlords, groups and government.

“Women spend their time in slums, work, care for children and domestic chore; yet they are more affected by poor conditions and threats of evictions,” Ms Agnes Kabajuni, said at a national training workshop for media practitioners on the effective use of the media to promote housing and land rights of women in Ghana.

It was organized by the Centre on Housing Rights and Eviction (COHRE) in partnership with Women, Media and Change (WOMEC), an NGO.

About 40 participants drawn from the print and electronic media attended the workshop.

Ms Kabajuni expressed concern about how women struggles to own a house or land property since most inheritances were owned by men who were either husbands, uncles or brother and did not have anywhere to go when forcibly evicted.

She said women constituted most of the slum dwellers but were inadequately house globally.

Ms Kabajuni noted that most African women found on the streets in rural areas were widows who had been thrown out of their husbands’ houses by either a landlord because the women could not afford the rent or by relatives of the husband who thought it was illegal for women to own houses.

She envisaged equal ownership, access and control of housing between men and women across the globe for people to live in peace, security and dignity, adding, “Housing is a right for everyone, everywhere.”

Ms Sylvia Noagbesenu, a COHRE officer indicated that all persons who undertake evictions were to be properly identified and evictions should not be undertaken particularly during bad weather or at night.

She said women experience rape, sexual assault before, during, after forced eviction, battering with poor living conditions.

EC’s package for women

EC’s package for women
Daily Graphic, Thursday, 20th May, 2010: Back Page
Daniel Nkrumah

The Electoral Commission (EC) has announced a package to encourage more women to contest in the upcoming district level elections schedule for October 26, this year.

The Women’s Candidates Support Package is set to be introduced, with financia support from the European Union, and it will include training workshops to be attended solely by female candidates.

A Commissioner of the EC, Mrs. Pauline Adobea Dadzawa, disclosed this at a press conference in Accra yesterday.

The press conference, which was on the theme, “The 2010 District Level Election, What is in it for women in Ghana,” was organized by Abantu for Development, Women in Broadcasting and Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung.

She indicated that the package was in recognition of the peculiar challenged women faced. “We at the commission believe that it is not enough to tell women that they are free to avail themselves to be voted for. We also believe that if the odds are weighed heavily against them, accomplishing their goals will be elusive,” she said.

She added that the EC believed that full participation of women in the electoral process was key to the growth of democracy.

“it is our fervent hope that even as we support women in our areas of operation, other methods such as quota representation, may be applied to bridge the gap between numbers of men and women in the political arena,” she added.

She advised women candidates to resist the temptation of being discouraged or confused with provocative remarks and questions and urged them to rather maintain their focus and speak on the issues.

Mrs. Dadzawa stated that the EC would deepen it commitment to encourage women to participate in the forthcoming elections.

She said that this was in line with its policy of gender mainstreaming, a conscious effort would be made, where possible, to give priority to the recruitment of women as temporary poll workers. She said the temporary toll workers to be employed for the district elections included returning officers, presiding officers, coordinating presiding officers and polling assistants.

The Deputy Chairman in charge of Programmed at the National Commission of Civic Education (NCCE), Mr Baron Y. Amoafo, stated that in 2005, with the support of the Democratic Governance Thematic Trust Fund (DGTTF), the NCCE, the EC and the Ministry of Women and Children’s Affairs undertook intensive leadership training programmed for potential women candidates for the 2006 district level elections.

He added that in order to ensure a sustainable plan for effective women’s participation in governance, the NCCE, through its civic education clubs in senior secondary schools (SHSs), also undertook an intensive tour of selected SHSs throughout the country to whip up enthusiasm among young female students to be interested in taking up leadership positions in the near future.

He indicated that the NCCE had already captured in its plan for the public education on the 2010 district level elections programmes to empower women to participate actively in the elections.

He said it would also hold a capacity-building programme for it staff to cover issues on gender inequality and a number of programmes to enhance women’s participation in the upcoming district level elections.

The Resident Director of the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung, Daniela Kuzu, noted that the fact that Ghana had signed the UN Convention on Elimination of Discrimination Against Women and the establishment a Ministry of Women and Children’s Affairs was an indication that the country was taking the issues of gender equality seriously.

She, however, stated that the country’s performance in terms of gender equality needed to be improved significantly. “To take the national elections of 2004 and 2008 as an example, it is of concern that in 2004 only 10.8 percent of the seats in parliament were taken by women. In 2008, it was even reduced to 7.89 per cent,” she stated.

MOWAC to re-position itself: Towards Beijing Platform for Action

MOWAC to re-position itself: Towards Beijing Platform for Action
Daily Graphic; Tuesday, May 11, 2010; Page 11 (Gender and Children)
Rebecca Quaico-Duho

The Ministry of women and Children’s Affairs (MOWAC) is taking steps to re-position itself to help accelerate Ghana’s progress made in implementing the Beijing Platform for Action (BPfA).

According to the sector minister, Mrs. Juliana Azumah-Mensah, Ghana organised a side event which is on the theme, “Beyond commitment to responsive institutional structures,” at the just ended meeting of the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW), held in New York.

She said participants had the opportunity to share Ghana’s perspective and experiences on the evolution of the national women’s machinery and how it plans to promote gender equality through re-engineering the ministry and involving women at the grass-roots level.

She was speaking at a forum organised in Accra by MOWAC in collaboration with the Ghana Statistical Service (GSS) and supported by the United Nations Systems, during which a statistical compendium on women and men were launched.

Mrs. Azumah-Mensah who convened the meeting to brief the public on the outcome of the CSW meeting at a forum in Accra, said a lot of programmes and policies, spearheaded by MOWAC and other ministries such as the Ministry of Health (MOH), were commended as having contributed to the empowering of women socially, economically and politically.

This year’s CSW meeting also coincided with the fifteenth-years review of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action and its contribution to the achievements of the MDGs.

Programmes such as the issuances of policy directive to public sector agencies to roll out gender responsive budgets across ministries, departments, and agencies, as well as the ministry’s coordination with 16 key sectors such as the Ministry of Health, Agriculture and Education were hailed as a good practice.

She also said MOWAC’s central management roles and the elevation of the ministry to Cabinet status were seen as an outstanding achievement. Other participants expressed interest in selling the idea to their countries.

Other achievements such as the enactment of the Domestic Violence and human Trafficking Acts, criminalization of sexual offences and the passage of laws on women’s rights in marriage and divorce, social protection policies targeting poor women, the National Health Insurance Scheme, free school uniforms for school children and the Health Service Act, which ensured free maternal care to help in addressing the country’s high maternal mortality, and the appointment of women into key positions were all commended.

