Ms. Kati Csaba, the Canadian High Commissioner to Ghana, has called for more opportunities for women to enable them contribute effectively to the economic growth of the country.
She said Ghana could not achieve inclusive economic growth and the Sustainable Development Goals if it failed to fully engage women as economic actors and provided equal participation platform for them.
“Inclusive economic growth in Ghana cannot be achieved without the full and equal participation of women as economic actors,” she said, adding that “Ghanaian women need more opportunities to succeed, and greater control over resources and decision-making. When women are able to develop their full economic potential-whether as business leaders, entrepreneurs, or producers, economies thrive and the benefits of growth reach more people.”
The High Commissioner made the call when she launched four economic empowerment projects in Accra, to support women and girls in Ghana.
The four projects are the Women Innovative for Sustainable Enterprise (WISE), Women’s Economic Advancement for Collective Transformation (WEACT), Innovative for Non-Traditional Education and Skills Training (INVEST) and the Women’s Economic Empowerment (WEE-NORTH).
The initiatives will provide skills training for women and girls while focusing on increasing productivity, profitability and innovation of women-owned businesses in the informal sector.
The projects will directly benefit 31,000 Ghanaian women, from specific urban, peri-urban, and rural areas in eight regions of Ghana.
The Regions are: Upper West, Upper East, Savanna, Northern, Western, Western North, Bono, Bono East and Ahafo Regions.
The projects will be implemented by Alinea International, Oxfam Québec, Plan International Canada, and the World University Service of Canada, each working in close collaboration with government partners and civil society organizations in Ghana.
The High Commissioner said the Canadian Government had earmarked GHS138 million (CAD 30 million) for the projects and would be implemented between four to five years.
Ms Csaba said the projects would contribute to improving the understanding of the numerous challenges women faced and helped them to overcome the barriers.
“These projects will give us an opportunity to explore new approaches for women’s economic inclusion,” she said, adding that it formed part of the two countries’ contribution towards addressing issues of gender inequality and promoting women’s economic empowerment.
