By Gifty Amofa
Accra, July 27, GNA – The Ministry of Sanitation and Water Resources has launched Women in Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH)-WinWASH Network with a call on stakeholders to reaffirm their commitment to ensuring that every woman and girl has access to WASH services.
Madam Jennifer Buabeng, Director General, Administration of the Ministry, speaking on behalf the Minister ,said, “Gender mainstreaming in WASH requires deliberate efforts to integrate gender perspectives into every stage of planning, implementation, monitoring, and evaluation of programmes by recognising and addressing the different needs, roles and priorities of women and men in accessing and benefiting from WASH services.”
This was during the maiden forum of the Women in WASH (WinWASH) and launch of the network. It was under the Theme: “Gender mainstreaming for inclusive WASH service delivery in Ghana.” She said empowering women with the knowledge, resources and opportunities to contribute meaningfully to decision-making processes that affected those of their communities was also relevant.
Madam Buabeng said access to clean water, proper sanitation, and hygiene facilities was not just a matter of convenience, but a fundamental human right, yet, millions of women and girls around the world continued to face significant barriers in accessing those basic services.
She said: “True inclusivity in WASH service delivery demands that we leave no one behind-that we prioritise the most marginalised and vulnerable groups in our efforts to build resilient and sustainable communities, which ensures privacy, dignity, comfort, safety and accessibility for all.”
Madam Buabeng urged women to inculcate into the young in their care, things that would make them more sensitive to the plight of all manner of people especially women and girls.
The occasion was also used for a maiden forum to discuss challenges girls and women faced in the WASH Sector, under the theme: “Gender mainstreaming for inclusive WASH service delivery in Ghana”.
WinWASH advocacy Network is made up of female leaders in WASH related organisations, private sector, academia and interested dedicated individuals willing to help improve WASH in Ghana and promote gender equality.
Madam Nora Ollennu, Founder and Convener of the Network, said there was the need to intensify advocacy in mainstreaming gender in WASH and its systems strengthening to address the inequalities in achieving universal access.
She said WASH services were essential to life – water is life, sanitation is dignity and hygiene is health.
“Despite the fact that the 2021 population and Housing census established that access to basic drinking water in Ghana is 87.7 percent, with 96.7 percent in urban areas and 74.4 percent in rural areas, the reality behind these statistics is low/limited and in some communities, there are no WASH services at all,” she noted.
Madam Ollennu said women and girls were the hardest hit as they trekked long distances on daily basis to find alternative water resources, thus the need for a deliberate planning in providing WASH services to the vulnerable such as girls, youth, and persons with disabilities who spent longer hours in search for water.
She said WinWASH in conjunction with GAMA-SWP organised the forum to discuss how policies on WASH could incorporate socio-cultural beliefs and practices, looking at the barriers against mainstreaming gender, the gender responsive programme of action required to address inequalities and how facilities and services could be safe, available and accessible to vulnerable groups.
Professor Simon Mariwah of the University of Cape Coast in a presentation said to achieve gender mainstreaming, there should be the use of sex-disaggregated data to analyse how policies impacted differently on women and men, forge and strengthen the political will to achieve gender equality and equity at local, regional, national and international levels and to incorporate gender perspective into the planning processes of all ministries, departments and agencies.
In attendance were traditional leaders, development partners, directors and representatives of Ministries, Departments and Agencies present, among other stakeholders.
GNA