Women, Peace & Security
UN Women and Ghana’s Ministry of Women and Children’s Affairs MOWAC), other UN partners and security services in commemoration of the UN International Day of Peace have held a forum during a UN Open-Day on women peace, and security. The forum, under the theme “Sustaining Peace and Democracy in Ghana: “Women make your voice heard”, gave women and gender activists the opportunity to discuss and document issues including Ghanaian women leadership, the concern of women in the 2012 election and the implementation of UNSCR 1325 in Ghana.
Speaking at the forum, Deputy Minister of MOWAC, Madame Hawawu Boya Gariba said women play important roles in campaigning and mobilizing support for their parties ,but rarely occupy high level positions.
She said the reduction in the number of women parliamentarians from 10% in 2004 to 8.3% in 2008 is a clear signal that dealing with the issue demands more serious measures to resolve.
She disclosed that MOWAC, other institution and stakeholders are dialoguing to collate views on how to increase women participation and representation in governance.
The government, she said, is in support of the effort to increase the representation of women in high level decision making and also in the governance structure of the state.
The Ministry, she said, with support from UN partners in collaboration with the country’s Ministries, Departments and Agencies(MDAs) and Civil Society Organizations (CSO) have developed a 3-year Ghana National Action plan (GHANAP1325) on women, peace and security to be implemented from 2012-2015.