Madam Anna Nabere, She Leads Project Manager at Plan-Ghana International, has called on traditional and religious leaders to support the government to promote positive gender norms to increase civic space for girls and women in society.
She urged traditional and religious leaders to institute measures through education and skills training to help create enabling environment to support girls and women to participate actively in leadership and decision making at the family, school, community and national levels.
Madam Nabere made the call during the launch of the She Leads project steering Committee, and media briefing organised by She Leads Ghana Consortium, in Accra.
The She Leads is a five-year project, which begun this year, and is a joint initiative of Plan International Netherlands, Defence for Children – ECPAT), African Women’s Development and Communication Network (FEMNET), and Terre des Homes the Netherlands (TdH), with funding support from the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
It is being implemented by a consortium of organisations, including, Plan International Ghana, Defence for Children International (DCI), Women Aspire Network (WAN) and Gender Centre for Empowering Development (GenCED).
The project is being implemented in six regions, including, Upper West, North East, Central, North Western, Ashanti and Greater Accra.
Other partners implementing the project include Community Aid and rural Development (CARD) and Songtaba in the Upper West and North East regions respectively, Right and Responsibility Initiative Ghana and Erudite Women’s Empowerment Foundation (EWEF) in the Ashanti Region, and WAN and GenCED in the Central and North Western regions respectively.
She said the project was to increase the sustained influence of girls and women in decision-making and the transformation of gender norms in formal and informal institutions.
She urged stakeholders to deepen the advocacy on gender equality to enhance collaboration between men and women to collectively drive the country’s development agenda.
Mr Theophilus Ayugane; Policy Advisor, Governance and Human Rights, speaking on behalf of the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, said the Embassy was committed to addressing issues of girl’s rights.
He urged the consortium to work in collaboration with the government and other organizations to ensure that young women took up leadership positions where ever they worked.
Ms Angela Nhyira Kwabi, speaking on behalf of young women driving the implementation of the She Leads project, urged the government and other stakeholders to enforce laws to protect the rights of girls and women in the country.
She said it was prudent for the government to partner with other stakeholders to support young women with leadership skills to become part of the decision-makers in the community and at national levels.
Madam Christiana Asante, the Communication Specialist at Plan-Ghana International, advised the media to protect the image of children and young girls who become victims of some forms of abuse in their reportage to help maintain their self-esteem.
