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March 11, 2016
Workshop on Aid Effectiveness and
Gender Equality opens
Accra. Nov. 20, GNA - A two-day West Africa Sub-Regional
Workshop on Aid Effectiveness and Gender Equality opened in
Accra on Monday with a call on governments to ensure that
gender issues assumed key positions in policy planning.
Dr George Gyan-Baffour, Deputy Minister of Finance and
Economic Planning, said since the description of gender
issues made it residual in policy considerations it was
unable to attract the required budgetary allocation.
He suggested that gender issues be singled out to stand as a
pillar in chapters of policy deliberations to make it a
front burner issue critical to nations' planning process.
The workshop, organized by the United Nations Development
Fund for Women (UNIFEM) and United Nations Development
Programme (UNDP), is co-hosted by the Ministry of Women and
Children's Affairs (MOWAC).
The workshop is the result of a 2005 consultative meeting on
new aid modalities by women organizations where participants
concluded that there were opportunities to influence policy
implementation.
It would also provide opportunity for national women
machineries to understand better the content of the new
modalities and aid effectiveness and afford stakeholders
with windows to engage key policymakers.
Dr Gyan-Baffour noted that developing countries could not
consider the new aid modalities to have been effective if
they did not address all issues of poverty reduction.
"If they do not they will not be able to deliver on targets
of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) on which we all
agree that have gender dimensions which have to be
critically addressed if development is to be sustainable."
He stressed the need to align and harmonize development
assistance with development partners and manage them for
effective results while at the same time holding each other
accountable to the collective international, sub-regional
and national gender equality commitments.
"For it is only by doing so within the new modalities will
development assistance be effective to solve the
Sub-Region's problems of reducing poverty and creating
wealth by which MDGs will be realized," he said.
Hajia Alima Mahama, Minister of Women and Children's
Affairs, said Ghana was making giant strides to influence
the new aid modalities noting that MOWAC had gained observer
status to the Multi Donor Budget Support Meetings.
"We also managed to work together on the draft policy matrix
and offer suggestions to highlight gender issues, which we
expect to be incorporated," she said.
Hajia Alima said the Ministry was working with the Ghana
Statistical Service to collect and develop a data base on
gender issues.
She appealed to the donor community and governments to
support the various women groups to work to address gender
issues in the new aid modalities in the Sub-Region.
Mrs Florence Butegwa, Nigerian Representative of the United
Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM), pledged the
continuous support of the Fund to ensure that issues on
women received the needed attention.
GNA
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