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Dr Beatrix Allah-Mensah (3rd right) introducing executive members of the network.
Dr Beatrix Allah-Mensah (3rd right) introducing executive members of the network.

Ghana Chapter of Network of Professional Women in place - To build capacity of women in water, sanitation

The Network of Professional Women in Water and Sanitation-Ghana Chapter, an initiative aimed at building the capacity of women operating in the water and sanitation sector, has been inaugurated in Accra.

The initiative by the African Water Association (AFWA), funded by the Ghana Water Company Limited, will create a platform for exchange of experiences, good practices and capacity building in the Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) sector.

At the inaugural ceremony last Thursday, the Senior Country Operations Officer of the World Bank, Ghana, Dr Beatrice Allah-Mensah, said the initiative was in line with the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) Six and would empower women as agents of change in the WASH sector in effective decision-making that would impact their professional, public and personal lives.

She added that the government had shown varying degrees of commitment to provide adequate and safe drinking water and decent sanitation facilities to citizens, resulting in a number of policies, strategies, programmes and projects.

Need for collaboration

Dr Mrs Allah-Mensah said to effectively deal with water and sanitation issues in the country, there was the need for collective collaboration between the government, stakeholders and non-governmental organisations.

According to her, the involvement of women was critical to ensuring that gender perspectives are effectively and sustainably incorporated into the national water and sanitation issues, policies, programmes and projects in the country.

“Women can be ambassadors in advocacy and be agents of empowerment and resource management and distribution. Women can also be among the skilled labour force to provide services in the sector,” she said.

SDG Six goes beyond drinking water, sanitation and hygiene to also address the quality and sustainability of water resources, critical to the survival of people and the planet.

She noted that water and sanitation were critical national issues but collaboration with the government, development partners, political parties, civil society organisations, women’s groups and other stakeholders would go a long way to deal with them.

Innovation and creativity

Dr Allah-Mensah mentioned innovation and creative ways to promote access to water and sanitation, public education, sensitisation of the overall national sanitation framework, capacity-building as some of the actions to be taken by stakeholders to deal with the situation.

For her part, the organiser for the network, Madam Faustina Boachie, said the network, which was  a subsidiary of the African Water Association (AFWA), would promote the sharing of knowledge and experience among professional women in the WASH sector.

She said it would raise awareness of professional women about their leadership potential for a better future and promote the gender policy in water and sanitation utilities.    

“To ensure that a gender perspective was successfully incorporated into the National Water and Sanitation agenda, the network would advocate for the involvement of both men and women at all levels,” she said.

She added that in promoting the agenda,  potable water would be provided for schools and health facilities to enhance education on sanitation, and that the network would ensure that the overall national sanitation framework was gender-sensitive.

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