Gender Ministry trains queen mothers to address inequalities

The Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection and the United Nations Fund for Population Activities (UNFPA) has outlined measures to ensure gender equality through the mainstreaming of gender considerations to promote the welfare and protection of all to contribute to national development.

The sector minister, Ms Adwoa Safo, who said this, explained that the ministry was mandated to ensure gender equality.

She said this in a speech read on her behalf at a durbar and training of National Queen Mothers as advocates against inequalities and harmful practices last Tuesday.

Event

The Durbar and Training brought together 32 queen mothers from all the 16 regions.

It was aimed at equipping and encouraging queen mothers to be advocates against inequalities and harmful practices in their communities.

In an address read on her behalf, the Chief Director of the Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection, Dr Afisah Zakariah, urged the queen mothers to support the ministry by sharing their thoughts and ideas for the ministry to address issues facing the communities.

“The Ministry uses such opportunities to dialogue with queen mothers to formulate policy direction in addressing issues to ensure national development”, she stated.

Achievement

The President of the Queen Mothers Platform-Ghana, Nana Amposah Dokua III, outlined some of the achievements and some intervention programmes they had implemented in their society to ensure that all members of the community, regardless of their status attained equal benefits to contribute to national development.

She also expressed appreciation to the ministry for the continuous support they had received and assured the ministry of their continuous contribution to the attainment of the agenda through the renewed structure of the organisation.

Nana Dokua III, however, highlighted some areas of interest the group would like the ministry to support them to achieve.

Support

The Gender Analyst for the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), Ms Selina Owusu, also pledged the support of the UNFPA to the ministry as it also had a mandate and a vision to end all forms of gender-based violence (GBV) and harmful traditions.

“Based on such worrying trends, the UNFPA has a mandate and a vision to end all forms of GBV and harmful traditions, and so the ministry has our full support in all actions”, she stated.

She added that in an attempt to achieve zero GBV, the UNFPA Ghana Country Office, in partnership with the ministry, in March this year, launched the Boame Mobile App and the Orange Support Centre to aid GBV victims to report incidents.