She said the Commission wrapped up the 54th session by adopting several resolutions which were key to women’s empowerment and they were issues on women’s economic empowerment, women and girl child and HIC and AIDS, protecting women and girls form harmful practices such as female genital mutilation (FGM), elimination of maternal mortality and a decision to consolidate four existing offices working in issues related to gender under the United Nations into a composite gender entity.

The Executive Director of the Centre for Policy Analysis (CEPA), Mr. Joseph S. Abbey, a guest speaker who spoke on ‘the importance of gender statistics for development,’ underscored the importance of having more women in decision-making positions so that they would speak for women.

He said the country would be wasting a lot of resources, if the potential of women, who formed the majority of the country’s population, was not tapped, saying, “Investment made in women should be utilised to ensure maximum returns.”

He said statistics over the years did not quantify the work of women, especially in domestic settings, and pointed out that it made it difficult to appreciate the input of women in national development.

Mr. Abbey said it was essential that the country gathered separate data for men and women so that the country would know the needs of boys and girl and men and women. This, according to him, would enable the government to build appropriate infrastructure such as clinics and school and that the gender dimensions of all these had not been focused on in the country.

The Chief Director of MWAC, Ms Nancy Dzah, in a welcoming address said as institutions and organisations promoting gender equality and women’s empowerment in the country, it was important that, “we avail ourselves of the global, regional and national trends of achievements and challenges confronting us in our zeal to achieve the MDG3, which is: Promoting gender equality and women’s empowerment.”

An international gender consultant and chairperson of the programme, Mrs Jane Amavi Kwaku, said Ghana had become a flagship of achieving results in many areas and it could not afford to fail in the empowerment of women.

Representatives of Parliament, MDAs, the National Development Planning Commission (NDPC), Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) and the Domestic Violence and Victims Support Unit (DOVVSU) of the Ghana Police Service, who were at the CSW meeting in New York, gave their impression about the way forward for MOWAC.

‘Let’s support women in local government’

‘Let’s support women in local government’
Daily Graphic; Thursday, April 22, 2010; Page 11 (Gender & Children)
Salome Donkor

The role of women in politics and public office is one of the current burning governance issues because of the perceived and acknowledged potential and contribution of women to governance processes.

Gender and policy advocacy organisations recognize that improving the lives of women and other members of society require a balanced gender representation in government structures by promoting greater responsiveness to women in politics and decision-making,

For some women who want to enter national politics, governance at the various levels, namely by the local or district, regional and national, is crucial to them, since it provides them with good training grounds to improve their chances of being elected to political office to promote gender-balance in decision-making at all levels.

The involvement of more women in politics and decision-making is expected to meet their interests and basic needs and enable them continue to influence policies from a gender perspective and addressing inequalities and injustices in social relationships.

The local government system has therefore become good grounds for some women, who want to enter into national politics. But the most difficult challenge that confront most women intending to enter into local government, is lack of funds.

The support women in the 2006 District Assembly elections, the Ministry of Women and Children’s Affairs (MOWAC), launched the “Women in Local Government Fund” to assist women aspirants.

According to the Public Relations Officer of MOWAC, Mrs. Adiza Ofori-Adu, each of the 1, 772 women who contested the 2006 District Assembly elections, received GH¢20.00 for their campaign activities.

She said the Department of Women in the various regions have been task to work in collaboration with the district assemblies and identify 20 women from each district to support them to take part in the forthcoming district assembly elections.

Speaking at a day’s review meeting on “Challenges and Prospects of Women in Decision-Making Positions,” in Koforidua recently, the Eastern Regional Director of the Department of Women, Ms Jane Kwapong, re-emphasised the need for the private sector, corporate bodies and related organizations and individuals to financially support the “Women in Local Government Fund.”

She said society should see gender equality as a tool for sustainable development and called for support and encouragement by both men and women to ensure that more women were elected in the forthcoming district assembly elections.

Participants were drawn from civil society organisations , women’s groups, the National Commission for Civic Education (NCCE), Gender Desk Officers and assembly women.

She urged political parties to promote equal rights and opportunities for women and men to engage in political activities and take further steps to elect women in their “safe constituencies” to contest parliamentary elections increase the number of women in parliament.

She said since women’s reproductive roles tended to militate against their participation in politics and other decision-making processes, there was need to encourage the sharing of household responsibilities to enable more women to participate in public life.

The Member of Parliament for New Jauben South, Madam Beatrice B. Boateng, who is also an elected assembly member of the New Jauben Municipal Assembly, advised women to rise above reproach in the face of all changes and prove their worth, stressing that some women had been able to make it, despite the challenges.

She mentioned poverty as a major challenge that prevented women from aspiring to greater heights and pointed out that the problems could be overcome with determination, perseverance, hard work and optimism.

Mr. Rex Baah Antiri of Ghana Education Service (GES) appealed to the government to create an enabling environment that would strengthen women to be part of decision-making, especially at higher levels.

He called for sustained efforts to deal with all forms of violence against women and repressive cultural practices against women to enable them contribute their quota to development.

Participants suggested that efforts should be intensified to address the issues of gender stereotyping, as well as speed up the socialization process and gender equality, adding that the empowerment of women should not be limited to those in towns and cities, but extended to rural women as well.

‘Respect rights of househelps’

‘Respect rights of househelps’
The Ghanaian Times; Friday, April 9, 2010; Page 23; (Regional Diary)
Collins Boateng

The Leadership and Advocacy for Women in Africa (LAWA), a non-governmental organisation that seeks to promote human rights of women in Ghana and in Africa, last week held a consultative seminar on the need to monitor domestic workers in homes.

The Coordinator of LAWA, Mrs. Babara Ayesu, said there is the need for parents and guardians to understand the risk involved in doing domestic work, stressing that domestic workers sometimes are maltreated by their employer, which results in them developing psychological trauma.

She said the country has laws that regulate the right of its citizens, domestic workers are not beneficiaries of such laws, adding that there is need for government and other agencies to make domestic work professional to enable practitioners of the work to enjoy benefits like any other worker.

“The attention of domestic workers is receiving global concern and their maltreatment is regarded as an infringement on their human rights that would soon be redressed internationally,” she stressed.

Mrs. Ayesu said Ghana’s labour law does not check pain that the domestic worker goes through, adding that LAWA would make sure the laws checks the rights of domestic workers to enhance the individual rights in the country.

She said Ghana’s participation in promotion human rights globally has helped the country to partner with other countries like Uganda, Tanzania and other international bodies to address the problem of violation of women’s human rights.

