GHANA: MOWAC Empowers Women

The Minister for Women and Children Affairs (MOWAC), Hon. Juliana Azumah- Mensah, says since 2002 her Ministry has been involved in the promotion of the economic rights of women by providing them with economic opportunities to improve their livelihood, thus, access to micro credit and small loans, provision of Agro processing equipment, skill training and information sharing.

She said as part of the main goal of the Ministry, it is making sure that women are empowered socio-economically. It is also seeking to reduce poverty among women as well as working towards creating jobs in the Northern region so that head potters (Kayeyei) would not have to travel all the way to the South.

She said women constitute about 80 percent of informational productive sectors of the economy and control more than 50 percent of informal sector business, however they continue to encounter difficulties in accessing credit as compared to their male counterparts.

The Hon. Mrs. Azumah-Mensah stated that MOWAC has finalized a four-year Sector Medium Term Development Plan (SMTDP). According to the Minister, the plan's major objectives include promoting gender mainstreaming and Gender Responsive Budgeting (GRB) in Metropolitan Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDAs) through capacity building; improving the socio-economic status of women and children, the vulnerable and marginalized groups through targeted interventions; enhancing the evidence-based decision making on gender equality and women empowerment by collecting gender and sex-disaggregated data in all the districts and protecting and promoting the development and the rights of women and children through awareness creation and effective implementation of National and International Policy Framework and Legislations.

She added that the Ministry carries out training workshops for women's groups in the informal sector throughout the country. As a result, a total of 23,187 from 464 communities have benefited from the training programme.
Also, women have acquired skills in business management (credit management, saving mobilization, marketing, customer relations, records keeping, financial management, costing and pricing), food processing, bamboo processing and soap making.
MOWAC has seen much success in areas such as domestic violence, human trafficking, child related issues, gender issues and international obligations.

The Minister noted that "violence tends to be condoned under certain cultural practices and religious beliefs." She then shared some of the steps that have been taken to address domestic violence, including the Domestic Violence Act (2007), Act 732, which punishes domestic violence perpetrators and provides protection and rehabilitation to victims.

Mrs. Azumah-Mensah said that among many interventions that have been adopted to address the issue of human trafficking, the Ministry enacted the Human Trafficking Act (2005), Act 694, which punishes human trafficking perpetrators and provides protection and rehabilitation to victims.

As a result of the steps taken to remedy human trafficking, about 19 human trafficking cases have been prosecuted, about 625 victims have been reintroduced into their communities, about 671 victims have received rehabilitation (such as medical services, food, clothing, etc.) and about 12,268 people have been trained in either prevention, protection, prosecution, or any combination thereof.

To achieve the mentioned results, the Ministry has had to face challenges such as low participation of women in decision-making positions, harmful socio-cultural practices, increasing number of streetism in urban areas and inadequate shelters for women and children in extremely difficult situations, among other things.

The Minister said that despite the challenges the Ministry has faced, it will still strive for achievements and success in addressing women, gender and child related issues.