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Gender Ministry Builds Capacity Of 28 Gender Desk Officers, 40 MMDAs Officers

By Joshua Kobby Smith
Politics Gender Ministry Builds Capacity Of 28 Gender Desk Officers, 40 MMDAs Officers
OCT 9, 2019 LISTEN

The Minister for Gender and Social Protection, Cynthia Morrison has disclosed that in pursuant of Government’s vision of “Ghana Beyond Aid”, it has built a fair and inclusive society to create equal opportunities for all citizens in the country.

According to her, this is in regard to the Ministry’s programmes and interventions been aligned with the President’s Co-ordinated Programme of Economic and Social Development Policies (2017-2024) and the National Medium-Term Development Policy Framework (NMTDPF).

Addressing the media at a Meet-The-Press series, the Minister said “The Ministry made significant gains in the implementation of our programmes and policies planned to integrate an all inclusive society with an agenda of ‘Creating Prosperity and Equal Opportunity for All, 2018-2021”.

The Ministry of Gender and Social Protection since its inception has a vision to create a harmonious society in which the survival and development of gender, children, the vulnerable, and persons with disability are guaranteed. It is also mandated to ensure gender equality through the mainstreaming of gender considerations, promote the welfare and protection of children.

The Minister mentioned that in the area of Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment; the Ministry has built the capacity of 28 Gender Desk officers and 40 officers in various Ministries Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDAs) on the National Gender Policy.

She said “In fulfillment of Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 5, “Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls”, My Ministry has built the capacity of 28 Gender Desk officers and 40 officers in various MMDAs”.

The Gender Minister stated that in ensuring a sustainable progress on combating discrimination against women, the Ministry organised a Youth Summit to empower boys and girls as partners in achieving gender equality.

Speaking on Child Rights Promotion, Protection and Development, Hon Morrison said the Ministry undertook a five calendar-day Safer Internet Day, National Children’s Day, Africa Union (AU) Day of the African Child among others to promote, develop and protect the rights of our dear Children;

On Social Service under Social Development, she stated that a national disaggregated data on 2,972 Person’s with Disability (PWD’s) has been developed to facilitate the mainstreaming of disability into Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies as well as national development planning and budgeting.

Hon. Cynthia Morrison noted that, “Under the Ministry’s programme dubbed ‘#Operation Get Off the Street Now for A Better Life’. A data for 2,374 street children collected from 45 hot spots areas in Greater Accra, 180 were identified and profiled whiles 167 received support in diverse ways”.

The sector minister added that under social protection, the Ministry in its efforts to sensitise the general public organised twenty-three (23) community dialogues at Agona West and Tano North Municipalities and Communities.

She emphasized that over 10,000 people were engaged.

On Livelihood Empowerment Against Poverty(LEAP) programme, she stressed that Three cycles of cash grant payments to beneficiaries (58th, 59th & 60th) have been made to a total of 1,428,460 extremely poor beneficiaries.

She however disclosed that the 61st cycle payment has just started.

Hon. Cynthia Morrison addressing the media on Ghana’s School Feeding said the programme currently provides one hot and nutritious meal for 2,663,134 pupils in 8,683 public basic schools.

“In fulfilment of Sustainable Development Goal Two (2) ‘End hunger, achieve food security and improve nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture’ the Ghana School Feeding Programme organised series of training sessions for over 5,711 caterers in the Northern, North East, Savannah, Upper East and Upper West Regions.”

She said the caterers were trained on standard measurements and practical innovative nutritional requirements for the preparation of meals for the school children with the objective to improve the nutritional value of meals served to pupils.

The Minister assured that the Ministry will continue to implement planned programmes and activities in line with its sector policies and objectives in the areas of Gender, Children and Social Protection.

Joshua Kobby Smith
Joshua Kobby Smith

Journalist

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