Daily Graphic, Pg 6, Sat. Feb. 21/09
Story: Rebecca Quaicoe Duho & Cara Fanning
THE National Programme Co-ordinator for Women in Law and Development in Africa (WiLDAF), Ghana Chapter, Ms Bernice Sam, has lauded the government’s commitment to revise, adapt and implement the National Democratic Congress (NDC) Affirmative Action Policy for Women of 1998.
She also said the President’s disclosure that the government would incorporate the key demands of the ‘Women's Manifesto of Ghana’ into that policy, was also laudable.
Reacting to the issues that were raised in the first State of the Nation Address by President John Evans Atta Mills, Ms Sam said, "He's not only given us a response, he has announced to the nation that they will implement the affirmative action policy".
She, however, warned that a lot of hard work still needed to de done towards the attainment of the goal, stressing that "Affirmative Action has to be understood by the people of Ghana".
She also said there was the need for collaboration between civil society organisations and the government to achieve gender equality, and indicated that, “This is where WiLDAF would position itself”.
The Women's Manifesto is a document developed by ABANTU for Development, in consultation with various non-governmental organisations, which makes demands around 10 critical areas of concern in order to promote women's rights.
The NDC formulated an Affirmative Action Policy in 1998 before it was voted out of power in 2000, and the policy seeks to promote the equality of women through increasing their access to education, increasing the number of female politicians, addressing negative socio-cultural practices and discrimination against women and promoting legislation to protect the dignity of women and provide conditions for their advancement.
Ms Sam says WiLDAF still has a lot more concerns that have been presented to the President for his purusal, saying that women's economic empowerment and the current treatment of some elderly women who are accused of witchcraft in the northern regions are still issues that need to be addressed.
The Convenor of the Women's Manifesto Coalition of Ghana, Ms Hamida Harrison, who was also interviewed on the President’s State of the Nation Address, said she was "so happy" there was a commitment to look into these documents.
She said, however, that there was still the need for the government and civil society groups to open up and dialogue through an entry point, probably the Ministry of Women's and Children's Affairs.
In a related development, Rebecca Quaicoe-Duho reports that the New Patriotic Party (NPP) Member of Parliament for Tarkwa Nsuem, Mrs Gifty Eugenia Kusi, in an interview after the address, said the gender policy of the NDC government, as outlined by the President in his address, was nothing new.
According to her, the past administration had already established gender units in the districts under the Department of Women and, therefore, the President’s statement that the NDC would establish gender units in all district assemblies was ‘a non-starter’.
She, however, said that the issue of resourcing the women's ministry was a positive step, as according to her, the ministry's budget was small and, therefore, increasing it would enable them to work more to promote gender equality.
She was, however, of the conviction that people would know how committed the government was about ensuring gender equity only when the budget was read, saying that "it was easier said than done".
According to Mrs Kusi, since women and children formed the majority of the country's population, the bulk of monies allocated ended up going to them, but said the issue was how to ensure that the monies were judiciously used.
Sunday, February 22, 2009
MPs enlightened on gender budgeting
Daily Graphic, Pg 6, Sat. Feb. 21/09
Article: Rebecca Quaicoe-Duho
THE application of gender mainstreaming in a country’s budgetary process is referred to as gender budgeting. It means incorporating a gender-based assessment of a nation's budget at all levels of the budgetary process and restructuring revenues and expenditures in order to promote gender equality.
It is used to highlight expenditure directly affecting women in comparison to men and may be a tool for raising awareness and in the longer-term restructuring of the budget to better reflect the needs and interests of both men and women.
Although gender experts say the concept is relatively new, they explain that gender budgeting does not mean drawing up a separate budget for women; rather it is a dissection of the government budget to establish its gender-differential impacts and to translate gender commitments into budgetary commitments.
The main objective of a gender-sensitive budget is to improve the analysis of incidence of budgets, attain more effective targeting of public expenditure and offset any undesirable gender-specific consequences of previous budgetary measures. It involves analysis of any form of public revenue or expenditure and identification of the impacts on women and men, girls and boys.
The issue of gender budgeting is increasingly gaining acceptance as a tool for engendering macroeconomic policy making. The Fourth World Conference of Women held in Beijing in September 1995 and the Platform for Action that it adopted called for a gender perspective in all macroeconomic policies and their budgetary dimensions.
The Outcome Document of the United Nations General Assembly Special Session on Women held in June 2000 also called upon all the nations to mainstream a gender perspective into key macroeconomics and social development policies and national development programmes. Emphasis on gender budgeting was also placed by the Sixth Conference of Commonwealth Ministers of Women’s Affairs held in New Delhi in April 2000.
Australia was the first country to develop a gender-sensitive budget in 1984, followed by South Africa in 1995. Other nations, including Canada, United Kingdom, Mozambique, Namibia, Tanzania and Uganda have also taken steps to make their national budgets gender sensitive to promote gender equality.
One main achievement of Ghana in that direction was the commencement of gender budgeting in 2008 on a pilot basis in three ministries, namely the Ministry of Food and Agriculture, Ministry of Health and Ministry of Local Government, Rural Development and Environment.
To ensure that the idea of gender budgeting is pushed further in the country, parliamentarians are being targeted and sensitised to the need to ‘wear gender lenses’ to scrutinise the 2009 budget, which is yet to be put before Parliament by the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning.