She stated that this year, Ghana would collaborate with the world to redress domestic violence, equitable marital property at divorce and the workplace to enhance women’s freedom globally.

Speaking at the seminar, Ms Adwoa Sakyi, Project Coordinator for the International Union of Food, Agriculture, Hotel, Restaurant, Catering, Tobacco and allied workers associations said, there is need for all domestic workers to have right to free themselves from sexual harassment and violence in the workplace, stressing that domestic workers should report all persons who intrude on their rights to the district labour officers for appropriate sanctions.

She said, all domestic workers have the right to form or join trade unions and enjoy collective bargaining, adding that any domestic worker whose right is infringed upon should seek the authorities for redress.

Mrs. Sakyi said the domestic worker has the right to leave just as any government worker, and must be paid accordingly.

She said it is times the country treat domestic workers as professionals because without them there would chaos at their homes and that if we respect and treat them as such, it would help curb poverty and economical downtrends that the country is encountering now.

Women Urged to Participate actively in Governance

Women Urged to Participate actively in Governance
The Ghanaian Times; Friday, March 19, 2010; Page 23
Samuel Opare

The Eastern Regional Director of the NCCE, Mar Eric Bortey, has said that the nature of political campaigns in the country have not helped women to participate actively in the governance of the country since independence. “At certain times too”, he explained, “the language used on certain platforms during campaigns prevent or discourage women to get involved in politics.” Mr. Bortey said this at a two day empowerment workshop for women in all the electoral areas in the Suhum Kraboa Coaltar District (SKCD) at Suhum.

It was organized by the NCCE in collaboration with the World Vision International under the theme “Effective participation of women in decision making at the district assemblies and local level.”
Wrongly too, he said “most people think that any woman who openly joins and participate in political activities is a harlot, witch, man-woman or an iron lady.”

Much has not been achieved in the nation’s decentralization and political agenda since 1988 because of lack of women participation in the local government system, “the NCCE Regional Director stated.

Mr. Bortey therefore challenged women in the country to come out of their shells and take up their place in the nation’s democratic system.

“Do not allow Accra alone to be the seat of government, irrespective of your party affiliation, let us all join hands to move Ghana democracy forward,” he said, pointing out that “women are in the majority but when it comes to decision and participation in the local governance of the nation, they are in the minority.”

Women’s failures in decision making, Mr Bortey said was due to their attitudes toward themselves, societal and family influence, educational background, defeating attitude, traditional/cultural influence and the nature of the political campaign in the country.

Above all he observed that “Women have accepted from time past that politics is for men.” Mr. Bortey appealed to the women to get involved in the local government of the nation because they have a lot to offer to the development of the nation through their participation in decision-making at the local levels. He taught the women how to write manifestos and how to speak in public and advised them to present themselves to be voted for the area, Town, Zonal, Urban and any position in the Local Council elections. “This is where you can learn and build your confidence to attain your vision in Ghana’s political arena” said the NCCE Director.

The Acting District Director of NCCE, Mr. Cephas Kofi Agboada said that the district assembly system is the most competent structure in Ghana because that is the bedrock of the nation and therefore the work of any assembly woman is very important.

He explained that decision-making is a very important process in which women would need to be actively involved if their needs and concerns are to be adequately met.

He said the nation’s district assemblies would be very effective, strong, richer and democratic if the people stop the discrimination but encourage women to get involved in the activities of local government. The programme was chaired by the SKCD Director of CHRAJ, Mrs. Anyeley Ayeng Cole and supported by the queen mother of Suhum, Nana Yaa Sakyibea.

Women in Local Governance Fund coming back

Women in Local Governance Fund coming back
The Ghanaian Times,Wednesday, March 17, 2010; Page 16
Anita Nyarko

The Women in Local governance Fund, now defunct, will be re-launched to support women contesting in local government elections that would be held in September this year.

Mrs. Juliana Azumah-Mensah, Minister for Women and Children Affairs (MOWAC), said this at the opening of the National Gender Forum 2010 in Accra yesterday.

The two-day forum which ends today seeks to promote gender mainstreaming in pro-poor policy formulation and advocacy.

It also aims at creating a platform to engage policy makers, civil society organisations, development practitioners, gender experts and development partners in the programme.

The programme, organized by the Ghana Research and Advocacy Programme is on the theme, “Civic engagement for gender equality and good governance in Ghana: Sharing experience, contesting spaces, renewing commitments.”

She said government realising the need for reinforcement of intervention to support women’s participation in local governance, embarked on programmes and activities that would promote women’s participation in governance.

“The government has incorporated a gender perspective into the national agenda and development priority of the country to promote effective participation of women in governance at all levels of decision making,” she added.

Mrs. Azumah-Mensah said some of the programmes include the organisation of training programmes aimed at building women’s capacities on speech delivery, effective lobbying, advocacy and other leadership skills.

The Minister said the government in its bid to make governance gender responsive has established a national women’s machinery, MOWAC, which is of cabinet status to properly address gender issues and the larger numbers of problems confronting women and children in the country.

She said Ghana’s experience in making governance gender responsive is creating the necessary environment for the protection of women and children’s rights.

The Minister said government has ratified and adopted various international conventions and protocols that promote gender equality, women and children’s right in conformity with the provision of the chapter five of the 1992 Constitution which includes the African chapter on human and people’s rights.

A Senior Development Officer, Corporation of the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA), Garret Pratt, in his address, said Ghana’s journey towards achieving equitable development has witnessed significant interventions in social policies and services such as the Domestic Violence Ac, Spousal Property Rights bill, free maternal and child health policies.

“As Ghana deals with implications of the emerging oil and gas industries, let us work consciously to crystallize and sustain gender equality gains and apply lessons from experience to new issues,” he added.

DOVVSU Affirms Commitment to Curb Domestic Violence

DOVVSU Affirms Commitment to Curb Domestic Violence

Daily Graphic; Tuesday, MARCH 16, 2010; Page 11 (Gender and Children)
Salome Donkor

Ghana has achieved gains in various areas, including education and development of national laws, policies and programmes aimed at championing the cause of women.

More and more people now understand that gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls is not just a goal but the key to sustainable development, economic growth and peace and security.

However, there is the need to pay more attention to the needs of women and children in the country and women advocates, women groups and related agencies unanimously upheld this view as the world commemorated the International Women’s Day (IWD) on March 8.

A statement from the Ark Foundation, a gender based non-governmental organization, to celebrate the day, pointed out that although legislation such as the Domestic Violence Act, Person’s with Disability Act, Human Trafficking Act, Labour Act, among others, which have been passed, as well as the Affirmative Action Policy Guideline, policies on health, particularly relating to maternal mortality and AIDS, there is still some work to be done.

