Stakeholders at this year’s World Women’s Day celebration have called on
government to formulate gender balanced programmes and policies to
address the numerous challenges confronting women.
It is expected that such policies would enable women to contribute
significantly to national development and the attainment of the
Sustainable Development Goals.
They charged the Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection, and
the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development to map out
interventions that would eliminate gender disparities and empower women
and girls to be critical contributors to national development.
The stakeholders, who were mostly women made the call at this year’s
International Women’s Day Celebration organized by Action Aid Ghana, a
Non-Governmental Organization (NGO), at Tongo in the Talensi District of
the Upper East Region.
The women complained that the current trend did not influence gender
equality especially with issues of unpaid work and representation of
women in decision making among others.
The event was commemorated under the theme, “Think Equal, Build Smart,
innovate for Change: to reduce the burden of care on women and girls in
Ghana.”
It brought together rural women and stakeholders in gender across the region.
The women indicated that they were not asking their husbands to pay them
for the work they do at home but they were advocating for the men to
join in and contribute by participating in household care work to relief
them, and to enable them to venture into other income generating
activities to support the families.
They called for the abolishment of outmoded cultural practices and
beliefs that suggested that the woman’s role was in the kitchen, and
said when men especially boys were involved in the household chores, it
would enable them to become responsible persons to impact on society. Mr
Sulemana Alhassan, the Upper East Regional Programmes Manager of Action
Aid Ghana, indicated that the contribution of women to achieving
sustainable national development was tremendous, however, they were
confronted with socio-cultural barriers and discrimination.
He said society was dynamic and all relevant stakeholders must endeavour
to form synergies that would lead to the empowerment of women and
girls, especially in reducing the burden of unpaid care work through the
provision of the infrastructure and services like water facilities and
early childhood development centres.
This, he added, would afford the women the time and opportunity to
engage in economic and productive activities, and added that, it would
help achieve gender equality and the SDGs, particularly goal five.
Madam Paulina Patience Abayage, the Upper East Regional Minister
explained that the prevailing gender norms and beliefs subjected women
to bulk of unpaid care work and denied them the opportunity to be
empowered socially, economically and politically to enjoy dignified
lives.
She said for the country to successfully attain the SDGs, especially
goal five by 2030, it was imperative for all stakeholders to endeavour
to work hard to advance the course of gender equality so as to influence
critical services and adequate budgetary allocations for concerned
institutions to help reduce care work burden on women.
previous post