Norsaac launches Agenda 55 to address violence against women in Northern Ghana

Norsaac has launched a platform on sexual and gender-based violence against girls in Northern Ghana.

The platform, which is a voluntary peer review platform dubbed Agenda 55 will be implemented across all 55 Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies in the five regions of Northern Ghana.

It is expected to address the rising incidents of gender-based violence in Northern Ghana.

Ghana recorded 1, 047 defilement while 305 women were raped in 2020 alone, a situation the Domestic Violence and Victims Support Unit of the Ghana Police Service described as alarming.

The situation is said to be worse in Northern Ghana as Norsaac says it receives daily reports of abuses against women and girls almost daily.

Speaking at the launch, Executive Director of Norsaac, Alhsaan Mohammed Awal emphasized the need for a collaborative effort to end violence against women, noting that 736 million women around the world, experienced one form of sexual and gender-based violence in their lives.

He said the statistics in Ghana indicated that women and girls were not safe.

Mr Mohammed Awal said Agenda 55 will establish a partnership with the various Regional Coordinating Councils “to have a reliable and self-motivating state for the MMDAs to prioritize interventions on Sexual and Gender-Based Violence”.

He said each of the 55 MMDAs is expected to provide annual reports on the status of their interventions.

Safia Musah, a Gender Equality and Social Inclusion Activist bemoaned Ghana’s Justice System, noting that there are several barriers to accessing justice for victims of sexual and gender-based violence.

She describes the country’s justice system as a big failure, explaining that “there are districts in this country where a survivor would go to report a case and DOVVSU doesn’t even have the resources to effect the arrest of the perpetrator. Many times, they ask the victim to provide means of transport for them to do their job and as we know, victims are normally not well resourced to take up this”.

Madam Safia claimed the state seemed to be siding with the perpetrators of violence against women, saying that “If the state fails to protect and ensure justice for survivors of violence, it has automatically sided with the perpetrators”.

The Dean of the Metropolitan, Municipal and District Chief Executives in the Northern Region and Municipal Chief Executive of the Nanumba North Municipality, Abdulai Yakubu, welcomed the campaign and pledged the commitment of all MMDAs in Northern Ghana towards the successful implementation of the Agenda 55.