By Agnes Ansah/Priscilla Oye Ofori
Accra, Nov. 5, GNA – Professor Naana Jane Opoku-Agyemang, the Vice President, Thursday said sexual exploitation in workplaces and educational institutions undermines national development, resulting in lost productivity and wasted talent.
She said practices commonly referred to as sex-for-jobs in workplaces and sex-for-grades in academic and training institutions carried significant economic and social costs.
Prof. Opoku-Agyemang was speaking at a Sex-for-Jobs Conference organised by The Ark Foundation Ghana in Accra on the theme: “Promoting Accountability, Safe Workplaces and a Culture of Integrity.”
Addressing policymakers, employer associations and advocates, she said sexual exploitation was not only a violation of individual rights but also an abuse of power that undermined human dignity and bodily autonomy.
“There are economic and social costs, including lost productivity and wasted talent. In short, distinguished ladies and gentlemen, sexual exploitation is a drain on national development,” she said.
She noted that every instance of abuse that forced victims into silence eroded public trust in institutions established to serve and protect them.
The Vice President said Ghana was not unfamiliar with the local and international legal frameworks for protecting workers and students, citing provisions in the 1992 Constitution, the Labour Act, 2003 (Act 651), and the International Labour Organisation’s Violence and Harassment Convention, 2019 (C190).
She, therefore, called for stronger enforcement of existing laws, the adoption of workplace anti-harassment policies and the establishment of safe reporting mechanisms to protect victims and promote accountability.
Addressing sexual exploitation required collective responsibility, she said, urging citizens to ensure that abuses in workplaces and educational institutions were properly investigated and dealt with.
She said tackling the menace was essential to safeguarding individual rights, promoting safe working environments and sustaining national development.
Dr Angela Dwamena Aboagye, Executive Director of The Ark Foundation Ghana, said sex-for-jobs was widespread and had structural roots that required urgent and decisive action.
She cited a report by the Ministry of Employment and Labour Relations indicating that more than 38 per cent of young women entering the job market experienced sexual harassment or coercion during recruitment, while more than 70 per cent of those affected did not report the incidents.
Globally, she said, data showed that more than one in five employed persons had experienced violence and harassment at work, with young women particularly vulnerable.
Dr Dwamena Aboagye also referred to the recent alleged sexual harassment incident at the Obuasi Senior High Technical School, saying the statistics and media reports highlighted the seriousness and prevalence of sex-for-jobs and related forms of exploitation.
She called on citizens to support the enforcement of existing laws, stressing that failure to ensure perpetrators were held accountable made people complicit in the injustices they condemned.
“Every unreported abuse is a life diminished. Every ignored complaint is dignity denied, and every delayed response is justice denied,” she said.
GNA
Edited by Agnes Boye-Doe
Reporters: Agnes Ansah/Priscilla Oye Ofori