Danish ambassador, stakeholders brainstorm on women's health
The Danish Ambassador to Ghana, Ms Tove Degnbol, has interacted with Ghanaian delegates who attended the just ended Women Deliver Conference in Copenhagen, Denmark, to discuss lessons learned and best practices from the conference.
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The meeting also discussed how the stakeholders could promote the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs ) related to women and girls’ health and rights in Ghana.
It further provided a platform for the Ghnaian participants to network and hopefully coordinate future interventions.
Addressing the delegates, made up of representatives of Parliament, civil society organisations, ministries, research institutions and media, over lunch, Ambassador Degnbol was happy that Ghana had about 50 delegates participating in all aspects of the conference, including panels, side events and partners’ forum.
She particularly mentioned the active participation of the Minister of Gender, Children and Social Protection, Nana Oye Lithur who represented Ghana in the Ministerial Forum and on other panels and also participated in other Women Deliver related activities.
Ambassador Degnbol said Denmark, had for years, been promoting the rights of women and girls, especially sexual and reproductive health and rights.
“This is why we were extremely proud to host the Women Deliver conference together with Women Deliver, UN Women, and UNFPA.
“Here in Ghana, Denmark has been an active partner in the health sector for more than 22 years, promoting women’s right and access to quality health care. Recently, together with the Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection we have also funded a small programme on ending gender-based violence in Ghana, ”she stated
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She said not only was the conference the biggest gathering of advocates for women’s and girls’ rights but through the extensive media coverage, it represented a unique opportunity to promote gender equality across the world and hopefully also reach part of the ‘hard-to reach audience’.
“Now and in the time to come, the challenge is to follow up on all the promises and to draw on the inspiration and the best practices that were shared at the conference.
Ambassador Degnbol announced that Denmark had just committed $10 million for the Amplify Change fund, which aims to empower young people, men and women to realise their sexual and reproductive rights.
Biggest global meeting
Nana Oye Lithur also noted that Women Deliver’s conferences had become some of the biggest global meetings to focus on the health, rights and wellbeing of girls and women.
The conferences, she stated, offered an important moment for actors around the world to re-energise and recommit themselves to the new sustainable development agenda.
“ Like the SDGs, Women Deliver is dedicated to putting people at the centre, in this case girls and women, to drive progress across all the goals.
High representation
She was happy about the high representation of civil society at the conference, saying that they could play a key role in ensuring that governments were accountable in developing plans that directly reflected the SDGs.
“Civil society organisations can also complement the programmes of government through innovative direct interventions,” she added.
According to her, her participation offered her the opportunity to learn about the effective strategies to prioritise investment in young people and their involvement
She urged all the delegates to work towards a better future for girls and women.