Source: Aminu Ibrahim
Community Aid for Rural Development (CARD) Ghana has held refresher training for male champions of change (COCs) in the Upper West Region on gender transformative programming and influencing to promote social inclusion.
The training was aimed at equipping the male COCs with requisite insights and skills to undertake transformative practices in their communities and fields of work.
The training, held on March 22, 2023 in Wa, formed part of the She Leads Campaign being implemented in the Upper West Region by CARD Ghana with support from Plan International Ghana.
Miss Ernestina Biney, the Acting Executive Director of CARD Ghana, said it was expected that the male COCs, drawn from various government agencies, become aware of the need to provide opportunities for women at all levels of program designing and implementation.
“Our main goal is for them [COCs] to understand that, at their level, during programing or implementing their own programs or making of policies, they should take into consideration giving more opportunities to women, especially when it comes to decision-making and leadership,” she said.
She observed that despite numerous campaigns for gender equality and gender mainstreaming, women inclusion in many facets of social, economic, and political development was still minimal.
She, thus, expressed optimism that the refresher training for the clarion male COCs from the various government agencies and departments would serve as a call and a reminder for them to influence women inclusion in the design and implementation of programs and activities at their outfits.
Mr Seidu Nurideen Damnakoro, the Wa Municipal Director of Complementary Education, indicated that women had great potentials which society needed to transform but that those potentials were outshined by certain systemic barriers.
He cited cultural upbringing, fear and inferiority complex on the part of women, jealousy and hatred from fellow women, and domineering nature of men as some of the challenges that affected women participation in leadership and decision-making.
Mr Nurideen advocated for grassroots mobilization of women in areas of capacity building, confidence building, and self-worth realization to enable contribute meaningfully to societal affairs.
Pognaa Amamata Alhaji Saaka Sansew, the Queenmother of Duori, Wa, said women participation in leadership and decision-making has over time been proven very effective in the delivery of public services and the realization of the common good of society.
Pognaa Amamata, who was also the Wa Municipal Girl-Child Education Coordinator, thus urged that women and girls should be allowed access to quality education as she believed that their education would enable them to contribute meaningfully to society.
Mr. Ernest Maaldu, the Regional Director of Rent Control Commission, called for the breaking of negative societal norms which have systemically contributed to women exclusion in leadership and decision-making.
He said until those societal norms were eliminated or reduced, women participation in leadership and decision-making was never going to be effective as they were deeply enshrined in our way of life.
The male COCs pledged their commitments to promoting gender transformative practices in their fields of work to ensure the greater good of both women and men in society.
The male COCs were drawn from agencies such as the Legal Aid, Complementary Education Agency, Ghana Education Service, Forestry Commission, Electricity Company of Ghana, Rent Control Commission, Municipal Assembly, and the media among significant others.