Media reports indicate that, while there had been advances over the past years to enhance gender equality and the empowerment of women, with the establishment of Domestic Violence Victim Support Unit (DOVVSU) of the Ghana Police Service to expanded to all regional capitals, violence against women continue to be a problem in Ghana. The national prevalence of one in three women having being physically assaulted by an intimate partner still remains unchanged and statistic from the DOVVSU shows that violence against is still unacceptably high.

In support of the fight against all forms of discrimination against women on the occasion of the celebration of the International Women’s Day, the national secretariat of DOVVSU, on behalf of the Inspector general of Police, has reaffirmed the DOVVSU commitment to protect and promote the welfare of women by preventing, apprehending, and prosecuting abusers of women and children’s rights.

A statement signed by the coordinating Director of the Unit, Chief Superintendent Elizabeth Dassa, said “We celebrate their commitment to improve on the lot of their families, communities an the Ghanaian society at large and also seize this occasion to doff our hats to our dedicated stakeholders who have been consistent in the support of our efforts.’’

The statement said violence against women and gender-based violence were still rife in the society and such cases accounted for three-quarters of the over 95,000 cases so far recorded by the Unit.

It said Ghanaians should remember that violence against women and gender-based violence fragrantly violated the fundamental human rights of women and girls, as they impacted negatively on their survival and development and urged all to resolve to co-operate with the unit or any police station to arrest perpetrators.

Celebrating Women-An Example of a Women Entrepreneur

Celebrating Women-An Example of a Women Entrepreneur
Daily Graphic; Wednesday, March 10, 2010; Page 7
Vicky Wireko

Monday, March 8, was a special to women the world over. It is the day specifically set aside by the United Nations to celebrate the economic, political and social achievements of women.

Whereas elsewhere the day is celebrated with the exchange of gifts and flowers for women in appreciation of their roles and achievements, in Ghana, no official symbolic celebration in the real sense of recognizing achievements prevails.

However, according to a statement issued by the ministry of women and children affairs MOWAC, activities including a football gala among women’s groups, a cleanup exercise, symposium and exhibition have been lined up. Is the meaning of the day lost to us?

In my own small way, to celebrate the economic achievements of women in our society, l have decided to dedicate this column this week to the generality of the hardworking Ghanaians women that in many ways remains the toast of the society.

Very resourceful and resilient, many have held their families and their countries together in times of hardships .the irony however that is these people who are always on the line in times of conflict, discrimination, sexual violence, poverty, diseases and intimidation.

So as the global celebration caught up with us this year have decided to single out and showcase the entrepreneurial spirit of mother and a wife, Mrs. Awurabena Okra, whose success story in business continues to be a source of inspiration to many. Her resourcefulness has today become a case study for polytechnic students and young entrepreneurs who fall under the umbrella of National Board for Small Scale Industry (NSSSI).

A graduate of the University of Ghana and a postgraduate certificate holder from the University of Cape Coast, Awurabena left classroom teaching in the early eighties to pursue a past time which she had nurtured from childhood.

A risk one may have cautioned her at the time but no, risk taking is the hallmark of a successful entrepreneur .and so without any looking back, she forged on and successfully combined her god-given talent in stitching and a family trait in entrepreneurship (which she picked up from her mother) to create a full blown clothes and textile industry known today as Winglow at East Legon, Accra.

With a humble beginning of one sewing machine in her spare bedroom, and a determination to do something to supplement her family’s budget during those hardship days of the early 1980’s,Winglow has expanded so much that it now has 24 industrial sewing machines among several other machinery needed in the textile industry.

Awurabena has given lifetime occupations to many young men and women who have undergone training at her hands at Winglow Ltd and who are training others to manage their own dressmaking businesses. Currently the company employs 30 people on full-time basis. So how Mrs. Okra has nurtured past time made it to such celebrated heights in the textile and fashion industry?

Winglow started as a small outfit sewing for individuals and later for such big organizations as the Police, Military, private companies and some corporate institutions.

With time, she ventured into production on large scale and exporting finished goods to the US, Europe and some other parts of Africa. Today, the company designs its own materials with the Ghanaian symbols which make them unique and attractive to the export market.

Awurabena's venture into entrepreneurship has paid off well. She has won many local and international awards to her credit. In 2001, she won the International Award for her Quality and Commitment from Business Initiative Directives.

This was followed closely in 2002 by another award for Technology and Quality from Trade Leaders Club International. The awards she has picked up locally include the Mensah Sarbah Hall Alumni Celebrity Personality for 2003, the Ministry of Trade and Industry Bronze Award in 2004 for Entrepreneurship in Fashion and Export in 2005 from Accra Girls Secondary School.

As resourceful as she is, Awurabena has since 1997 participated in Trade Fairs and Exhibitions in countries such as USA, India, Angola, Namibia, Burkina Faso, Sierra Leone and Liberia. At home, she participated in Fairs organized by the Ghana Trade Fairs Authority, the Association of Ghana Industries AGI), and the Eastern Regional Coordinating Council in Koforidua.

She has bettered herself by attending many international and local training courses both at home and abroad. Through these training sessions, she has been tutored in management and finance, entrepreneurship, small and medium enterprise, export, and machine embroidery.

She has in turn put some of the knowledge acquired from these training sessions to the benefit of young of young entrepreneurs and students from some tertiary institutions through facility visits to the Winglow factory and the provision of mentorship to some. She currently serves as a mentor to for some student members of AISEC at the University of Ghana, Legon.

The example of Winglow Ltd is a case of celebration for the simple reason that it has changed the face of textile manufacturing in our country and contributed to the training of our young ones to be the masters of their own businesses while giving employment to many others. And what better time to highlight this celebration than a time when the world the world is celebrating the achievements of women.

Years back when one heard or spoke about textiles industries, eyes were fixed on those multinational textile companies who dealt in our local designs.

Then later some large-scale local textiles industries came on board. But not anymore. Today, companies like Winglow Clothes and Textiles Ltd are busy in the design and production of quality clothing and embroided fabrics.

These fabrics that are exclusive, with excellent quality and are elegant by all standards manufactured specifically for both the local and exports markets. That has been the achievement of a resourceful Ghanaian woman, Awurabena Okra.

Like many other women working in the quiet and yet contributing in their own small ways to the economic ,social and political dynamics of our society, Monday was a day set aside to celebrate them as role models and clear examples for other women to aspire to their heights.
So on the occasion like this, we should not just be organizing clean exercise, football galas and talk shows. It is the time of the year that role models are played up.