To this end, the Women in Law and Development (WiLDAF) Ghana, under its “We Know Politics” project, organised a day’s workshop for 20 female and 10 male parliamentarians in Accra on gender budgeting, with the aim to upgrade their knowledge so that they can contribute to debates in the House when the budget is brought before it.
According to the National Co-ordinator of WiLDAF, Ms Bernice Sam, all policies and agenda of the government are supported by the budget, which according to her, is often generalised without consideration to diverse social needs, particularly the gender components.
In accepting a gender responsive budget in the European Parliament in 2003, members of the House specified that building a public budget from a gender perspective means identifying how different citizens benefit from public expenditure and contributing to public revenue, highlighting the difference between women and men by using qualitative and quantitative data and benchmarking.
A Gender Analyst, Mr Vitus Azeem, in an interview on the need for gender budgeting, said the aim was to transform financial and budgetary policy in accordance with gender equality objectives.
He said such a budget should involve quantitative and qualitative gender-based assessment, while also address and incorporate a gender perspective in the whole budgetary process, adding that re-allocations of revenue and expenditure and restructuring of the budgetary process may be necessary in order to promote gender equality.
Gender experts contend that gender budgeting requires that the human and financial resources need to organise and carry out analyses that will be allocated. This, according to them, is not likely to be given priority unless actively requested for and supported by the top management, saying that the active commitment at the level of ministers or commissioners is consequently crucial for success to be achieved.
Gender-budgeting methodology, they also say, must tackle socio-economic inequalities between women and men according to the different realities at local, regional and national levels in order to be appropriate and successful in achieving gender equality.
They further state that the way in which national budgets are usually formulated ignores the different socially determined roles, responsibilities and capabilities of men and women, adding that budgets formed from a gender-neutral perspective ignore the different impacts on men and women because their roles, responsibilities and capacities in any society are never the same.
These differences, they say, are generally structured in a way that leaves women at a disadvantage in society by creating inequality gaps. Therefore, gender budgeting is an important tool for analysing the gap between expressed commitments by governments and the decision-making processes involved by governments to raise and spend moneys.
Gender-responsive budget is important, because evidence suggests that the economic gains of gender equality leads to increased output and better development of people’s capacities. Women’s economic empowerment could provide the possibility for all countries to have some combination of increased productivity, less stress and better overall health.
Article: Rebecca Quaicoe-Duho
THE application of gender mainstreaming in a country’s budgetary process is referred to as gender budgeting. It means incorporating a gender-based assessment of a nation's budget at all levels of the budgetary process and restructuring revenues and expenditures in order to promote gender equality.
It is used to highlight expenditure directly affecting women in comparison to men and may be a tool for raising awareness and in the longer-term restructuring of the budget to better reflect the needs and interests of both men and women.
Although gender experts say the concept is relatively new, they explain that gender budgeting does not mean drawing up a separate budget for women; rather it is a dissection of the government budget to establish its gender-differential impacts and to translate gender commitments into budgetary commitments.
The main objective of a gender-sensitive budget is to improve the analysis of incidence of budgets, attain more effective targeting of public expenditure and offset any undesirable gender-specific consequences of previous budgetary measures. It involves analysis of any form of public revenue or expenditure and identification of the impacts on women and men, girls and boys.
The issue of gender budgeting is increasingly gaining acceptance as a tool for engendering macroeconomic policy making. The Fourth World Conference of Women held in Beijing in September 1995 and the Platform for Action that it adopted called for a gender perspective in all macroeconomic policies and their budgetary dimensions.
The Outcome Document of the United Nations General Assembly Special Session on Women held in June 2000 also called upon all the nations to mainstream a gender perspective into key macroeconomics and social development policies and national development programmes. Emphasis on gender budgeting was also placed by the Sixth Conference of Commonwealth Ministers of Women’s Affairs held in New Delhi in April 2000.
Australia was the first country to develop a gender-sensitive budget in 1984, followed by South Africa in 1995. Other nations, including Canada, United Kingdom, Mozambique, Namibia, Tanzania and Uganda have also taken steps to make their national budgets gender sensitive to promote gender equality.
One main achievement of Ghana in that direction was the commencement of gender budgeting in 2008 on a pilot basis in three ministries, namely the Ministry of Food and Agriculture, Ministry of Health and Ministry of Local Government, Rural Development and Environment.
To ensure that the idea of gender budgeting is pushed further in the country, parliamentarians are being targeted and sensitised to the need to ‘wear gender lenses’ to scrutinise the 2009 budget, which is yet to be put before Parliament by the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning.
To this end, the Women in Law and Development (WiLDAF) Ghana, under its “We Know Politics” project, organised a day’s workshop for 20 female and 10 male parliamentarians in Accra on gender budgeting, with the aim to upgrade their knowledge so that they can contribute to debates in the House when the budget is brought before it.
According to the National Co-ordinator of WiLDAF, Ms Bernice Sam, all policies and agenda of the government are supported by the budget, which according to her, is often generalised without consideration to diverse social needs, particularly the gender components.
In accepting a gender responsive budget in the European Parliament in 2003, members of the House specified that building a public budget from a gender perspective means identifying how different citizens benefit from public expenditure and contributing to public revenue, highlighting the difference between women and men by using qualitative and quantitative data and benchmarking.
