The Upper East Regional Women wing of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) has called on governments and state agencies to as a matter of urgency take concrete steps to implement policies and programmes to help remove all gender-based barriers.
The group made the call in a statement issued and signed by its Regional Women Organiser, Mrs. Georgina Ayamba, on the commemoration of this year’s International Women’s day.
The day aimed to help nations worldwide eliminate discrimination against women. It also focused on helping women gain full and equal participation in global development.
The event for this year is under the theme, “I am Generation Equality: Realizing Women’s Rights”, is commemorated on March 8 annually.
The Women Wing of the party stated that in spite of the herculean task and challenges women go through on daily basis, the survival of happy homes and successful countries is dependent on the critical roles women play in their societies.
They stated that it was based on this background that all governments and state agencies must expedite action on policies and programmes to remove all gender-based barriers for the full realisation of the potentials of women globally.
The statement stressed that as women celebrate the achievements of women today, it is important to work in synergy to challenge gender norms, break stereotypes, reject the binary and empower each other through active mobilisation and decision making to celebrate diversity.
The statement however indicated that the NPP government remains committed through its pro-poor programmes and policies tailored to confront the politico-socio-economic barriers facing women to address gender inequality.
According to the group, the successful introduction and implementation of government’s interventions such as the Free Senior high school programme, the One Village, One Dam Policy, purchase and distribution of ambulances, planting for Food and Jobs had offered a lot of opportunities for many women.
They cited for instance that the introduction of the Free Senior High programme by government has drastically reduced the financial burden particularly on women because they no longer pay the huge schools of their children as they used to do in the past.
They indicated that, under the Planting for Food and Jobs, over 20,000 rural women in the Upper East Region benefited from subsidised fertilizer and inputs that increased their yields and enhanced their livelihoods.
“We hope to expand this to cover more rural women in the coming farming season.”
The group further mentioned that apart from government disbursing loans under MASLOC to women entrepreneurs to undertake economic ventures to improve their livelihoods, government over the period had engaged more women caterers under the Ghana school feeding programmes which have had greater impact on their families.
They indicated that the reservation of the 30% political appointments for women at the central and decentralise government structures for inclusive good governance is evident of women empowerment at all spheres of life.
They concluded that, as the NPP government remains resolute in the economic and political emancipation of women by prioritising more women in permanent and temporary job opportunities as well as committed to the affirmative action.
As women celebrate this crucial day, they call for gender equality workplaces, gender equality government, gender equality media coverage.
Story filed by: Emmanuel Akayeti.