It is the time we celebrate all women in general but give a special place to showcase in particular those women who have contributed to our economic, social and political successes through their own individual and corporate achievements. That should be the focus of the yearly International Day of the Woman. Happy Anniversary to the women of Ghana.

NETRIGHT reminds gov't of promise to women

NETRIGHT reminds gov't of promise to women

As we mark International Women's Day (IWD), the Network for Women's Rights in Ghana (NETRIGHT) would like to congratulate all women in Ghana for their contributions towards their own empowerment and gender equality in the face of the many barriers that confront them.

NETRIGHT also wishes to use the occasion to call on the Government of Ghana to translate its promises to promoting women's rights as contained in its party manifesto into concrete actions to achieve true equality for women.

This year's celebration of International Women's Day which falls on March 8 is particularly relevant as an important milestone. Beijing + 15 is being celebrated, with the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) currently holding its 54th Session in New York to review progress towards gender equality since the hosting of the ground- breaking Fourth World Conference on Women.

Even though a number of conferences on women have been organised since 1975, it was after the landmark Conference on Women in Beijing in 1995 that the global community came up with an internationally agreed plan, namely, the Beijing Platform for Action, to address the many barriers women face in achieving full equality.

The Platform for Action contains 12 critical areas of concern to women in Ghana. There has been some level of progress in meeting the targets set around issues such as Girl Child Education and Violence Against Women. Yet even as women continue to work hard and advocate for concrete actions to address their concerns, the overall advance towards gender equality and promotion of women's rights has been slow and with little effect in terms of real changes in women's lives.

In Ghana, women's political participation is not rising in any significant way. Indeed the last national elections in Parliament saw a reduction in. women's representation in Parliament from 9.6 percent to 8.6 percent. This is in spite of the keen interest women have demonstrated as public decision-makers.

In the area of employment, many women in Ghana are active in the work force but more than half of them are in vulnerable jobs either as self-employed persons or as unpaid family workers in the informal economy with minimum access to credit. Women also have lower inheritance and ownership rights.

Women's health, especially reproductive health is another area of major concern. Unacceptably high levels of death occur every year III Ghana from complications related to pregnancy and child birth. On violence against women, even as the Domestic Violence Law has been passed, implementation has been slow and opposing violence against women in its entirety and holding perpetrators accountable is still a critical issue.

As we celebrate Women's Day therefore, we need to seize upon the excitement around the Beijing + 15 review processes to continue to demand accountability to women's rights and gender equality. This means we have to strengthen our coalitions and mobilisation efforts and demand the needed resources to translate global and national commitments into actions that point out that "progress for women is progress for all" as this year's theme says. A real difference in the lives of Ghanaian women is what is needed after the Beijing + 15 review meeting.

Issued by NETRIGHT on March 5, 2010

Signed by Convenor, Akua Britwum

Statistics on gender needed

Statistics on gender needed
Daily Graphic, Tuesday, February, 23, 2010; Page 11
Rebecca Quaicoe-Duho

Gender statistics are the body of statistics compiled, analysed and presented by sex, reflecting gender issues in society. This statistics needs to be produced in close co-operation with users to respond to the needs of policy makers, planner, researcher, the media and the public.

According to statisticians, in order for users’ needs to be fully considered, it is necessary to examine gender concerns and goals in society and identify the necessary statistics and indicators to address them with adequate policies and plans to assess and monitor related issues.

The United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) defines gender statistics as a field of statistics that cuts across the traditional fields to identify, produce and disseminate statistics that reflect the realities of the lives of women and men and policy issues relating to gender. Gender statistics, it says, allow for a systematic study of gender differentials and gender issues.

Gender issues are determined by gender-based and/or sex-based differences between women and men and it encompasses all aspects and concerns with how women and men interrelate, their differences in access to and use of resources, their activities and how they react to changes, interventions and policies.

According to gender advocates, gender issues exist in all spheres of society and are therefore relevant to the production of statistics in all fields and intervene at every step of the production process. Gender statistics, according to advocates, are not necessarily and not only statistics disaggregated by sex.

Producing statistics that adequately reflect gender issues implies that all statistics are produces taking into consideration the different socio-economic realities women and men face in society. This means that data, both on the individual as well as those not directly related to individuals, are collected, compiled, and analysed taking into consideration that gender-based factors influence women and men differently – this, according to advocates, can be called gender mainstreaming of statistics.

The impact of data collected on women and men needs to be considered in every step of statistical production and all statistical fields. Concepts and methods used in data collection need to be adequately formulated to ensure they reflect existing gender concerns and differentials. Additionally, social and cultural factors, according to gender advocates, must be taken into consideration as they can result in gender-based biases in data collection, analysis and presentation.

They say that although the presentation of information on women and men follows the general rules for statistical presentation, one must keep in mind that the presentation aims at facilitating comparisons between women and men, as well as increasing the awareness of gender differentials.

Advocates further contend that the main point is not the mere existence of such differences, but the fact that these differences should not have a negative impact the living conditions of both women and men, should not discriminate against them and should contribute to an equal sharing of power in economy, society and policy-making processes.

Some policy areas where gender statistics have been identifies to influence include population, families and households, work and the economy, education and communication, public life and decision-making, health, crime and violence.

It is inline with ensuring that gender statistics are incorporated in data collection in that country that they Ghana Statistical Service (GSS) with support from the United Nations Fund for Women (UNIFEM) has set up a gender statistic working group made up of experts from government and non-governmental agencies to identify gender gaps in the production of statistics in the country.

The group, which was launched in Accra, held its first meeting and made of researchers, gender advocates, UN agencies, civil organization and academia, will also outline how gender statistics should be produced and used and how it use should be promoted by government, planning bodies, the media, research institutions and other stakeholders.

The Government Statistician, Dr Grace Bediako, in an address said the Beijing Platform for Action adopted for nations 15 years ago emphasized the need to disaggregate data by sex across board so as to produce data by sex.

She said there was a need to re-look at the statistical system in the country, since a change in the way of data collection would be met with some resistance as new forms would have to be designed for administrative purposes.

She said the time had come for the country to move the issues of gender statistics forward by striving to ensure that a conscious effort was made to bridge the knowledge gap in gender mainstreaming.

The UNIFEM Country Representative, Ms Afua Ansre, in a remark said Ghana had acceded to all international requirements to make gender equality a reality in the country.

She said a sex disaggregated data was needed in all areas of policy making in the country, saying, that without such data, the country could not meet its international obligations with regards to gender mainstreaming.

