Ghana requests UN Women to reopen local office

Ghana has requested the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN Women) to reopen its Ghana office which was recently closed down.

The Minister for Gender, Children and Social Protection, Nana Oye Lithur, made the request in a meeting with the UN Women Executive Director, Dr Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, who is also UN Under-Secretary-General.

The Ghana UN Women office had provided technical support to the country through the Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection, the National Development Planning Commission (NDPC), Institute of Local Government Studies (ILGS), Ministry of Finance of Economic Planning (MoFEP) and the Ghana Statistical Service (GSS).

It also provided support to civil society organisations, and the media on gender responsive issues. UN Women Ghana’s priority areas were to expand women’s voice, leadership, and participation; end violence against women, enhance women’s economic empowerment and to make gender equality priorities central to local, national and sectoral planning and budgeting.

Expanded gender mandate

Nana Oye Lithur informed the UN Women that the Gender Ministry had an expanded mandate with the major priority being to strengthen the legal policies framework of gender equality, hence the closure of the office has created a gap for both technical and financial support.

She further indicated that Ghana had embarked on an agenda to close down the witches camp and integrate the alleged witches into their communities.

“This requires both financial and technical support as it will involve the strengthening of sensitisation programmes in communities,” the minister said and indicated that Ghana will soon submit a proposal to the UN Women for assistance.

Dr Mlambo-Ngcuka noted that the request  to reopen the UN Ghana office would be considered as it was in the right direction, particularly in the face of the challenges impeding the effort to attain gender equality by 2030.

Male involvement

She urged Ghana to intensify efforts to involve males in promoting gender equality.

According to her, in a study conducted by the UN Women in Africa, Ghana came out as one of the countries with very little male involvement in its gender programmes, so there was the need for targeted programmes to bring them on board.

Dr Mlambo-Ngcuka further called for enhanced community participation  “because some of the international laws, although are very good, conflict with traditional laws and have, therefore, become very difficult to implement.” 

She also urged the Gender Ministry to involve the media in all its deliberations.