40 Years of women’s role in national devt celebrated
The Minister of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration, Ms Hanna Tetteh, has called for more to be done to improve the status of the country’s women, even though she said a lot of progress had been made in that respect.
She said Ghana was one of the few countries in Africa that had women representation in every facet of its economy, but added that there was the need to involve more women in the development agenda of the country.
Ms Tetteh made the observation at the inaugural gender dialogue and launch of the 40th anniversary of Ghana’s National Women Machinery in Accra last Monday.
The National Council for Women and Development (NCWD), now known as the National Women’s Machinery was inaugurated in 1975 by the late General I. K. Acheampong, the then Head of State, to involve more women in the development agenda of the country.
Commendation
Ms Tetteh commended the women machinery for the numerous interventions it had made in ensuring gender equity and for the promulgation of laws that protected women in the country.
She, however, underscored the need for national efforts to contain the trafficking of girls and women, to serve as domestic helps in other countries.
Ms Tetteh asked parents to desist from giving away their female children to traffickers and rather place on them the same premium that they put on their male children.
The Minister of Gender, Children and Social Protection, Nana Oye Lithur, in a welcome address, said the future of the women machinery in the country looked even brighter, as a lot of social intervention programmes were currently being undertaken to improve the lives of women.
Currently, she said, the literacy rate between men and women in the country had been narrowed, as 68.5 per cent women were literate as compared to 80.2 per cent of men.
Nana Oye commended the tireless efforts of women such as the late Mrs Esther Ocloo and Mrs Comfort Engman, in establishing the Women’s World Banking in the 1980’s.
She also commended former First Lady Nana Konadu Agyemang Rawlings for her role during the Beijing Conference in 1995, as well as other women who had headed the women’s ministry since it was established.
Dialogue
During the dialogue session, Ms Marian Tackie, a former Executive Director, NCWD, said the women machinery, looking at where it was coming from, had achieved a lot through creating awareness of gender equality.
Ghana’s Chair to the United Nations Commission on Elimination of all forms of Violence Against Women (CEDAW), Ms Hilary Gbedemah said the country had come a long way but had little to show in terms of women’s participation in decision making.
According to her, the country had an unparalleled legal framework with regard to ensuring gender equity but had done little in the last 40 years towards achieving that objective.
The Chairperson of the National Commission for Civic Education (NCCE), Mrs Charlotte Osei, in her submission, said the country’s achievements with regard to women’s development over the last 40 years were significant as a lot had been done to improve the lot of women.
She said issues which 40 years ago looked unsurmountable, such as having a female chief justice or a speaker of parliament, were now things of the past.
At the end of the dialogue, a new logo for the women’s machinery was jointly unveiled by the gender minister and the Mamponghemaa, Nana Agyakoma Difie II.
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