By Philip Tengzu
Wa, (UW/R), July 16, GNA – Thirty women in the Lambussie District have received mentorship and capacity-building aimed at enhancing their leadership skills to enable them to participate more actively in local governance and development processes.
The two-day training formed part of a broader initiative by the Upper West Regional Department of Gender, with support from the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), to bridge the gender leadership gap in the region.
Participants received mentorship from established women leaders who shared personal experiences, challenges they encountered in their leadership roles, and strategies for navigating and overcoming those challenges.
The workshop also introduced participants to Ghana’s local governance structures, human rights frameworks, and advocacy tools to promote inclusion and amplify the voices of marginalised groups, especially women.
Speaking at the workshop, Madam Charity Batuure, the Upper West Regional Director of the Department of Gender, said the intervention was necessary due to persistent gender disparities in leadership, largely driven by lack of confidence, cultural and religious constraints, and limited access to mentorship and training.
She explained that the intervention would enhance the capacities of the women to enable them advocate and promote inclusion and full participation of women in governance.
Madam Batuure indicated that the intervention also created a supportive platform for women to achieve their aspirations through boosting their confidence and creating a safe space for them to be mentored.
She said the workshop also inspired the women through experience sharing and mentorship, enhance and build their capacities to lead and contribute to meeting the nation’s development agenda.
“We want to see more women taking up leadership roles and contributing their quota to the development of the society.
Women should be given the spaces, but they should also come with the enhanced representative skills that will give them the opportunity to take up the spaces”, the Gender Director explained.
In the 2023 district level elections, 24 women contested assembly member positions with only four elected and 32 appointed, compared to 706 men who contested the elections.
At the unit committee level, 64 women vied for roles against 1,833 men, highlighting the significant gender disparity.
Some of the participants expressed gratitude to the Department of Gender and the UNDP for the mentorship as it had inspired and encouraged them to aspire for leadership positions wherever they found themselves.
The initiative would not only inspire female leadership but would also contribute to achieving United Nations Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) Five, which aimed to achieve gender equality and women’s empowerment by 2030.
GNA
Edited by Caesar Abagali/Benjamin Mensah