A Gender Analyst, Mr Vitus Azeem, in an interview on the need for gender budgeting, said the aim was to transform financial and budgetary policy in accordance with gender equality objectives.
He said such a budget should involve quantitative and qualitative gender-based assessment, while also address and incorporate a gender perspective in the whole budgetary process, adding that re-allocations of revenue and expenditure and restructuring of the budgetary process may be necessary in order to promote gender equality.
Gender experts contend that gender budgeting requires that the human and financial resources need to organise and carry out analyses that will be allocated. This, according to them, is not likely to be given priority unless actively requested for and supported by the top management, saying that the active commitment at the level of ministers or commissioners is consequently crucial for success to be achieved.
Gender-budgeting methodology, they also say, must tackle socio-economic inequalities between women and men according to the different realities at local, regional and national levels in order to be appropriate and successful in achieving gender equality.
They further state that the way in which national budgets are usually formulated ignores the different socially determined roles, responsibilities and capabilities of men and women, adding that budgets formed from a gender-neutral perspective ignore the different impacts on men and women because their roles, responsibilities and capacities in any society are never the same.
These differences, they say, are generally structured in a way that leaves women at a disadvantage in society by creating inequality gaps. Therefore, gender budgeting is an important tool for analysing the gap between expressed commitments by governments and the decision-making processes involved by governments to raise and spend moneys.
Gender-responsive budget is important, because evidence suggests that the economic gains of gender equality leads to increased output and better development of people’s capacities. Women’s economic empowerment could provide the possibility for all countries to have some combination of increased productivity, less stress and better overall health.
Tuesday, February 17, 2009
‘Budget won’t have public inputs’
Daily Graphic, Pg. 17, Tues. Feb. 17, 2009
Story; Rebecca Quaicoe-Duho
THIS year’s budget which is expected to be read on Wednesday, February 25, 2009 will not have any public inputs as has been the norm for the past three years.
The Head of the Budget Unit of the Ministry of Finance, Mrs Eva Mends said the budget would only focus on the programme of the present government as stated in its manifesto.
Mrs Mends said this during a capacity building workshop for 30 Members of Parliament (MPs) including 20 females and 10 males on Gender Budgeting organised by the Women in Law and Development (WiLDAF) Ghana, under its “We Know Politics” project.
She explained that the time frame within which to put the new government’s policies into action did not allow for the public to make any inputs into it.
She however, said that the budget would not have any huge difference in policy direction when compared to that of the previous administration’s, only that, it would have a shift in its implementation and strategies.
She cited examples where the NDC manifesto would rather shift from district and mutual health insurance schemes to a national scheme saying that the broad programmes of the past and present administrations were the same but only the strategies for implementation were changing.
She however said that since the government was voted into power on the basis of its manifesto, it is important the budget dwells on the manifesto.
Mrs Mends who took the MPs through the budget process said as MPs they had the task of scrutinising and reviewing all sector submissions to ensure that they did not over budget and also that the budget was consistent with the government’s priorities.
She said as MPs, they also had oversight for the implementation, monitoring and evaluation of the budget through their committees.
She also called on committees members especially on critical sectors such as education and agriculture to scrutinise the budget to ensure that estimates were realistic.
A Budget Analyst, Mr Vitus Azeem who also took the MPs through budget analysis and gender budgeting in an interview said it had become necessary for the issue of gender budgeting to be discussed since women form a greater majority of the country’s population.
He said putting the issue at the doorstep of MPs would ensure that state resources were allocated properly and fairly to benefit equal men as women, saying that it would help give equal opportunities for both girls and boys in terms of education and health care delivery.
The National Programmes Co-ordinator of WiLDAF Ghana, Ms Bernice Sam, said the workshop formed part of the organisations post elections interventions to ensure that the issues of women were not left out in the day-to-day policies of the country.
She said the workshop would help enhance the MPs capacity on the Floor of the House when the time comes for them to debate on this year’s budget saying that it is also aimed at updating the MPs on the need for Ghana to continue with gender budgeting.
Presently, three ministries that is the ministries of Food and Agriculture, Health and Local Government, Rural Development and Environment are being piloted for gender budgeting.
Story; Rebecca Quaicoe-Duho
THIS year’s budget which is expected to be read on Wednesday, February 25, 2009 will not have any public inputs as has been the norm for the past three years.
The Head of the Budget Unit of the Ministry of Finance, Mrs Eva Mends said the budget would only focus on the programme of the present government as stated in its manifesto.
Mrs Mends said this during a capacity building workshop for 30 Members of Parliament (MPs) including 20 females and 10 males on Gender Budgeting organised by the Women in Law and Development (WiLDAF) Ghana, under its “We Know Politics” project.
She explained that the time frame within which to put the new government’s policies into action did not allow for the public to make any inputs into it.
She however, said that the budget would not have any huge difference in policy direction when compared to that of the previous administration’s, only that, it would have a shift in its implementation and strategies.
She cited examples where the NDC manifesto would rather shift from district and mutual health insurance schemes to a national scheme saying that the broad programmes of the past and present administrations were the same but only the strategies for implementation were changing.
She however said that since the government was voted into power on the basis of its manifesto, it is important the budget dwells on the manifesto.
