The Ghana Armed Forces has initiated processes to institutionalize gender into all its training programmes, says Col William Abotsi, the Focal Point for Elsie Initiative for Uniformed Women in Peacekeeping.
According to him, the mainstreaming of gender has become very necessary to addressing the limited legibility pool and deployment of military personnel, where only fewer women participate in peacekeeping operations.
Colonel Abotsi stated this to the media in Tamale on the sidelines of a training programme for military personnel under the 6th battalion of infantry in Tamale.
The project dubbed: “Enhancing Ghana Armed Forces capabilities to address barriers to women in peace building,” is being organized by the Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping Training Centre (KAIPTC) with funding from Global Affairs Canada.
For 18-months, the project among others will be identifying challenges that impede the deployment of women in UN peace operations and addressing those barriers by helping to build the institutional capacities towards women in peacekeeping operations.
Col Abotsi noted that the Elsie initiative is tackling the soft aspect of the barriers. These include; gender sensitization, policy development, curriculum development and training.
“It is about the way we live and the way we impact others. If you practice this you will be helping to realize change,” the army Colonel remarked.
Head of Women, Peace and Security Institute, at the Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping Training Centre, Joana Osei-Tutu who took participants through understanding gender, gender equality and gender equity, acknowledged that the world is evolving as such; creating an enabling or fair environment for all genders to thrive was the right thing to do.
She also said the changing phase of war, thus demand that the armed forces also understand the concept of gender. Madam Osei-Tutu re-echoed that policy must respect needs and that is what the Ghana armed forces is trying to do through gender mainstreaming.
The Elsie project was informed by the recommendations of the 2020 measuring opportunities for women in peace operations report, which assesses the Ghana Armed Forces ability to deploy women to and ensure their meaningful participation in UN peace operations.
All seven garrisons are being visited by the team made up of KAIPTC staff and the army who are sensitizing army officers, men and women as well as civilian staff under the 6th Battalions to enhancing awareness and knowledge of women and gender mainstreaming.
Story By: Nelson Nyadror Adanuti
