Gender Ministry scales-up gender equality promotion

Mrs Cynthia Mamle Morrison, Minister for Gender, Children and Social Protection, has said there has been several efforts by the Ministry to promote gender equality and women’s empowerment.

She said the Ministry has done this through institutional, administrative, social protection and legal reforms including the promotion of gender mainstreaming in all governing processes.

She said gender-responsive budgeting in Ministries Departmental and Agencies (MDAs) and Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDs), Livelihood Empowerment against Poverty (LEAP) programmes, a National Gender Policy are all geared towards gender empowerment.

Mrs Morrison said this at the launch of the International Women’s Day and Inter-School Debate being held under the theme: “I am generation equality: Realizing Women’s Rights in Ghana”.

The Gender Minister said: “The generation of the equality campaign demands equal pay, equal sharing of unpaid care and domestics work, an end to sexual harassment and all forms of violence against women and girls.

“Health- care services that respond to the needs of women and equal participation in political life and decision-making in all areas of life”.

Mrs Morrison said the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action of 1995 has been the most visionary platform for the empowerment of women and girls.

She said the Beijing Platform for Action was adopted by 189 governments committed to taking a strategic view of 12 critical areas of concern which were poverty, education and training, health, violence, among others.

“Today, not a single country can claim to have achieved gender equality. Multiple obstacles remain unchanged in law and culture”.

The Minister said women remain undervalued “they continue to work more, earn less, have fewer choices and experience multiple forms of violence at home and in public spaces.

She said though Ghana has achieved gender parity in the educational sector which is seen as an increase in women participation in decision making there is still a lot of work to be done for women advancement.

As part of the strategies to end adolescent pregnancy, the Ministry has worked to enact an Affirmative Action Law, facilitate the enactment of the Domestic Violence Act and a Human Trafficking Act, she said.

She said the Ministry has engaged with stakeholders such as traditional and religious authorities on diverse issues of harmful cultural practices that affect the rights of women and girls.

The Gender Minister urged women to stay focused and called on people in higher positions to encourage the younger ones who want to climb-up the ladder.