She also called on the government to make use of such data when they are generated, saying that although the GSS had some genders disaggregated data it was underutilised.

A director at the Ministry of Women and Children Affairs (MOWAC), Ms Patience Opoku, in a remark said developing a sex disaggregated data would help the ministry to achieve its mandate of ensuring that issues of women were given the needed priority.

She said the ministry was preparing to actively showcase its achievements at the forthcoming women to be held in New York next month.

The Regional Coordinator, Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) of the United Nations, Ms Diana Tempelman, who was the guest speaker at the launch of the group, said the lack of gender statistics was a major constraint in developing gender responsive policies and programmes.

She said statistics and indicators on gender relations were needed for informed policy decision and monitoring of programmes, saying that the group would help improve the capacity of both producers and users of gender statistic to produce and use gender-sensitive indicators and sex disaggregated data to inform policy formulation, monitoring and reporting.

Women Sweep Awards

Women Sweep Awards
Daily Graphic, Monday, February 22, 2010; Page 57
Adwoa Buahema

Out of 30 entrepreneurs who participated in a rigorous three-week training exercise, 15 qualified to partake in a competitive 13-week TV reality show for a winning prize that will uplift their business game.

In a novel state-of-the-art Bullseye Marketing initiative dubbed Lift Your Game (LYG), women swept five final positions.

This is the first of its kind known in Ghana, LYG’s goal is to unleash business potential and create at least 100 new direct and indirect jobs in Ghana.

The initiative responds to several present and pressing market needs across Africa, explore real yet often elusive basic requirements in business, commands attention and indulgence from seasoned practitioners, questions prohibitively rigid credit policies for MSMEs in our financial institution, and challenges the ordinary folk in the informal sector to dare ‘fall off their cliff’ and glide into astounding returns.

And astounding indeed have been the results. The participants, who came from a diverse mix of ages, locations and industries, interacted with a team f experienced local resource persons chosen for their extensive filed knowledge, experienced, proven integrity and track record.

They expressed profound satisfaction and unqualified gratitude to the organisers, first for a uniquely enriching learning experience, and secondly for the positive exposure the programme has brought to their businesses.

Transformed through the renewal of their business perspectives, self-esteem and confidence, many of these participants have already taken new actions such as cutting down on production costs with compromising value, improving staff and client relations, streamlining legal and financial processes, strategic marketing and targeted selling, offering free services alongside the optimisation of sales, and pursuing strategic alliances which have significantly increased returns, even up to a projected 400 per cent increase.

Of particular interest, however, is the impressive performance of the female contestants which highlights an issue of global development interest: Empowering women.

Out of a total of nine women, five of them took the finalist position by storm. The Guest of Honour at the ceremony, the Minster of Trade, Miss Hannah Tetteh, congratulated the finalists for demonstrating exceptional business acumen.

They were: Vida Sarpong, CEO of Visap Seafood Enterprise, who is in the business of fish processing and distribution; Rosemond Asamoah, CEO of Women’s World Beauty, in the business of personal grooming and care; Christine Osie Doe of Unique Coffee Shop who processes mango jam and distributes to retail stores; Horlase Anku is a moringa farmer who wants to extend the benefits of moringa to her community; Jessie Bartels, who won the competition, is the CEO of Renom Food Farm, a mushroom and grasscutter farming company in Dodowa.

A panel of judges accounted for 70 per cent of votes, while the general public carried 30 per cent.

So given equal opportunities and socio-economic incentives, are women better entrepreneurs?

A study using an Austrian economic model of entrepreneurship analsyed why women in enterprise is still a relatively untapped economic resource. It discussed a list of obstacles women face in entrepreneurship process such as lack of role models, type of education, gendering of entrepreneurship, weak social status, competing demands on time (such as family responsibilities), and access to finance.

In response to research results by the Centre of Asia Pacific Studies on GE Money Bank (GEMB) targeted women, whose anecdotal evidence showed continued to be disadvantaged because of their gender, with many parents, especially in the rural areas, still preferring to send males to school, often at the expense of females; and in 2006, partnered with Let’s Go Foundation, a non-profit organization that focuses on entrepreneurship education, to develop its corporate citizenship programme that focuses on empowering women through entrepreneurship.

They created a curriculum for entrepreneurship training programme specifically tailored to the needs of would-be women entrepreneurs, and partnered with other women groups to implement the newly devised curriculum.

The goal was to teach women to venture into entrepreneurship even before finishing school so that they could become, after schooling, not job seekers but job providers.

Curiously, in the same year, out of 40 countries studied, the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) 2006 discovered that only in the Philippines were women significantly more active in starting up businesses than men. Could this be a result of the developmental initiatives to uplift their quality of life and that of others, while generating the revenue of the Philippines?

In Ghana, it is recorded that women more often satisfy loan obligation than their male counterparts, yet they continue to face rigid read tape, counterproductively high interest rates, and sometimes rejection by financial institutions.

Often the industries chosen by women, primarily retail, education and other services are perceived to be less important for economic growth and development than the male predominated high technology and manufacturing industries. But the trade-offs of these “less important” trades, both tangible and intangible, are enormous for communities.

By all count, Lift Your Game is innovative, proactive, powerful, relevant and spot-on responsive, and needs to be sustained to enrich our society; and certainly, such laudable initiatives require committed partnerships with financial institutions to thrive.

Would our established financial institutions be willing to seriously bank on MSME’s, specifically women entrepreneurs, as exemplified in the Philippines to encourage them to create jobs?

But be it as may, more and more women are venturing into venture capital. With training they are better poised to embrace and overcome some of the gnawing bottlenecks in today’s market for MSMEs in general, and women in particular, and Bullseye Marketing is committed to helping transform those who dare to start into successful job creators through cutting edge entrepreneurial training.

Lift Your Game was sponsored by MTN and supported by the BDS Fund. Bullseye Marketing is also the brainchild of the popular, award-winning “M’asem” programme on TV 3.

Group to Generate Statistics on Gender

Group to Generate Statistics on Gender
The Ghanaian Times, Thursday February 18, 2010; Page 16
Edmund Mingle & Benjamin Sekyere Owusu

A Gender Statistics Working Group (GSWG), a group of gender development experts working to enhance statistical data on gender, was launched in Accra with a call for the provision of accurate data on gender.

The GSWG, an initiative of the Ghana Statistical Service in collaboration with the United Nations Developmental Fund for Women is aimed at facilitating the development of statistical data to aid effective planning for the growth of both the male and female gender.

