Nana Yanful: Intern at Pathways

Nana Yanful, a law student and a Canadian of Ghanaian descent joined the Pathways, West Africa team from May to July, 2011. Below is an interview about her experience.


1. How did you get to know about Pathways of Women's Empowerment in Ghana?
I learned about Pathways through my online research for a project or organization that was using law, social work, policy, etc., to enact change, specifically in the lives of women in Ghana. I stumbled across the Pathways blog, and I instantly loved the work that was being done in Ghana. I had just received a fellowship from my Law school in Canada to go somewhere in the continent of African to contribute to something I was interested in continuing in my legal career. The Pathways project seemed like the right fit. I emailed Akofa Anyidoho for more information, and the rest is history!

2. What informed your decision to do your internship with Pathways of Women's Empowerment in Ghana?
During my research for projects or groups working towards sustainable change in Ghana, I found it hard to find something that was not run by an organization in England, France, the US or Canada. The Pathways project, although partly funded by funds from abroad, is run by Ghanaian women - and many of the women are academics who are committed to working and engaging in Ghana. That was something rare in my mind, and I looked forward to learning more about this, especially in a country like Ghana, where many young people from abroad go there to do "development" work. I was interested to see how I could contribute as a Ghanaian born in Canada.

3. During your internship what work were you engaged in?
I assisted Akofa Anyidoho with the Pathways Photo Exhibition research, collection of photos, and preliminary curation of the exhibition. I also assisted Professor Manuh and Dr. Darkwah in their research on women's work, civic and political participation and empowerment.

4. What were you hoping to learn from Pathways?
I was hoping to learn more on the legal aspect of these initiatives, for example, the forced eviction issue that was mentioned on the Pathways blog. I had hoped to work more with young women and students on campus on some of the issues we were researching, and doing more one-on-one work with community members.

5. Did your experience meet your expectations?
It was a good experience, however, because I came during the summer months, many were away taking their much needed vacations. So at the beginning the work was slow. As mentioned in #4, I had hoped to do more one-on-one work, but overall it was a nice experience.

6. What is ONE new thing you learnt from working with the Pathways team in Ghana?
Issues of sexism and homophobia (gender-based violence) are everywhere in the world. These are issues we as human beings are dealing with all around the world. I was surprised to hear many progressive views by people at Pathways around issues of homophobia, and that was a positive thing.

7. In ONE word, describe your experience.
Interesting!

Thanks for choosing to intern with us and thanks for the interview, Nana!

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.

Congratulations Prof Takyiwaa Manuh!

On 30th April, 2009, Prof Takyiwaa Manuh gave her inaugural lecture on the topic, “A lawyer in African studies,” outlining her academic path and choices that have mainly been in the African Studies. Her academic interests include African Development, Gender and Women’s Empowerment, Migration and Higher Education. Congratulations!

CARE Int supports Education of Girls

CARE International supports Girl Child Education

The Ghanaian Times, Wednesday, February 6, 2008. Page 23 (Regional News)

CARE International, a non-governmental organisation (NGO), on Saturday launched the second phrase of its project dubbed: “Responsibility for Education of Girls Active Learning” (REGAL), at Mampong in Sekyere-West District of Ashanti.

The project, which would last for a year and designed to benefit primary school girls, would be undertaken in both in Sekyere-West and Amansie districts. It aims among other things at creating a more conducive learning environment for girls in twenty communities each of two districts, the strengthening and consolidating increased girls’ enrolment and retention as well as facilitating commitment to girls’ education.

The girls education project, which will be undertaken in collaboration with the Ghana Education Service (GES), the Sekyere-West District Assembly and the communities concerned, would benefit 3,500 girls from the two communities targeted under the project. There were participants from the GES, Sekyere-West District Assembly, NGOs, traditional rules and representatives of some beneficiary communities.

Mr. George Appiah, an assistant project manager of CARE International, who facilitated the meeting stated that 30 community schools from the two districts benefited from REGAL I, which is also a one year project, which elapsed in December last year. According to him, all the 30 project communities received GH¢ 2,200 each year for the Community Education International (CEI) grant last year.

The CEI grant was among other things used by the beneficiary communities to create a girl-friendly school environment and also support the enrolment and retention of girls in school, he added. Mr. Appiah mentioned some of the intervention strategies and activities for REGAL II project as girls’ education performance, life skills for girls, capacity building, community mobilisation and education initiative.

In a related development, Mr. Appiah on behalf of CARE International donated two computers and their accessories to the girl child education department of the Sekyere-West District Directorate of the GES and Solid Kids and Teens (SOKIT), a local NGO, which facilitates the education of the girl child in the Sekyere-West District.

Receiving the items on behalf of the two beneficiaries, Mrs. Gladys Amaning, Sekyere-West Director of the GES, thanked the donors and promised that the items would be used to serve the purpose for which they were given. –GNA