Question

How is Ghana's respond to women empowerement?

Answer 1

Women empowerment in Ghana has focus on many sectors like accommodating women in strategic positions, decision making bodies and many projects that are aimed at improving the economic self-reliance of women. The following are the important economic movements and programs that are aimed at empowerment of women in Ghana

· Nearly 70% of the Ghana’s women participate in the economy, which is a rate higher than many developed nations

· The government of Ghana is keen in implementing the Millennium Development Goals [MDG] so as to reduce the impact of gender inequality in Ghana and bring many of the women population in to Ghana’s economy.

· The government is also implementing various international laws and programs like CEDAW, Beijing Platform for action etc to improve the gender inequality and to provide equal opportunities in economic participation in the country.

· The Ministry of Women and Children affairs was constituted in 2001 to coordinate various policy measures so as to promote gender mainstreaming, women empowerment etc.

· Gender responsive budgeting has been a pillar of the budgetary allocations of Ghana and has been instrumental in improving the economic distribution to Ghana’s women so as to improve the participation in Ghana’s economy.

· The property and inheritance rights and laws are undergoing major transformations so as to impart more rights to women which would improve the economic base of women.

· The Women in Ghana program of the UN has been joining hands with the government of Ghana to promote empowerment through work with smaller farmers and adopt Good Agricultural Practices [GAP] and reduce post-harvest losses.

                                           From the discussions above, it is evident that the government is taking earnest steps for improving the economic participation of women in Ghana. But obstacles like education attainment still remains a challenge which if tackled would bring in many more women to participate in the economy of Ghana.