Uneven spatial distribution of the population often leads to poor delivery of basic infrastructure, which results in high prevalence rate of poverty and fewer opportunities in the rural areas, says Dr Philomena Nyarko, Acting Government Statistician.
Speaking at the launch of the Country Profile on Gender Inequalities in Rural Employment in Ghana by Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) on Wednesday, Dr Nyarko said rural men and women lack decent work opportunities.
She stressed that women in particular face greater difficulties in transforming their labour into more productive employment activities and their paid work into higher and more secured incomes.
She said inadequate data on gender sensitive indicators had been a serious impediment to understanding the phenomenon, making informed policy decisions which would necessitate the drive to improve statistical systems and ensure the full mainstreaming of gender into data production, analysis and dissemination.
Dr Nyarko said, “Efforts to promote gender equity in labour markets and income generating activities as well as the support for decent employment initiatives in rural areas were hampered by the lack of comprehensive information on the multiple dimensions of social and gender inequalities.
“Gender Inequalities in Rural Employment in Ghana was a testimony of the great interest the government and other stakeholders had in the development of gender statistics in the country, hence the urgency they had attached to accelerating progress in bridging the gender gap.”
She noted that most households in rural areas today still depends on land and other natural resources for their basic subsistence, as a result, agriculture remains the primary economic activity and main source of employment.
She said there was the need to introduce innovative programmes that would focus on rural areas and farming communities for the rural folks to get access to credit and savings, affordable public and private mechanisms which could provide access to land, markets, seeds, fertilisers and machinery.
Dr Nyarko urged policy makers to recognise women’s high participation in non-agricultural self-employment activities as an opportunity to increase rural employment and access to economic resources in strengthening a collective action especially within women groups.
She advised that women should be given the same legal rights and opportunities as men in accessing and using natural resources such as land, in addition to promoting women’s participation in farmer organisations.
Mrs Afua Ansre, National Programme Coordinator of UN Women said gender mainstreaming attempts were systematic in identifying key issues, which would contribute to gender inequalities to be properly addressed.
She said the country profile had revealed that there was a wide gender gap in the time allocated to domestic activities adding, whilst 65 per cent of men spent from 0 to 10 hours per week on domestic activities , 89 per cent of women spend 10 hours per week or more.
She said women were less likely to be able to take full advantage of economic opportunities to respond to the changing market opportunities and also in participating in income-generating activities.
The country profile developed by the Gender, Equity and Rural Employment Division of the FAO of the United Nations, addresses the lack of statistics and contributes to a better understanding of the types and the degree of existing gender inequalities in rural settings.
The profile identified some key findings where policy action was most needed and these included: extreme poverty in the three northern regions and high rate of illiteracy, youth population undergoing a certain shortage of employment opportunities, gender inequalities in rural employment.
It also identified poor access to land and finance which hampers agricultural and rural livelihood, low educational attainment and gender rural – urban inequalities as well as unbalanced distribution of domestic work between men and women. **
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