By Philip Tengzu
Wa, (UW/R), July 27, GNA – Gender Support Network (GSN), a gender-sensitive network of public and private sector departments and organisations has been launched in Wa to spearhead the advocacy for gender-related issues in the Upper West Region.
Coordinated by the Upper West Regional Department of Gender (DoG), the GSN would, among other things, strengthen the coordination and collaboration between like-minded organisations and institutions on gender-related activities in the region to bridge the gender gap in society.
It would also receive gender-related complaints, research, assess and conduct the necessary background checks and investigations to assist in the mediation and litigation of those cases with the necessary authorities.
The network comprised 30 institutions and organisations including the Domestic Violence and Victims Support Unity (DOVSU), Social Welfare Department, Legal Aid Department, ProNet North and the Community Development Alliance (CDA) among others and chaired by the Executive Director of PronNet North, Mr Martin Dery.
The Upper West Regional DoG conveyed the GSN with support from the Mennonite Economic Development Associates (MEDA) under its Greater Rural Opportunities for Women (GROW) 2 project being implemented in northern Ghana.
Speaking at the launch of the GSN, Mr Dery urged the members of the network to work in synergy to make the needed impact that the network sought to achieve.
He said women and girls were disadvantaged in the distribution of gender roles as they had been laden with so many roles that invariably affected their social, economic, and educational empowerment and added that the formation of the network was long overdue.
“Each of us here (the network members) has a role to play in changing the narrative if we want to ensure that our women and girls are seen and not only heard.
“We all know you cannot change a society where a majority of the people within that society is not part of the change process, we will only be deceiving ourselves.
Women must sit and participate at the table where and when decisions are made,” Mr Dery explained.
He observed that the network would contribute to advancing the Sustainable Development Goals agenda of leaving no one behind in the development process.
Madam Charity Batuure, the Upper West Regional Director of the DoG said, “When an issue of gender comes up, it has a cross-sectorial dimension that we need to address in that form.”
“In case we have an issue to address we should have multiple stakeholders coming on board so that we can resolve it,” she added.
The DoG Director stated that the network would also research gender-related issues that were being recorded in recent times for redress and to achieve the desired results as a region.
Mr Elvis Appiah-Kusi, the GROW 2 Project Manager at MEDA, said the organisation was working in strategic alliance with other organisations including the DoG to advance women’s economic and social empowerment in the country.
“In northern Ghana, Women’s economic empowerment can never be decoupled from their social empowerment as well.
There are socio-economic norms that have over the years denied them of key productive resources like the land,” he indicated.
Mr Appiah-Kusi, therefore, said the success of the GSN would contribute to the success of the GROW project, which sought to achieve economic and social empowerment for women.
GNA