
Gender Minister pledges to reset ministry
The Minister of Gender, Children and Social Protection, Agnes Naa Momo Lartey, has met with Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) working in the area of women and children’s rights to deepen the relationship with them to help solve issues that affect their welfare.
Among the issues discussed during the meeting included the implementation of the Affirmative Action Act, decentralisation of the school feeding programme, the government's intended Women’s Development Bank and its opportunities for women, social protection, child trafficking prevention and maintaining zero tolerance for
Female Genital Mutilation (FGM), among others.
The Minister in her initial comments said within 120 days, she hopes to be able to attain great heights with CSOs’ support.
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“We still have more room for improvement.
There are a lot of policies left hanging that need to be finalised, and we need the help of NGOs and CSOs to address these challenges at the grassroots level,” she said.
A major change she hoped to achieve was to decentralise the school feeding programme to ensure quality control and accountability, saying, “If you cannot feed it to your children, if you cannot eat it yourself, don’t feed it to others”.
Collaboration
Dr Lartey emphasised her ministry’s commitment to collaborate with civil society organisations saying, “As a ministry, we are poised to continue working with you and even do better.
You have invaluable expertise that we can tap into to make this country a better place for all”.
She said the ministry would embark on a resource mapping agenda to know who is where to ensure that policies and programmes are effectively coordinated to minimise duplications.
also hoped to build the capacities of heads of the various departments and agencies under the ministry to ensure that they can take up projects to minimise costs to the ministry.
Also, she said most of the issues in the ministry were cross-sectorial, such as the issue of street children, and, therefore, needed a sectorial approach to achieve them.
She pledged to liaise more with other ministries to achieve their aims when necessary.
All the CSOs present took turns to outline their advice, expectations and where they could collaborate with the ministry, pledging their continuous support to the minister to achieve her aim.
The Chief Director for the Ministry, Dr Afisah Zakariah, also thanked the CSOs for their continuous support of the work of the ministry and assured them of the ministry’s readiness to continue to work with them.
Writer’s email:rebecca.quaicoe-duho@graphic.com.gh