Mrs Mends who took the MPs through the budget process said as MPs they had the task of scrutinising and reviewing all sector submissions to ensure that they did not over budget and also that the budget was consistent with the government’s priorities.
She said as MPs, they also had oversight for the implementation, monitoring and evaluation of the budget through their committees.
She also called on committees members especially on critical sectors such as education and agriculture to scrutinise the budget to ensure that estimates were realistic.
A Budget Analyst, Mr Vitus Azeem who also took the MPs through budget analysis and gender budgeting in an interview said it had become necessary for the issue of gender budgeting to be discussed since women form a greater majority of the country’s population.
He said putting the issue at the doorstep of MPs would ensure that state resources were allocated properly and fairly to benefit equal men as women, saying that it would help give equal opportunities for both girls and boys in terms of education and health care delivery.
The National Programmes Co-ordinator of WiLDAF Ghana, Ms Bernice Sam, said the workshop formed part of the organisations post elections interventions to ensure that the issues of women were not left out in the day-to-day policies of the country.
She said the workshop would help enhance the MPs capacity on the Floor of the House when the time comes for them to debate on this year’s budget saying that it is also aimed at updating the MPs on the need for Ghana to continue with gender budgeting.
Presently, three ministries that is the ministries of Food and Agriculture, Health and Local Government, Rural Development and Environment are being piloted for gender budgeting.
Monday, February 16, 2009
Let’s support anti-polio vaccination
Daily Graphic, Pg. 11, Sat. Feb. 14/09
Article Rebecca Quaicoe-Duho
Poliomyelitis (polio) is an infectious disease that usually causes lameness in the arms, legs or upper part of the body, especially of children.
Caused by a small germ called the polio virus, it affects the nerves and muscles of the body, causing permanent paralysis in children and it is mainly transmitted through person-to-person contact, especially in areas with sub-standard hygiene.
The polio virus lives in the throat and intestinal tract of infected persons. The virus enters the body through the victim’s mouth, usually from hands contaminated with the stool of an infected person. Objects such as eating utensils can also spread the virus.
The polio virus attacks the nerve cells that control muscle movement. Many people infected with the virus have few or no symptoms. Others have short-term symptoms such as headache, tiredness, fever, stiff neck and back, and muscle pain.
More serious problems happen when the virus invades nerves in the brain and causes paralysis of the muscles used in swallowing and breathing. Invasion of the nerves in the spinal cord can cause paralysis of the arms, legs, or trunk.
Symptoms usually start seven to 14 days after exposure to the virus. Infected persons are most contagious from a few days before to a few days after the start of symptoms. However, persons with polio can spread the infection for as long as the virus is in their throat or stool. The virus can be found in the throat for about one week after infection and in the stool for six weeks or longer.
According to health experts, polio can be easily avoided by using a safe vaccine which is given as drops in the mouth of children under five years.
Although the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) Country Representative in Ghana, Dr Yasmine Haque, says that polio can affect people above the age of five, including adults, immunising children, who are more vulnerable to the virus, will help save them from the debilitating effects of the disease.
Ghana began its polio eradication exercise in 1996 and made significant progress by stopping the spread of the polio virus through routine immunisation and mass campaigns to vaccinate all children under the age of five.
As a result of the successful implementation of the National Polio Vaccination Days, Ghana was removed from the list of polio endemic countries in 2002 and the country had a perfect record in 2007, with no reported case of polio.
However, the confirmation of eight wild polio cases in the Northern Region from August to November last year is indeed a sad one and health experts are back in arms to ensure that the virus is totally eradicated from the country.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) considers a single confirmed case of polio paralysis to be evidence of an epidemic because of the highly infectious nature of the disease and according to the organisation, a single case means it is likely that many more people in that affected area are infected because many people do not exhibit early symptoms.
Total eradication of the virus, according Dr Haque, cannot be achieved if other West African countries are not involved in the eradication process and that is why the Ministry of Health in Ghana and other health partners such as the UNICEF, together with other health ministries in seven other African countries: Nigeria, Benin, Togo, Cote d’Ivoire, Niger, Burkina Faso and Mali, undertook a synchronised vaccination exercise in all the countries in February, this year with a second round of vaccination from March 26 to 29, 2009.
In an interview with the Daily Graphic at Glefe, a suburb of Mamprobi in the Ablekuma South District of the Greater Accra Region, where a team of nurses from the Mamprobi Polyclinic and volunteers had targeted to immunise 3,500 children under five years, Dr Haque said the eight reported cases may have entered the country through migration. She added that “polio-free Ghana is meaningless unless it is linked to the total polio-free of Africa”.
According to health experts, a synchronised immunisation exercise is timely and Northern Nigeria is considered as a health threat to West Africa because it has the highest cases of polio in West Africa.
The international borders are active and travelling individuals unknowingly carry the disease into endemic-free countries, therefore, until polio is eradicated from that area, occasional reports of polio spreading to its neighbours, according to Dr Haque, are likely to continue.
In response to the latest discovery in Ghana, a house-to-house exercise was conducted last year in seven regions: The Upper East and West, Northern, Brong Ahafo, Ashanti, Volta and Eastern.
The exercise, which was undertaken in two parts from November 13 to 15 and December 11 to 13, 2008, was to ensure that the virus was halted from spreading further.
Article Rebecca Quaicoe-Duho
Poliomyelitis (polio) is an infectious disease that usually causes lameness in the arms, legs or upper part of the body, especially of children.
