Empowerment For Life Urges Gov’t To Institute Affirmative Policies To Protect Women

The Empowerment for Life (E4L) Program under the Ghana Developing Communities Association (GDCA) has called on the Government to institute affirmative policies that would promote and protect the interest of women and girls to effectively contribute to the process of national development.

The E4L program in a statement signed by its Technical Advisor in charge of Advocacy and Gender, Mr. Fuseini Abdul Rahim said although significant strides had been made in creating opportunities for women to advance their course, significant gaps still exist in Ghana’s economic, social and political structures which inhabit women progress.

It drew particular attention to Gender-Based Violence in the form of forced marriages, domestic violence, rape, among others are still perpetrated against women and young girls in Ghana especially, and other parts of the world.

The statement described as an abuse of the fundamental human rights of women which results in lowering their potentials to make meaningful contributions to the development of society.

According to the E4L statement, women’s contribution to the general process of community and national development was greatly hampered by socio-cultural, political and economic factors such as access, ownership and control over productive resources and low level of policy interventions that support and build the capacity of women and young girls.

“The Empowerment for Life program joins the rest of the world to mark another year of International Women’s Day. The day marks another occasion for governments, organizations and individuals to review how far we have come in our quest for gender equality and development, and to look forward to salient and compelling actions that need to take place to ensure that the lives of women across the globe are improved,” it added.

The statement lauded the effort of the government, civil organizations and community-based organizations in the journey for the attainment of gender equality, and also called for concerted effort of all and the need to bring on board all relevant players including traditional and religious heads, women groups and various interest groups to identify significant pathways to better promote the rights of all women.