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Nana Oye Lithur, Minister of Gender, Children and Social Protection.
Nana Oye Lithur, Minister of Gender, Children and Social Protection.

‘Women empowerment critical for development’

The president of the National Association of Local Authorities of Ghana (NALAG), Mr Isaac Ashai Odamtten, has called for the empowerment of women to enable them  to contribute immensely to the socio-economic development of the country.

He said the government, the private sector and the public needed to support and encourage women to go into politics and occupy sensitive positions in the country.

He made the call at a media briefing to commemorate the African Day on Decentralisation and Local Development in Ghana,last Wednesday in Accra.

The celebration of the day, which falls on August 10 every year, is to provide a platform for member states and governments of the African Union (AU) to popularise governance programmes within their respective countries.

Africa’s agenda

This year’s celebration was on the theme: “Gender, Equity and Women Empowerment, Key for Achieving Africa’s Agenda 2063 and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).”

Mr Odamtten said women’s participation in local governance, decentralisation and eradication of poverty still needed improvement in the country.

He said the limited number of women in politics and in public institutions denied women their requisite representation in the various sectors of the nation’s development.

For instance, he said, there were only about 20 women district chief executives out of the 216 district chief executives in the country.

Women’s Forum

Mr Odamtten said NALAG had instituted the Women’s Forum to serve as a platform to whip up the interest of women to participate in the local governance system.

Consequently, he added that the Women Caucus of NALAG had challenged the government to take steps to make good provisions geared towards increasing women’s participation in governance.

Mr Odamtten said the idea “is to have a positive impact on a population which has a large female component, therefore involving them in the decision-making process that affects the development of all”.

He said the essence was to empower women to positively contribute towards the attainment of the SDGs in the long run, “because we believe that their involvement will facilitate development and help eradicate or reduce hunger drastically in Africa.”

Mr Odamtten affirmed the readiness of NALAG, through its Gender and Development subcommittee, to continue to identify and bring on board issues related to gender and development. 

 

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