Nana Adwoa Awindor gets top post

Another Ghanaian gem has once again placed the country’s name high on the map of the African continent and the global stage.

Obaapa Adwoa Ankyaa a.k.a Nanahemaa Adwoa Awindor (Development Queenmother of Afigya-Kwabre District, and of ‘Greetings from Abroad/Back Home Again fame) is the First President of the Continental Executive Board of the newly formed African Queens and Women Cultural Leaders Network (AQWCLN) in Uganda.

She was elected after a unanimous election ceremony at its general conference and official launch of AQWCLN meeting held in Kampala during a 4-day conference owing.

The decision was arrived at owing to her passion for the wellbeing of women and children with a global perspective, the key role she played in the processes preceding the formation of the Network, and her commitment to its cause. She will run the continental administrative office in Ghana for a year.

AQWCLN is an idea birthed from the first Global Power Network meeting held in Harare, Zimbabwe in May, 2012 and attended by African women leaders in politics, education, health, business, governance and culture.

An astute cultural leader and Queen of the Buganda Kingdom, Nnaabagereka Queen Sylvia Nagginda, with Nanahemaa Awindor made submissions towards the role of African women cultural leaders in development at the Global Network, stressing on the significance of culture in development.

Nana Awindor’s video letter presentation on the topic, “The Role of Cultural & Traditional Leaders in scaling up programmes to eliminate New infections in Children & Keeping Mothers Alive,” received huge commendation from the conference which was subsequently communicated to her sponsors UNAIDS.

In furtherance of efforts at strengthening the efforts of other African women cultural leaders to significantly impact the lives of their kind and children in Africa, and with support from the UN and AU, members of AQWCLN from 10 African countries later gathered in Accra in October 2012 to formalize the idea.

With an aim at building a strong network that will act as a meaningful and effective partner in enabling Africa to fulfill its aspirations as a unified, peaceful and prosperous continent, AQWCLN is blazing the trail.

The launch in Uganda was organized by the Africa Union and sponsored by UN Women, UNAIDS, other UN Agencies and the Ugandan government, and was co-hosted by HRH Sylvia Nagginda, Queen of the Buganda Kingdom and HRH Best Kemisiga, Queenmother of the Tooro Kingdom under the Chief Host of H.E. Yoweri Museveni, President of the Republic of Uganda.

The conference which took place at Speke Resort Munyonyo in the outskirts of Kampala was under the theme; ''African Queens and Women leaders - A vehicle for social and economic empowerment of rural women and youth in Africa - Looking beyond 2015, the future we want.''

The Deputy Minister of Tourism, Culture and Creative Arts, Hon. Maama Abla Dzifa Gomashie, led a three-man Ghanaian delegation last month to the conference in Kampala where she played a dual role as the only Minister of State who fully participated and in her traditional capacity as a Queen herself (Maama Dzramedo I).

The program also saw attendance from over 70 participants across Africa comprising Queens, Queen Mothers, Princesses, Wives of Princes, Women Cultural leaders, some Chiefs, UN Officials and Government officials (from Uganda).

They included members from Uganda, Cameroon, Swaziland, Kenya, South Sudan, Zimbabwe, Botswana and Ghana, making up the founding members of AQWCLN, with Queen Sylvia and Nanahemaa Awindor as Visionary Founders.

"We live in difficult times where we may not be very effective in responding to the needs of our people and above all, there are rising levels of poverty - health indicators are lower for women, infants and children, more women are dying giving life to others, and the rates of violence against women and girls are high. This challenges us as cultural leaders on how best we can be key in providing alternatives and use culture to engineer development,” Queen Sylvia.