Provide women quality, affordable health care — E/R Population Officer
The Eastern Regional Officer of the National Population Council (NPC), Isaac Ter-Ibinibe Sopelle, has said unless women and girls have equal access to quality and affordable health care, Ghana's attainment of the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) would be an illusion.
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He also mentioned other factors that would hinder the country’s attainment of the SDG, to include free exercise of sexual and reproductive health rights and treatment, as well as women being respected as equals.
Mr Sopelle made the statement when he addressed women and men groups made up of traders, seamstresses and religious organisations to observe this year's World Population Day at Koforidua, in the Eastern Region last Monday.
The event was on the theme: "Unleashing the power of gender equality to spur national development".
According to the Regional Population Officer, in the 2021 Population and Housing Census, women and girls constituted 50.9 per cent of the population.
More women
That, Mr Sopelle indicated, meant there were more women than men in the country.
He explained that the high proportions in the number of women and girls had implications for the country’s socio-economic development, especially in terms of women's empowerment, rights and choices, as well as infinite opportunities.
He also stated that the World Health Organisation (WHO) had noted that unless women and girls had access to quality and affordable health care and the aforementioned factors, Ghana's Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) 2030 agenda achievement would be in limbo.
He, therefore, called for a concerted effort to accord Ghanaian women and girls such recognition.
He said there was, the need to achieve gender equality and realise human rights as a key requirement of a just and sustainable country.
Challenges
The Eastern Regional Director of the Department of Gender, Juliana Abbeyquaye, for her part, said her outfit was tackling the challenges facing women and girls and had managed to make it possible for pregnant schoolgirls to continue their education after delivery.
That achievement, she indicated, was in collaboration with the Ghana Education Service (GES).
Ms Abbeyquaye called for the inculcation of gender issues rights from the home, community and decision-making levels.
She advocated equal opportunities for both females and males to make decisions, especially in marriages, since that was the best practice to ensure peaceful co-existence among them.
The Eastern Regional President of the Federation of Muslim Women Association, Hajia Ruckaiyah Issah, in an interview with the Daily Graphic called on all and sundry to stop all forms of discrimination against women.
Writer's email:haruna.wunpini@graphic.
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