Source: Ghana News Agency
Ghana is reviewing its National Gender Policy with the goal of building a society devoid of discrimination and harnessing of potential of women and men as citizens regardless of their social groups or circumstances.

The policy would be developed on a rights-based approach hinging on the pillars of 'women rights and access to justice, accountable governance and women leadership, macroeconomic issues and trade, gender roles and relations, women empowerment, livelihoods and productivity, and sector wide gender gaps'.
At a consultative meeting for Ministries, Department and Agencies (MDA), Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDAs), civil society groups and some development partners in Accra on Tuesday, it was acknowledged that there was the need for a clarification of the term 'gender equality' as the conceptual clumsiness and clarity of gender and gender mainstreaming was a key accountability challenge across the world.

It was also agreed that both men and women did not understand the meaning of gender as many people equate gender to women making it a weak base to advocate its operationalisation and therefore, the need for all national structures or institutions to understand gender issues, analysis and mainstreaming.

An International Gender Consultant, Ms Jane Kwawu who gave highlights on the need for the review of the country's National Gender Policy of 2004, said there was the need for an all-embracing policy which will take into consideration the current trends in right-based approach to human rights.

The framework of the policy, she said, will be based on the national constitution, human rights instruments, international protocols as well as the Beijing Platform for Action (BPFA) and the African Union Gender Equality commitments.

Ms Kwawu, who is also the lead Consultant of the National Gender Policy, mentioned some key international protocols and resolutions review of the country's gender policy to include the 1979 Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination (CEDAW), the 1985 Nairobi Forward-looking Strategies for the advancement of women (NFLS), the 993 UN World Conference of Human Rights in Vienna, the Millennium Development Goals, 2000 and the 2005, Paris Declaration on AID Effectiveness agreed on principles which, if engendered, could accelerate development in general and advance gender equality, among others.

The policy framework will also be an overarching framework to guide all partners craft their sector policies and address the gender challenges as well as provide broad guidelines and institutional framework for operationalisation of government's commitment to achieving gender equality, women empowerment targets in its national vision of investing in people, and the shared growth and development agenda.

It will also enable all stakeholders to have common understanding of the issues and strategies for addressing gender inequality and social injustice challenges.

According to Ms Kwahu, the formulating of the policy will be informed by a consideration of gender differences and inequalities and emphasise narrowing gender gaps, disparities between women and men especially relating to justice.

The policy has the vision of articulating old and emerging development issues from gender perspectives and ensuring that men and women participate and have a voice in government's consolidated and accelerated economic growth policies towards strategic attainment of middle income country status.

In her highlights on the policy framework, Mrs Kwahu said gender relations including male involvement would be specially addressed in stopping violence against women and other systemic socio cultural practices that slow down women empowerment, advancement and liberation. She added that the historical legacy of patriarchy and its influence on issues of relations between men and women especially in the family and at the workplace would be included as a major policy issue.

She said specific guidelines that would protect women's rights including maternity leave, equal rights to train and be promoted, the enactment of a law on property rights of spouses, prohibition of customary practices such as harmful traditional rites among others would be reinforced in the policy.

According to Ms Kwahu, the Ministry of Women and Children's Affairs (MOWAC) policy on gender and children, which was aimed at regulating conduct of dealings with women and children at the national level, was not implemented but said some MDAs have developed their own sector gender policies based on international gender equality instruments.

She said the ministry's recent institutional assessment report of 2010 stressed the urgent need for a national gender policy as the broad guideline for domesticating gender equality and women's empowerment target set in international treaties and protocols.

However, she said the country has the Domestic Violence Act (Act 732), the Human Trafficking Act (Act 694), the Juvenile Justice Act (Act 653) as well as the Early Childhood Care and Development Policy and Orphans and vulnerable Children Policy guidelines which are all geared towards gender equity.

Also, she said the national constitution, which was currently under review, would have gender lens and bring broader women's participation in electoral processes in the country.

The Chief Director of MOWAC, Mr Gershon Kumor, in a welcoming address, said the new national gender policy would be decoupled from the children's policy which, according to him, needed to stand on its own for effective implementations.

According to him, for the old policy to be strengthened and implemented, it needed to be reviewed to ensure that new trends were incorporated into it.

According to him, it had also become necessary to consult a wide range of stakeholders including civil society organizations and developing partners to ensure that the new policy, when developed, would be all embracing.

He commended the UNFPA for its support so far in the consultative forums on the National Gender Policy which has so far been done in the Volta regions as well as helping to come out with a Child Protection Policy in the near future.

A Gender Consultant, Mrs Joana Opare, who chaired the forum, said it had become necessary for the 2004 National Gender Policy to be reviewed as it had gaps which needed to be sealed. 

• Ghana