Caused by a small germ called the polio virus, it affects the nerves and muscles of the body, causing permanent paralysis in children and it is mainly transmitted through person-to-person contact, especially in areas with sub-standard hygiene.
The polio virus lives in the throat and intestinal tract of infected persons. The virus enters the body through the victim’s mouth, usually from hands contaminated with the stool of an infected person. Objects such as eating utensils can also spread the virus.
The polio virus attacks the nerve cells that control muscle movement. Many people infected with the virus have few or no symptoms. Others have short-term symptoms such as headache, tiredness, fever, stiff neck and back, and muscle pain.
More serious problems happen when the virus invades nerves in the brain and causes paralysis of the muscles used in swallowing and breathing. Invasion of the nerves in the spinal cord can cause paralysis of the arms, legs, or trunk.
Symptoms usually start seven to 14 days after exposure to the virus. Infected persons are most contagious from a few days before to a few days after the start of symptoms. However, persons with polio can spread the infection for as long as the virus is in their throat or stool. The virus can be found in the throat for about one week after infection and in the stool for six weeks or longer.
According to health experts, polio can be easily avoided by using a safe vaccine which is given as drops in the mouth of children under five years.
Although the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) Country Representative in Ghana, Dr Yasmine Haque, says that polio can affect people above the age of five, including adults, immunising children, who are more vulnerable to the virus, will help save them from the debilitating effects of the disease.
Ghana began its polio eradication exercise in 1996 and made significant progress by stopping the spread of the polio virus through routine immunisation and mass campaigns to vaccinate all children under the age of five.
As a result of the successful implementation of the National Polio Vaccination Days, Ghana was removed from the list of polio endemic countries in 2002 and the country had a perfect record in 2007, with no reported case of polio.
However, the confirmation of eight wild polio cases in the Northern Region from August to November last year is indeed a sad one and health experts are back in arms to ensure that the virus is totally eradicated from the country.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) considers a single confirmed case of polio paralysis to be evidence of an epidemic because of the highly infectious nature of the disease and according to the organisation, a single case means it is likely that many more people in that affected area are infected because many people do not exhibit early symptoms.
Total eradication of the virus, according Dr Haque, cannot be achieved if other West African countries are not involved in the eradication process and that is why the Ministry of Health in Ghana and other health partners such as the UNICEF, together with other health ministries in seven other African countries: Nigeria, Benin, Togo, Cote d’Ivoire, Niger, Burkina Faso and Mali, undertook a synchronised vaccination exercise in all the countries in February, this year with a second round of vaccination from March 26 to 29, 2009.
In an interview with the Daily Graphic at Glefe, a suburb of Mamprobi in the Ablekuma South District of the Greater Accra Region, where a team of nurses from the Mamprobi Polyclinic and volunteers had targeted to immunise 3,500 children under five years, Dr Haque said the eight reported cases may have entered the country through migration. She added that “polio-free Ghana is meaningless unless it is linked to the total polio-free of Africa”.
According to health experts, a synchronised immunisation exercise is timely and Northern Nigeria is considered as a health threat to West Africa because it has the highest cases of polio in West Africa.
The international borders are active and travelling individuals unknowingly carry the disease into endemic-free countries, therefore, until polio is eradicated from that area, occasional reports of polio spreading to its neighbours, according to Dr Haque, are likely to continue.
In response to the latest discovery in Ghana, a house-to-house exercise was conducted last year in seven regions: The Upper East and West, Northern, Brong Ahafo, Ashanti, Volta and Eastern.
The exercise, which was undertaken in two parts from November 13 to 15 and December 11 to 13, 2008, was to ensure that the virus was halted from spreading further.
Thursday, February 12, 2009
National anti-polio vaccination begins
Daily Graphic, (spread), Fri. Feb. 13/09
Story Rebecca Quaicoe-Duho & Cara Fanning
THE United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), in collaboration with the Ghana Health Service (GHS), has begun immunising 4.8 million children in the first of two rounds of vaccination against Poliomyelitis (Polio) in the country.
This has become necessary after the discovery of eight cases of the disease in Yendi and other parts of the Northern Region last year.
The first round of immunisation began yesterday and will continue till tomorrow, with the second round being delivered from March 26 to 29, 2009.
The country began polio eradication programmes in 1996 and since then a lot of progress has been made. In a bid to increase coverage, Ghana has since 2000 changed its strategy of immunising children at fixed locations to using mobile vaccination teams who visit target groups from house to house.
As part of the immunisation exercise, the Country Representative of UNICEF, Dr Yasmine Haque, joined a team of nurses from the Mamprobi Polyclinic and visited Glefe, a suburb of Mamprobi in the Ablekuma South Sub-metro, where 3,500 children under the age of five are expected to be immunised within the next three days.
According to Dr Haque, Ghana had for some years now made significant progress in the eradication of the virus, saying that the re-emergence of the virus could be attributed to migration within the sub-region.
To ensure that the whole region was free from the virus, she said the exercise was being replicated in seven other West African countries, including Togo, Benin, Burkina Faso, Niger, Mali, Cote d’Ivoire and Nigeria.
“Till we get polio eradicated from the world, no one is free,” she indicated.
