Women’s groups meet on financing for dev
A conference to incorporate women’s right perspectives in financing for development in the country has been organised in Accra.
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Organised by the Network for Women’s Rights in Ghana (NETRIGHT), the conference, attended by women rights groups, deliberated on the International financing for Development (FfD3) to ensure that a framework which outlines how the FfD3 will be financed to eliminate all forms of inequality of women’s rights.
The FfD3 being implemented under the new Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) which replaces the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) which elapses this year, aims at reinvigorating and strengthening the financing for development framework, as well as support the implementation of the Post-2015 Development Agenda currently being negotiated by member states.
Later this month, world leaders will meet in Addis Ababa in Ethiopia, for the third FfD3 to address structural conditions for the implementation of development commitments including agreeing on the financial ‘means of implementation’ for the SDGs.
Gender equality
Speaking at the conference in Accra last Monday, the Convenor of NETRIGHT, Mrs Akua Britwum, said women rights activists had been making critical contributions to the FfD3 discussions through which gender equality and empowerment received unprecedented attention.
However, she said the persistent under-investment had held back the implementation of crucial agreements such as the Beijing Platform for Action (BpFA), saying that implementations of the agreements had been slow.
Mrs Britwum urged government officials who would be in Addis Ababa to ensure that the FfD3 was driven by a human rights and gender-responsive approach.
“The FfD3 outcome must be able to deliver both long-established and newly won commitments on gender equality and women’s rights,” she added.
Increase women funding
For her part, the Programme Manager for NETRIGHT, Ms Patricia Blankson Akakpo, said the FfD3 was important to women because it provided an opportunity to prioritise and dedicate sustainable resources to achieve gender equality outcomes.
She also added that a new agreement in Addis Ababa was vital to pave the way for a fully inclusive and just global economic system which focused on women’s rights.
Ms Akakpo explained that Women Rights Organisations (WROs) were critical actors to hold governments, the international community and all other stakeholders accountable for the decisions they made.
She added that their participation in the FfD3, as well as in economic decision making at all levels, was fundamental to ensure the FfD3 process.
However, she said funding for women’s rights organisations was low and should increase.