African Women Leaders Network launched : Aims to mobilise females to transform Africa
The Ghana Chapter of the African Women Leaders Network (AWLN) has been launched at a colourful ceremony in Accra.
AWLN is a ground-breaking movement of African women leaders which is a joint initiative of the African Union (AU) and the United Nations (UN).
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The theme for the Ghana launch was: “Achieving Gender Equality And Inclusion For The Africa We Want” and it was attended by traditional leaders, women leaders, women’s rights groups, corporate women and young ladies.
Established in 2017, with a vision of a peaceful and transformed Africa informed by the quantitative and qualitative leadership of women, AWLN is in 30 out of the 54 countries in the Africa Region and the Ghana Chapter is the 31st to be launched.
Objectives
The Chairperson, Interim Steering Committee, AWLN Ghana Chapter, Dr Charity Binka, said AWLN has six key objectives which are to mobilise African women and women leaders to play significant roles and contributions in the transformation of Africa, influence dialogue and thought leadership on issues affecting women across Africa, support women political leaders and leadership at regional, national and local levels to enable them to pursue their leadership goals.
She said it was also to strengthen inter-generational women's leadership by creating spaces for African women of all ages to share leadership experiences and lessons learned, enhance the role of women in strategic policy spaces and processes, especially at the AU and UN and establish a sustainable knowledge base and transfer mechanism to ensure continuity of the agenda and to realise progress in its implementation.
To create a niche for itself, AWLN Ghana, she said, intended to prioritise three key areas which would be focused on promoting women's participation in politics and electoral processes, promoting women's participation in peace, development and humanitarian processes and the establishment of a network of young women leaders as well as the creation of an inter-generational mentoring programme.
Messages
The Minister-designate, Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection, Lariba Zuweirra Abudu, who was the keynote speaker, gave an assurance of the government’s support and commitment to the operations of AWLN in Ghana, saying the success of the network depended on the strong commitment to mobilise its networks, groups and individuals to support women to get into governance and leadership positions in different fields and sectors of society in the country.
The German Ambassador, Daniel Krull, in a remark, said excluding women in a country’s development meant excluding 50 per cent of the brain power of the country.
The UN Resident Coordinator, Charles Abani, said since the 1950’s women in Ghana have played pivotal roles in the country’s development. However, he said, they continue to face barriers including low representation in decision-making spaces.
The Country Representative, United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) Ghana, Barnabas Yisa, in a remark, also said the United Nations in Ghana stood with AWLN Ghana and supported its laudable objectives, as part of its approach to foster partnerships and promote gender equality.
He expressed appreciation to UN Women for the support to the network globally as well as to Ghana, and to UNFPA for facilitating the engagements of AWLN in Ghana.
Discriminatory actions
The Assistant Secretary-General for Africa, Department of Political Pease-pudding Affairs and Peace Operations, Martha Ama Akyaa Pobee, in a virtual message, called on AWLN to work at ensuring that discriminatory actions and policies that hinted women’s participation in political positions both at the grass roots and national levels were eliminated.
Hannah Tetteh, Special UN Envoy to the Horn of Africa, who also joined virtually, in a solidarity message, called on AWLN to ensure the participation of young women in their programmes, saying they were not the future but rather the present generation.
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