The launch which was also to kick-start the meeting of the group had the theme, “Gender mainstreaming for equitable development,” Dr. Grace Bediako, Government Statistician in her address, called for improvement in the development and use of statistics on the gender in the country was not impressive.

That, she said, was affecting the implementation of national planning programs, especially those relating to poverty alleviation, since the present data on women and children was not adequate.
Even with the existing data, she said not much was being used for the development of women and children saying there was the need to maximize the use of data.

“We must make headway” she stressed, adding that without that, the objectives of the Beijing Platform for Action would not be attained in Ghana.

Ms Diana Tempelman, Regional Coordinator of the Food and Agriculture Organization in her keynote address, lauded the formation of the group indicating that without accurate data three would not be effective planning for gender development. “This is the ground breaking event in the area of gender data development," she said.

Describing the work of the group as an absolute necessity for gender planning, Ms Templeman was hopeful that the provision of accurate data would enhance Ghana’s attainment of the Millennium Development Goals.

Mrs. Benedicta Kwame, Chief Economic Planning Officer at the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning, launching the initiative, urge all stakeholders to be committed and effectively contributed to towards achieving the objectives of the GSWG.

The members of the GSWG are drawn from the academia, government ministries, civil society groups security agencies and international development agencies.

Rescue women from religious charlatans

Rescue women from religious charlatans
Daily Graphic, Tuesday, February, 2, 2010; Page 9
Kofi Bentum Quantson

This is not about women physically locked up in prisons or police cells through a default of the criminal justice system.

Neither is it about women virtually physically confined to homes of abusive and violent men courtesy of an outmoded cultural environment that bars them from breaking free into freedom.

And it is not about women burdened with totally collapsed or clearly unworkable marriages from which they cannot escape because of ancient religious taboos imposed by male chauvinist centuries ago. Nor is t it about women, who out of fatal love, or actual compassion, have rescued themselves to the domination of men who treats them like beasts of burden or men or articles of decoration to satisfy social commitments, or equipment for their crude sexual appetites.

This is about women in the captivity of organized and commercialised religious crooks and charlatans. These are vulnerable women whose truck loads of spiritual, psychological and emotional problems drive them into deceitful but welcome arms of spurious pastors, prophets, miracle-working evangelists and so on.

These women are easily identifiable. The form the bulk of the membership of the so-called spiritual or charismatic churches and a host of prayer camps and temples all over the country.

You will find many them on Wednesday, Thursdays and Fridays, in white headgear or white tops, hugging bottles and containers of “holy water” for drinking and for washing away evil.

Or canes or leather whips for lashing the devil during All Night sessions. Also in the luggage will be olive oil and perfume, usually florida water for protecting against satanic spirits and attracting God’s angels like St. Michael, St. Gabriel and St. George.

Some of these women are full-time members of the spiritual groups. Others belong to the “Traditional Churches,” but patronize these groups on part-time basis. So typically on Sundays they would dress gorgeously “to go and worship God,” then on other days they would go for prayers.

But who have captured these women? They are the charlatans, crooks and fraudsters who have turned true religion into the unholy mechanism for deceiving and duping gullible people, especially our women folk.

You will hear some of them on the airwaves polluting the atmosphere with screams and threats of hell; advertising the awful powers of the devil and how helpless people are unless they, the religious crooks, intervene. That is the type of men of slavery which subjects the vulnerable and gullible into a state of chronic fear and despair that is fascism in perverted religion.

You can see some of them on television displaying swanky fashionable shirts or elaborated pontified costumes, some weird and ridiculous. And of course you cannot miss their very practiced sermonisation and their drama-style physical posturing.

You will find some of them too, the itinerant ones, in buses, tro-tros, at the market, lorry stations and so on. Some typify every aspect of negative aspect of religious practices that should not be encouraged.

Especially where because of the mounting craze for miracles, some resort to underhand satanic magical procedures to deceive people that is that power of God and the Holy Spirit in action. That is damnable miracles have become the trick for criminal exploitation.

All that aside, they way they scream out their skewed understanding of misinterpretation of scripture contains seeds for political trouble. In this age of ICT, how do go about preaching that some people are God’s chosen people and that all others are destined for the roaring fires of Lucifer’s hell.

How do you insist that we should all cross River Jordan to reach Jerusalem, the headquarters of Heaven, where on Judgment Day, we will all line-up to be judged? That is subtle religious subversion. Christians, Moslems, Jews, Buddhists, Hindus, Agnostics, Athesists, Pagans, Nihilists and so on. As many people have traveled far and wide can confirm the kind of Christianity we are practicing and developing, can, if not checked, lead to serious religious consequences. The reason is clear. We seem to be drifting further from the very simple directive given by the Master Christian Himself, Jesus the Christ.

When asked by His disciples which is the greatest commandment, His answers was clear, simple and direct, Love the Lord, with everything you have. Then love your neighbour as yourself. I repeat. This directive is clear, very clear. So why are Christians creating and multiplying problems with all sort of theories and weird practices that are distracting us from the master’s path and actually leading us astray? No wonder the expensive joke that the devil in on vacation because organized religion is busy accomplishing the devil’s task.

Did the Master not teach His disciples that “if you ask my Father anything in my name, He will grant it”? So are not surprised to hear, in many churches, screaming appeals and supplications to the Master Jesus Himself, and not to the Father in
Jesus’ name?

The really distressing aspect is those who shout instructions to God, ordering Him on how He should run His would. As if it is mortal man who created the world. The most terrible part of this impudent blasphemy are those who actually order God to destroy or kill the perceived enemies.

Where is mortal man heading?

Indeed, it is baffling that we choose to ignore the central principle that God is one. That He is the Source of All Life and the Author of all Creation. His sun shines on everybody and everything. The Lord’s prayer taught by the Master should be better appreciated. “Our father,” not your father or my father, Our father… Amen.

But all that is not my immediate worry. My work is about the way some of our vulnerable women are being exploited by religious crooks, imposters and charlatans in the name of God. It is an enslavement more destructive than the physical bondage of chains and handcuffs. Because this works like an invisible poisonous tranquilising substance, eating away slowly but surely and subverting the very being of our women folk. It is a deadly cancerous danger.

I do not think all women’s rights advocates have fully comprehended this aspect of destruction of our mothers, our wives and our sisters. If they have, I wonder whether they are responding productively. We should not wait for some foreign-based NGOs to come and organise seminars and pay us per diem before we suddenly bristle with alacrity!

So let’s take a leaf from that wise man. Destroy man and you destroy an individual. Destroy a woman and you destroy a nation.

