Women empowerment summit opens today
The Global Women Economic and Social Empowerment Summit (GWESES) aimed at celebrating distinguished women from all walks of life will commence today (Wednesday) at the Labadi Beach Hotel in Accra.
To be held on the theme: “Building and investing in our capacity to grow”, the summit will run till tomorrow evening with a variety of programmes, climaxing with a gala awards dinner.
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The President, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, is expected to receive the ‘Champion Gender Award’ at the Gala dinner while the spouse of the Prime Minister of the Bahamas, Mrs Patricia Beneby Minnis, the Special Guest of Honour for the summit, will be presented with the GWESES Honorary Pan-African First Ladies Award.
Summit focus
The event will focus on encouraging women to take on more leadership roles in the country. The summit will also highlight empowered women and their amazing achievements.
Speakers for the various sections of the summit include the First Lady of Ghana, Mrs Rebecca Akufo-Addo; the First Lady of Sierra Leone, Mrs Fatima Jabbe Maada-Bio, and the celebrated Pan Africanist and Gender Equality Campaigner, Sir Girmay Hale.
Speaking ahead of the event to throw more light on the various activities slated for the summit, the patron of GWESES, Dr Gifty Lamptey, said the summit would bring together distinguished personalities from the various sectors of the economy to discuss strategies that would help develop the country.
‘“We are delighted to host this gathering of distinguished leading women and men from various social, professional, academic and entrepreneurial backgrounds.
“It is also to showcase the extraordinary achievements and capabilities of women. As African women leaders, we have led, we are leading and we can continue to lead the transformation of this great continent,” she noted.
Empowering women
The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Global Women Inventors and Innovators Network (GWIIN) and Co-Founder of GWESES, Dr Bola Olabisi, noted that empowering women was critical for the development of the country and must be a priority of the government to encourage women to take on more leadership roles to propel the growth of the economy.
She said: “While at a certain level the numbers of empowered women are rising and many are being recognised for their greatness, the complex issues of women empowerment remain and the need to grow women’s capacity beyond limits while creating a more inclusive society is a focus of the GWESES.”
Awards presentation
The President of the 40 Roses Foundation and Co-Founder of GWESES, Ms Penelope Jones-Mensah, said: “It is extremely important to engage and partner men allies as frontline advocates who serve as role models and actively work for the socio-economic empowerment of women.”
She commended the extraordinary work of Togbe Afede XIV in championing the education of girls in the country.
She also praised a United States of America (USA)-based medical doctor, Dr Nelson Aluya, and Sir Girmay Haile for their work in addressing healthcare education for women.
She noted that these personalities, together with other supporters of their various projects, would be honoured alongside other distinguished women at the awards night on July 5.
