RISE-Ghana Empowers Traditional Leaders,D Educationists And Other Stakeholders To End Child Marriage And Gender Based Violence"

Speech By Mr. Awal Ahmed, Executive Director Of Rural Initiatives For Self Empowerment-Ghana (Rise-Ghana) At The Launch Of Project And Training Of Upper East Regional House Of Chiefs And Duty Bearers As Part Of Project Dubbed “Creating Enabling Environment For Increased Participation Of Women In Governance And Prevention Of Child, Early And Forced Marriage (Cefm) In The Upper East Region” Funded By The Canada Fund For Local Initiatives (Cfli).

Honourable Regional Minister, Respected Chiefs, Queen Mothers, Departmental heads, CSOs, the Media, Ladies and Gentleman. On behalf my team, our donors the Canadian Fund for Local Initiatives (CFLI) and the rights holders we serve, I wish to express my profound gratitude to you all for not only honouring our invitation to this workshop, but also for your tireless efforts to confront the canker of CEFM and women marginalization in our region.

This project dubbed “Creating Enabling Environment for Increased Participation of Women in Governance and Prevention of Child, Early and Forced Marriages (CEFM) in the Upper East Region” recognises the power of Traditional Rulers and Duty Bearers and seeks to harness this to increase participation of women in democratic processes and prevent of CEFM through the use of creative advocacy, sexual and reproductive rights education, legal awareness and empowerment of children, relevant state and non-state duty bearers.

We are deeply concerned because about the fact that our region maintains an unenviable record of number one spot in child marriage in the country, a whopping of 50% with 39% of girls getting married before age 18 years- Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey (MICS), The MICS further reveals that 79.2% and 55.3% of women and men respectively in this region consider beating ones wife/partner justified. This shows the general lack of awareness about family laws and calls for innovative strategies targeting families and adults in general.

On the other hand, women’s participation in governance is very low due to a combination of such as cultural barriers, perceived and/or real lack of support by traditional leaders, men and boys.

For instance, data from the Regional Electoral Commission on the just ended District Level Election (DLE) indicates only 15 women from Builsa North and 10 from Kasena Nankana East filed for the 144 and 76 Unit Committees slots available as opposed to 129 and 66 men respectively.

For the District Assembly, only 4 women from each district filed nomination for 69 and 91 slots available as compared to 65 men from Builsa North District and 87 from the Kasena Nankana East Municipality.

The project has achieved the following successes so far:

6 Murals on child protection and CEFM have developed and placed in 6 communities- an innovation that promises to let girls be girls, not brides!

Trained 30 Peer Educators from the two districts who are currently undertaking peer education and advocacy.

Increased interest among media actors on CEFM issues evidenced by continues use of media advocacy.

CEFM knowledge of at least 300,000 people has been enhanced through radio discussions.

Capacity of 25 media practioners has been enhanced to advance women empowerment and CEFM issues.

Over 100,000 people are acquiring knowledge on CEFM through peer education and creative advocacy.

100 in-school and 200 out-of-school teenagers have acquired knowledge to resist CEFM so far.

In conclusion, we wish passionately appeal to our Traditional Rulers and Duty Bearers to institute measures to end CEFM and let girls be girls so that our communities can develop better.

Furthermore, we entreat all Directors of Education and School Authorities to prioritize school safety by taking urgent steps to end the phenomenon of gender based violence in schools in general and the unofficial phenomenon called “Bush Allowance” where some deviant teachers allegedly sexually abuse school girls as “reward” for teaching in rural and deprived areas.

Lastly, we also wish appeal to the Ministry of Gender and Social Protection to consider increasing LEAP disbursement amounts to households who are able to keep girls in school as an incentive to end child marriage.

The BOD and Staff of RISE-Ghana are also grateful to the Government of Canada for the generous funding of Thirty-One Thousand Nine Hundred Eighty-Four Canadian Dollars and Ninety-Five Cents (CAD $31,984.95) which is making this innovative project possible.