Dr Haque also said the exercise included Vitamin A supplementation to boost children’s immunity against other illnesses they could be susceptible to.
According to her, an emergency vaccination exercise was done three weeks after the eight cases of polio were discovered and added that the current exercise was to consolidate previous actions.
The UNICEF country representative later visited Chorkor, a community near Glefe, where she interacted with the volunteers and some mothers.
A Principal Nursing Officer of the Mamprobi Polyclinic, Ms Harriet Allotey, said in order to reach each and every child, Glefe had been divided into 10 zones, with groups of volunteers covering each zone.
She recounted how, some years ago, parents refused to allow the volunteers to vaccinate their children because of a misconception that the vaccine contained some harmful substances, saying that so far they had not encountered any problem with parents in the area, as residents of homes and managers of educational centres visited were willing to allow their children to be vaccinated
This year’s immunisation exercise was launched last week, during which the Programme Manager of the Expanded Programme on Immunisation, Dr K. Antwi Agyei, assured parents and guardians that “receiving repeated doses of the vaccine is not harmful in any way to children but a definite way to ensure interruption of circulation of the disease”.
Story Rebecca Quaicoe-Duho & Cara Fanning
THE United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), in collaboration with the Ghana Health Service (GHS), has begun immunising 4.8 million children in the first of two rounds of vaccination against Poliomyelitis (Polio) in the country.
This has become necessary after the discovery of eight cases of the disease in Yendi and other parts of the Northern Region last year.
The first round of immunisation began yesterday and will continue till tomorrow, with the second round being delivered from March 26 to 29, 2009.
The country began polio eradication programmes in 1996 and since then a lot of progress has been made. In a bid to increase coverage, Ghana has since 2000 changed its strategy of immunising children at fixed locations to using mobile vaccination teams who visit target groups from house to house.
As part of the immunisation exercise, the Country Representative of UNICEF, Dr Yasmine Haque, joined a team of nurses from the Mamprobi Polyclinic and visited Glefe, a suburb of Mamprobi in the Ablekuma South Sub-metro, where 3,500 children under the age of five are expected to be immunised within the next three days.
According to Dr Haque, Ghana had for some years now made significant progress in the eradication of the virus, saying that the re-emergence of the virus could be attributed to migration within the sub-region.
To ensure that the whole region was free from the virus, she said the exercise was being replicated in seven other West African countries, including Togo, Benin, Burkina Faso, Niger, Mali, Cote d’Ivoire and Nigeria.
“Till we get polio eradicated from the world, no one is free,” she indicated.
Dr Haque also said the exercise included Vitamin A supplementation to boost children’s immunity against other illnesses they could be susceptible to.
According to her, an emergency vaccination exercise was done three weeks after the eight cases of polio were discovered and added that the current exercise was to consolidate previous actions.
The UNICEF country representative later visited Chorkor, a community near Glefe, where she interacted with the volunteers and some mothers.
A Principal Nursing Officer of the Mamprobi Polyclinic, Ms Harriet Allotey, said in order to reach each and every child, Glefe had been divided into 10 zones, with groups of volunteers covering each zone.
She recounted how, some years ago, parents refused to allow the volunteers to vaccinate their children because of a misconception that the vaccine contained some harmful substances, saying that so far they had not encountered any problem with parents in the area, as residents of homes and managers of educational centres visited were willing to allow their children to be vaccinated
This year’s immunisation exercise was launched last week, during which the Programme Manager of the Expanded Programme on Immunisation, Dr K. Antwi Agyei, assured parents and guardians that “receiving repeated doses of the vaccine is not harmful in any way to children but a definite way to ensure interruption of circulation of the disease”.
Tuesday, February 10, 2009
MOWAC minister designate will tackle ‘kayayee’
Daily Graphic, Pg. 11 Tues. Feb. 10/02/09
Story Rebecca Quaicoe-Duho
THE Minister of Women and Children’s Affairs designate, Ms Akua Sena Dansua has indicated her commitment to set in motion proactive measures to address the problem of young ladies who migrate from the northern part of the country to do menial jobs in the southern sector.
According to her, through the Northern Development Fund Act, which was passed by the Fourth Parliament of the Fourth Republic for the development of the three northern regions, young ladies from the north will be trained with employable skills to enable them undertake decent jobs .
Records indicate that a number of the young girls who do the ‘kayayoo’ business in Accra, Kumasi and other areas of the country are from the Upper East, Upper West and the three northern regions .
Popularly known as ‘Kayayei’, this social problem has persisted in the country for decades and according to Ms Dansua, when she is given the nod she will tackle the problem so that young people from the three northern regions will be able to acquire employable skills to secure their future.
The minister designate who made the statement when she took her turn when the first batch of the President’s nominees appeared before the Appointments Committee of Parliament on Friday, said she will tackle the problem by ensuring that vocational training centres are established in the three regions to train young female drop -outs to prevent them from migrating to the south.
Touching on other issues that will help alleviate the plight of women and children in the country, the Minister designate said there was the need for people to encourage more girls to go to school so that they can assume decision- making positions in the country in future.
Citing herself as an example, Ms Dansua said she would not like any child to experience the difficult childhood she passed through. Although she did not elaborate on the difficulties she said she struggled to the level that she finds herself presently.