ABANTU selected for UNIFEM grant

ABANTU selected for UNIFEM grant
Daily Graphic, Thursday, 21st January, 2010; Page 11, (Gender & Children)

ABANTU for Development, a gender and policy advocacy organization based in Ghana, is one of the six organizations in sub-Saharan Africa selected as recipients of United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM’s) Catalytic Grant for Gender Equality for the 2009 grant cycle.

The other beneficiary organizations are from Cameroun, Mozambique, Nigeria, Senegal and Uganda. The Fund’s Catalytic Grant category is one of two types of high-impact grants designed to advance innovative programmes which focus on women’s economic and political empowerment at local and national levels worldwide.

UNIFEM announced in a press release in New York this week that the new UNIFEM-managed mutli-lateral Fund for Gender Equality received 543 applications for the Catalytic Category from across the world and 27 were selected in 26 countries- 89 per cent led by civil society organizations and 11 per cent by government agencies.

The recently established Fund is designed to advance innovative programmes aimed at accelerating efforts to advance commitments to the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), the Beijing Platform for Action, the UN Conventional on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), and other global and regional agreements.

The recipients represent broad regional and thematic diversity. Their initiatives range from supporting women in the informal sector to increasing greater political participation by women. Initiatives also focus on women facing hazards of food security and climate change to indigenous women and those in high-risk groups, such as women affected by HIV and AIDS.

Adhere to Gender Equality- WiLDAF

Adhere to Gender Equality- WiLDAF
Daily Graphic, Wednesday, 13th January, 2010; Page 15, (Politics)

A Gender NGO, Women in Law and Development in Africa (WiLDAF, Ghana), last Monday reminded political parties to abide by their promises to ensure gender equality and affirmative action at their forthcoming congress to elect national executives.

In a statement signed by their Ms Bernice Sam, National Programme Coordinator, WiLDAF Ghana, it noted that in a few days the National Democratic Congress (NDC) and the New Patriotic Party (NPP) would hold national delegates congress to elect national executives.

“Women in Law and Development in Africa (WiLDAF Ghana) and partners of the We Know Politics Project wish them well believing that multi-party democracy and respect for individual rights have now become part of Ghana’s bedrock for sustainable development.”

“We are also taking this opportunity to remind the parties of their commitment to ensure at least 30 per cent representation of women in their executive structures.”

It said this commitment was made in a communiqué agreed between the Institute of Economic Affairs and four political parties with representation in Parliament on 30 June, 2009 at Akosombo in the Eastern Region.

“Interestingly, the NDC has an arduous task to prove its commitment to gender equality above the 30 per cent representation in the Akosombo Declaration.”

It said the party committed itself to 40 per cent representation of women contained in its Better Ghana Manifesto, promises of President John Atta Mills to Ghanaians in statements during the 2008 electioneering and also his State of the Nation address to Parliament on February 19, 2009.

WiLDAF said the NPP, on the other hand, whilst in government, had ratified the Protocol to the Africa Charter on Human and Peoples Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa in 2007 and endorsed the Africa Union Solemn Declaration on Gender Equality in 2004.

“As these political parties go to congress, the onus is on them to demonstrate their commitment to gender equality through the election of gender-balanced national executive.”

“The number of women that emerges as executive at the political parties congresses could further be a ‘hint’ of how many women these political parties feature as parliamentary candidates, vice-presidential running mates or presidential candidates in the 2012 general election.”

WiLDAF said if the NDC and NPP failed to meet the target set in the Communiqué of the June 30, 2009, “then it will be an embarrassment to citizens of Ghana before the international community whom our governments have made commitments demonstrated through ratification, signatures and reporting on gender equality.”

It said alternatively, when gender-balance was achieved at congresses, it would be a feather in the cap of the country and a demonstration of its commitment to the Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination against Women, the Beijing Declaration and the Millennium Development Goals.

“The fact is the performance of government towards advancement of gender equality and women’s empowerment in many areas, including discriminatory cultural practices and political representation has not been very encouraging.”

WiLDAF said 2010 marked an important milestone for the United Nations as it reviewed the implementation of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action by states 15 after its adoption.
It noted that Ghana Beijing State Report revealed the appalling statistics of women in political and public life below the 30 per cent threshold agreed States in Beijing.

This year, it added, also marked the mid-point review of Ghana’s commitment to the Commonwealth Plan of Action for Gender Equality which called for 30 per cent representation of women in political life.

“A thousand of a thousand miles starts with the first. As we journey towards the 2012 elections, these initial steps- congresses- taken by political parties will determines how the end result of our general elections will be.” ---- GNA

Women make money out of trash

Women make money out of trash
Daily Graphic, Friday, 1st January, 2010; Page 19, (News)
Abdul Aziz

One hundred and eighty women have undergone a training programme to enable them to recycle plastic waste into handbags for sale in supermarkets.

The project, known as Trashes for Treasure, is being provided for women, especially young girls, under the auspices of Students in Free Enterprises (SIFE).

The project, which is aimed at women empowerment, recycles trash such as plastic and metal waste to manufacture bags, door mats and the metal waste to mould sculptures.

Sixty of the trainees were drawn from Abokobi and its surrounding areas in the Ga East Municipal Assembly to empower the young girls and discourage them from emigrating to the urban centres in search of no-existent jobs.

The remaining 120 women were drawn from the campus of the Institute of Professional Studies who are required to use innovating ways of creating employment for themselves when they graduate from the institute instead of waiting for employment from the government.

Mr. Frnacis Antwi, the Coordinator of the IPS branch of SIFE, in an interview said the branch undertook the training programme in collaboration with Rural Women Support Network based in Abokobi and Village Network, also a local NGO.

He said Students in Free Enterprises was an initiative of an American who loved and worked in Ghana and experienced the harrowing experiences of women had to undergo to secure training and macro-credit to start their own income-generating ventures.

He said SIFE, therefore, attached great importance to the granting of macro-credit facilities to rural and urban poor to start their businesses.

He said currently a Fulani herdswoman had been selected from Abokobi to be used as a model in the establishment of a diary plant for the manufacture of ice cream and yoghurt.

Mr Antwi said the project to turn fresh cow milk into yoghurt, if patronized, could be replicated across the country to help eradicate poverty and break its cycle in the rural areas.

The Coordinator expressed the hope that when the rural areas provided the enabling environment for the youth to earn a livelihood, it would discourage them from migrating to urban centres in search of jobs.

Mr. Antwi appealed to the youth, especially those in the rural areas, to learn a trade or acquire a profession instead of migrating to urban centres to look for non-existent jobs, which often landed them in bad company with its attendant antisocial activities such as indulging in pornography and prostitution.