A consortium of Non-governmental Organizations (NGOs) working to promote the welfare of Girls and Young Women (GYW), has called on the government to adequately resource agencies and departments that are mandated to protect the interest of girls and women.
The consortium dubbed, “She Leads Ghana Consortium”, said resourcing and equipping these agencies and departments such as the Ministry of Gender and the Domestic Violence and Victims Support Unit (DOVSU) would enable them to effectively implement the laws geared towards empowering girls and young women and protecting their rights.
The Spokes Person for the consortium, Madam Angela Kwabi, made the call in a communiqué issued to climax a three-day capacity building workshop for members of the consortium and the media in Accra yesterday.
It also called on parents, traditional and religious leaders to promote positive gender norms that can increase girls and young women empowerment to enable them to take up leadership roles and to actively participate in decision making process at all levels, including the family, school workplace and the national level.
It cited the poor representation of women in parliament as an example of low women participation in leadership and decision making in the country.
The consortium added that men’s domination in the leadership roles at school and the community level is an indication of the limited opportunities for women to participate in leadership and decision making at all levels of national life due to many obstacles or barriers.
These barriers include; women’s restricted access to education and skills training, limiting women to child bearing and housekeeping and negative social norms among others
The Ghana consortium is a five year strategic partnership between the Plan International Ghana, Defense for Children International Ghana, Women Aspire Network and Gender Centre for Empowering Development, representing FEMNET and young women led organizations including CARD-Ghana.
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