A call has been made to the government to integrate gender perspectives into all national laws and policies to enhance women’s participation in national development.
Dr. Charity Binka, Executive Director of Women, Media and Change (WOMEC), said steps must be taken to ensure that women and girls were at the centre of planning and programming to accelerate the country’s growth.
She made the call at a mentorship and leadership seminar organized by WOMEC and Gender Transformative Programme, (GTP) as part of this year’s International Women’s Day.
Over 60 adolescent girls from selected schools in the Kpone-Katamanso Municipality participated in the programme.
Dr Binka urged the government to speed up the passage of the Affirmative Action Bill into law and said this could no longer wait after 11 years.
She also underlined the need for deliberate economic measures to support women in business to ensure that, they have equal access to finance and other resources.
She said as part of celebrating this year’s International Women’s Day, WOMEC deemed it necessary to bring the event to the level of the girls to remind them to aspire for a brighter future.
Dr. Binka said the Day offered an opportunity to reflect on the issues of gender equality and the promotion of the rights of women and girls.
She charged the girls to focus on education and said it was the pathway to socio-economic and political empo11werment.
Education, she noted that, was one of the significant ways to promote positive change, adding that, “you have to be assertive without being aggressive, if you are not assertive, people will walk over you, so should not allow anybody to silence you because nobody has the right to”.
Dr. Vanesa Nsiah Akosah, a Surgeon at the Tema General Hospital encouraged the adolescent girls to be eager to add value to their lives.
Ms. Deborah Konney, School Health Education Programme (SHEP) Coordinator, Ghana Education Service, told the adolescent girls to keep themselves well and to be modest in their dressing.