Answering a question from Mr Atta Akyea, Member of Parliament for Abuakwa South, who indicated that by calling for Affirmative Action (AA), women were behaving as though there were road blocks to achieving higher laurels, Madam Dansua said not many girls have the courage to withstand tough situations like she did.
She, therefore reiterated the need to encourage young girls to go to school and also to help women to own businesses as well as enter into decision- making positions.
She said due to the socio-cultural and financial difficulties that most women went through they were unable to achieve their aims, hence the need to encourage them not to give up .
The Minister designate also touched on the manifesto of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), which states that there will be 40 per cent appointments of women into cabinet and decision making positions.
She described it as as a step in the right direction and said it would emable a lot of women toreach leadership positions.
She said fielding more women into the safe seats of political parties to contest parliamentary elections in future should not be a problem and even went ahead to appeal to her male colleagues to leave such seats for women. “Most of us do not have the capacity so we need to appeal to you”, she said.
Presently, although the Domestic Violence (DV) Act is in existence and the National Plan of Action for its implementation has been drawn it has not yet been put into full implementation and according to Ms Dansua, she will see to the implementation of the DV Law and others that were already in existence such as the Children’s Act and the Human Trafficking Act that protects the right of women and children to ensure that the rights of the deprived in society were upheld.
There was also a question from a member of the committee on whether the 31st December Women’s Movement (31st DWM) a non-governmental organisation(NGOs) headed by the former First Lady, Nana Konadu Agyemang Rawlings, will not dominate the affairs of the Ministry for Women and Children’s Affairs.
Ms Dansua replied that MOWAC was a national women’s machinery that works with all non-governmental organisations(NGOs) and that the 31st DWM is one of the numerous NGOs that are in the country.
“All of us together will help to empower the ministry by way of policies and resources”, she said adding that since the ministry cannot do the work alone it will work with all including the 31st DWM.
On how she will help build the capacity of teachers at the Early Childhood Development Centres (ECDC), to help improve the quality of teaching ;she said since ECDC was the bedrock of development in the country she will work in collaboration with stakeholders by training care givers to be professionals.
Also the Minister designate said she would review the structures and mandate of MOWAC to make it more responsive to the needs of women and their children, as well as build the capacity of its staff and stakeholders to make them more efficient to live up to expectation.
She said after eight years of its establishment it was time to bring all stakeholders together to address the challenges confronting the ministry .
Story Rebecca Quaicoe-Duho
THE Minister of Women and Children’s Affairs designate, Ms Akua Sena Dansua has indicated her commitment to set in motion proactive measures to address the problem of young ladies who migrate from the northern part of the country to do menial jobs in the southern sector.
According to her, through the Northern Development Fund Act, which was passed by the Fourth Parliament of the Fourth Republic for the development of the three northern regions, young ladies from the north will be trained with employable skills to enable them undertake decent jobs .
Records indicate that a number of the young girls who do the ‘kayayoo’ business in Accra, Kumasi and other areas of the country are from the Upper East, Upper West and the three northern regions .
Popularly known as ‘Kayayei’, this social problem has persisted in the country for decades and according to Ms Dansua, when she is given the nod she will tackle the problem so that young people from the three northern regions will be able to acquire employable skills to secure their future.
The minister designate who made the statement when she took her turn when the first batch of the President’s nominees appeared before the Appointments Committee of Parliament on Friday, said she will tackle the problem by ensuring that vocational training centres are established in the three regions to train young female drop -outs to prevent them from migrating to the south.
Touching on other issues that will help alleviate the plight of women and children in the country, the Minister designate said there was the need for people to encourage more girls to go to school so that they can assume decision- making positions in the country in future.
Citing herself as an example, Ms Dansua said she would not like any child to experience the difficult childhood she passed through. Although she did not elaborate on the difficulties she said she struggled to the level that she finds herself presently.
Answering a question from Mr Atta Akyea, Member of Parliament for Abuakwa South, who indicated that by calling for Affirmative Action (AA), women were behaving as though there were road blocks to achieving higher laurels, Madam Dansua said not many girls have the courage to withstand tough situations like she did.
She, therefore reiterated the need to encourage young girls to go to school and also to help women to own businesses as well as enter into decision- making positions.
She said due to the socio-cultural and financial difficulties that most women went through they were unable to achieve their aims, hence the need to encourage them not to give up .
The Minister designate also touched on the manifesto of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), which states that there will be 40 per cent appointments of women into cabinet and decision making positions.
She described it as as a step in the right direction and said it would emable a lot of women toreach leadership positions.
She said fielding more women into the safe seats of political parties to contest parliamentary elections in future should not be a problem and even went ahead to appeal to her male colleagues to leave such seats for women. “Most of us do not have the capacity so we need to appeal to you”, she said.
Presently, although the Domestic Violence (DV) Act is in existence and the National Plan of Action for its implementation has been drawn it has not yet been put into full implementation and according to Ms Dansua, she will see to the implementation of the DV Law and others that were already in existence such as the Children’s Act and the Human Trafficking Act that protects the right of women and children to ensure that the rights of the deprived in society were upheld.
There was also a question from a member of the committee on whether the 31st December Women’s Movement (31st DWM) a non-governmental organisation(NGOs) headed by the former First Lady, Nana Konadu Agyemang Rawlings, will not dominate the affairs of the Ministry for Women and Children’s Affairs.
