ABANTU Commemorates International Women’s Day (IWD)

International Women’s Day (IWD) was, yesterday, commemorated with a stakeholder Consultation in Accra on the theme: ‘Staying on Track for Gender Responsiveness in Post 2015 Development Agenda’.

IWD is celebrated annually to honour women’s advancement while diligently reminding policy makers and critical actors of the continued vigilance and action to ensure that women’s advancement and gender equality become a reality in all aspects of life.

In Ghana, this year’s IWD is on theme: ‘The Gender Agenda: Gaining Momentum’ while that of the UN is “A promise is a promise: Time for action to end violence against women”.

The Consultation, organised by ABANTU for Development, a sub-regional gender policy advocacy Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO), in collaboration with Christian Aid Ghana, aimed to create greater awareness and provide a platform for harnessing efforts towards building a momentum in gender equality activism in the country.

In an address to open the meeting, a member of ABANTU, Ms Nafisatu Yussif, said that ABANTU was committed to the promotion and protection of women’s rights and gender equality, and that the institution of the annual event made it possible for the voices of different groups of men and women to be heard.

For his part, the Acting Programmes Manager for Christian Aid Ghana, Mr Ernest Okyere, said Christian Aid was the development wing of 41 sponsoring churches across Britain and Ireland working in the areas of relief, development and advocacy for poverty eradication.

Touching on gender and development, Mr Okyere noted that, gender inequality continued to undermine local and national efforts to improve living conditions, reduce poverty and enhance national development.

He said the traditional socio-economic structure and systems of kinship, economics, trade, politics and governance reinforced gender inequality and were manifested in less social, economic and legal rights.

In a presentation, the head of Gender and Social Development at the Institute of Local Government Studies, Mrs Magdalene Kannae, said in Ghana, the pursuit of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) from the perspective of Government was associated with a national target of the country becoming a middle income country.

Mrs Kannae said the MDGs were, therefore, incorporated into the country’s poverty reduction strategies and development frameworks— the GPRS 1 (2003-2005) and GRPS II (2006-2009) as well as the Ghana Shared Growth Development Agenda (2010-2013).

She said the National Development Planning Commission (NDPC), supported by the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning (MoFEP), as well as various development partners including the UN System in Ghana, led the planning, monitoring, data collection and analysis, reporting, information dissemination and evaluation processes by government.

Mrs Kannae observed that, the 2013 Budget Statement read earlier this week had some interesting analysis in section seven on “Social Protection Programmes and Poverty Reduction Expenditures and Progress Towards Achieving the Millennium Development Goals”.

According to her, indications from that statement revealed that government in 2012 earmarked 23.71% of a total domestically-financed budget for poverty reduction activities but spent 30.35% of the total GOG provision expenditure.

She said social intervention programmes by government included waste management, rural water supply, disaster management and youth employment programmes, while in education, there were the Capitation Grants, subsidies for BECE and Senior High Schools, Science Resource Centres, rehabilitation and construction of infrastructure and the School Feeding Programme.

For her part, the National Director of Evergreen Club of Ghana (ECOG), Madam Sakeena Bonsu, said the meeting was to bring women together to address their needs and concerns, and channel the relevant recommendations in a report to feed into the global post 2015 Agenda.

“If we are able to pass on the package of appropriate recommendations from this forum to be part of the national agenda, and pursue the national agenda  to be part of the global agenda, then,  one day, we will have a program that we can all feel proud of and ready to implement with commitment.” she said.

According to Madam Sakeena, as far back as September 2011, member states of the United Nations (UN) had called on the UN Secretary General for a new agenda which would fulfill the aims and objectives embedded in the MDGs.

This new framework, she said, posed a challenge to all stakeholders, governments, NGOs, Civil Society Organisations, (CSOs) and international institutions since the new development agenda was required to, among others, address the gaps  identified  with the MDG’s implementation.

Madam Sakeena observed that other proposals suggested that the Post 2015 framework should be more holistic, inclusive, equitable and universally applicable and have sustainable development at heart.

ISD