March 11, 2016

Inadequate funding hinders rural women empowerment in Ghana
Audrey Micah, Ghanadot

Accra, April 22, Ghanadot - For many years, seminars and workshops have been organised all in the name of empowering Ghanaian women, but their actual implementation has unfortunately been tardy. Either, implementing institutions pay lip service to start a programme or resource allocation are too inadequate to check desired effects of the programme.

There is a genuine and strong need to constitute implementation committees whose only job would be to monitor the level of progress and take appropriate remedial measures to ensure that the programme achieve its targets. In other words, opportunities do exist to empower rural women, there is a need to translate them into effective action.

Another important challenge that rural women face during empowerment process is the urgency to devise innovative and impregnable mechanisms as conventional strategies have miserably failed to deliver results. While devising innovative strategies, views of menfolk should be flexibly accommodated so that strategies become much more effective, if not fool proof.

Many use the term empowerment without understanding what it really means. A literature review resulted in no clear definition of the concept, especially one that could cross-disciplinary lines.

This article defines empowerment as a multi-dimensional social process that helps people gain control over their own lives. It is a process that fosters power in people for use in their own lives, their communities and in their society, by acting on issues they define as important.

In fact, economic and political factors are the crucial keys to empower rural women. Both these factors of power if put together have the potential to transform the conditions of rural women beyond conventional thinking.

To empower them economically, there is a need to take affirmative action to further develop their skills, capacities and productivity as well as enforce gender sensitive laws and policies to protect their rights in the labour force.

Legal protection should also be provided to women in ownership of land so that women could become independent to chart out their own strategy in agricultural production. Aso, to empower them politically, there is a need to create special funds for women for political campaign as well as give them training on political and legal rights.

Similarly, in schools and colleges, knowledge of political rights should be imparted and made part of the curriculum and at the same time, periodic elections should be held where students should participate and learn political processes. Important of all, legislation should be enacted to reserve seats for women in national legislative assembly. Their involvement in the apex level decision making body would surely help to achieve the targets.

Closely associated with economic-political factors are social and cultural conditions that reinforce to negate the advancement of rural women. Inability of rural women to question conventional wisdom has perpetuated men’s domination in the patriarchal society.

The effective solution to this challenge lies in educating rural women. An educated woman can arguably challenge social dogmas and assert their position. Here again, an innovative approach is needed to convert this potential human resource into a development tool.

Minister for Women and Children's Affairs, Ms Sena Akua Dansuah has stated when Ghanadot called on her that her ministry will promote the welfare of women and children in Ghana, and also ensure equal status for women and promote rights of children.

Ms. Dansuah said the Ministry of Women and Children's Affairs has prepare a National Development plan and programmes for women and children in which all the desired objectives and functions of the Ministry are programmed for implementation.

She assured that her ministry will ensure that development programmes for women are effectively implemented, through continuous monitoring and evaluation of the implementation process, making sure stipulated objectives are fulfilled.

Hon. Akua Dansua pointed out that women and children’s issues played a pivotal role in government’s agenda, adding that things will be different in her ministry as she will do everything possible to ensure that women are given the support to be able to stand on their own.

Ghanadot
 

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