Let's do more to promote gender equality - Mrs Azumah-Mensah

Accra, July 10, GNA - Ghana needs to do more to promote gender equality in the form of promoting Affirmative Action law to ensure that more women occupy leadership positions and are elected into political offices.   Mrs Juliana Azumah- Mensah, Minister of Women and Children’s Affairs, said Ghana, being a lead democratic country in Africa, had more to do in that area since women representation, particularly in the legislature and at the district levels, was too low.   Taking her turn at the meet-the-press series on Tuesday in Accra, Mrs Azumah-Mensah said the sector ministry had initiated various activities to solicit expert views and ideas into drafting the Affirmative Action (AA) bill for subsequent passage into law.   She said  institutions like political parties needed to be gender sensitive as well as the Electoral Commission, Civil society and individuals should supports attempts to ensuring that the AA came into being.   She announced that a National Gender Policy, expected to provide a timely and comprehensive framework to include gender awareness approaches in development, was also being processed to serve as a guide for the various stakeholders operating in the country to design gender sensitive programmes to enhance equitable socioeconomic development for men and women.   The Minister said other issues like exposure of women and children to harmful socio-cultural and antiquated traditional practices such as ritual servitude in witches camp, female genital mutilation and trokosi, human trafficking involving mostly women and children, domestic violence and gender stereotyping, were still major challenges facing women and children in the country.   Also, the high incidence of maternal deaths, breast and cervical cancer as well as gender discrimination in access to and control over productive resources and social services, all together exacerbate women’s vulnerability to poverty.   Mrs Azumah-Mensah indicated that the Ministry had put up interventions including the formulation of policies, coordinating, executing and monitoring of programmes and activities relating to the welfare of women and children, and providing the requisite platform and mechanism to implement government’s commitments expressed at international fora towards improving the status of women and children.   She said a Domestic Violence fund and human trafficking fund had been established to generate funds to assist and care for victims of abuse and for paying the repatriation fares of rescued human traffickers.   She said government launched the Domestic Violence fund with 20,000 Ghana cedis which had grown to 35,889.60 Ghana cedis at ECOBANK with account number 0134404636306 and urged corporate entities to donate towards it.   Mrs Azuma-Mensah noted that the Ministry of Women and Children's Affairs (MOWAC) in partnership with other development partners, have sponsored and trained  poor girls in vocational and technical institutions to enable them to acquire employable skills.   She announced that a new office complex of the Ministry was being put up near the Afua Sutherland Children’s Park to make more spaces for the staff of MOWAC, adding, the work is about 20 per cent completed and and expected to fully completed in 18 months.       GNA... Read Full Story