Ms Dansua replied that MOWAC was a national women’s machinery that works with all non-governmental organisations(NGOs) and that the 31st DWM is one of the numerous NGOs that are in the country.
“All of us together will help to empower the ministry by way of policies and resources”, she said adding that since the ministry cannot do the work alone it will work with all including the 31st DWM.
On how she will help build the capacity of teachers at the Early Childhood Development Centres (ECDC), to help improve the quality of teaching ;she said since ECDC was the bedrock of development in the country she will work in collaboration with stakeholders by training care givers to be professionals.
Also the Minister designate said she would review the structures and mandate of MOWAC to make it more responsive to the needs of women and their children, as well as build the capacity of its staff and stakeholders to make them more efficient to live up to expectation.
She said after eight years of its establishment it was time to bring all stakeholders together to address the challenges confronting the ministry .
Friday, February 6, 2009
The task ahead of MOWAC Minister
Daily Graphic, Pg 11, Thurs. Feb. 05/09
By Rebecca Quaicoe-Duho
Since its establishment in 2001, the Ministry of Women and Children’s Affairs has spearheaded a vigorous national drive to overcome the challenges of gender inequality, the socio-economic empowerment of women, as well as work towards the resolution of the myriad of problems militating against the survival and development of children.
As part of its mandate, the ministry, which was established by the erstwhile New Patriotic Party (NPP) administration with a Cabinet status, was also tasked to ensure the protection, survival and holistic development of children and co-ordinate all policies and programmes for the advancement of gender equality and the protection of the rights of women and children in Ghana.
The ministry, under its first Minister, Mrs Gladys Asmah, initiated a lot of policies, legislation and programmes, most of which were continued by her successor, Hajia Alima Mahama.
Some of the initiatives undertaken by the ministry are the National Gender Policy, the Early Childhood Care and Development Policy, the Orphan and Vulnerable Children’s Policy and engendering the strategic policy focus of the Ghana Poverty Reduction Strategy (GPRS I & II).
The ministry also facilitated the implementation of the Affirmative Action Policy that led to the establishment of gender desk officers (GDOs) in all ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs), the passage of the Human Trafficking Act, 2005 (Act 694) and the Domestic Violence Act, 2007 (Act 732).
Also, through the its initiative, Cabinet gave approval for the introduction of gender budgeting and, as a result, the government, in the 2008 budget, called for a pilot programme to be designed by three ministries — the Ministry of Health, the Ministry of Food and Agriculture and the Ministry of Education, Science and Sports.
The ministry, since its inception, has also introduced an access to credit programme by which, through the National Investment Bank, the Agricultural Development Bank and the rural banks, it has disbursed micro-credit to the tune of GH¢120,000 to 120,000 women to help generate employment and reduce poverty among women, especially in the rural areas, while 90 women in small-scale businesses have also benefited from loans ranging from GH¢200 to GH¢2,500, with a total of GH¢78,350 being disbursed to such women.
Documents made available to the Daily Graphic on the operations of the ministry indicate that in the area of building the capacity of women to acquire business skills, especially in credit management, savings mobilisation, marketing, customer relations, record keeping, financial management, among others, the ministry has trained 23,187 women, most of whom are food or petty traders or unemployed, from 464 communities.
The ministry has also built the capacities of 7,940 women in agro and food processing skills and through the HIPC funds procured 88 agro-processing equipment for 43 women’s groups, with a start-up capital of GH¢2,000 for each group to purchase raw materials. This initiative is so far benefiting over 3,520 people across the country.
In collaboration with the Ministry of Food and Agriculture, MOWAC, over the years, has again purchased 10 tractors for 500 farmers and has also distributed 300 food processing machines in eight regions of the country, while 88 women have benefited from eight processing equipment country-wide.
In the area of good governance, MOWAC, in 2006, launched the Women in Local Governance Fund, in collaboration with civil society organisations (CSOs) and the National Association of Local Authorities of Ghana, and 1,772 women who contested the 2006 district level elections were assisted financially from money accruing from the fund.
The ministry again, in collaboration with its development partners such as the United Nations Fund for Population Activities (UNFPA) and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), gave support in the form of capacity building to women political aspirants in the 2002 and 2006 district level elections.
From the foregoing, it is evident that when she is given the nod, the third minister, Madam Akua Sena Dansua, will inherit a good legacy set out by her predecessors but she will also face challenges that have bedevilled the ministry since its inception.
The ministry faces both financial and human resource constraints in its gender equality promotion, women's empowerment and the survival, protection and development of the child.
Specific constraints that the ministry faces include the socio-cultural mentality of people regarding women empowerment, behavioural and attitudinal changes within the country's cultural set-up, the lack of sex-disaggregated data to promote effective gender planning and evidence-based decision making on gender, women and children issues.
Another problem will concern budget allocation, as the ministry will have to ensure that national, sector and district budgets adequately address gender equality and women empowerment issues.
Gender advocates will also expect a lot from the minister, as they will be working closely with her on issues concerning women and children and, according to the Convenor of Netright, Dr Rose Mensah Kutin, there were many issues that they would want the new minister to tackle.
She said it was incumbent on the new minister to implement recommendations made by civil society organisations at the Third High Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness in respect of women.
She said the minister designate, when given the nod, would have to ensure that more money was channelled into the issue of gender equality to make it more effective.
Mrs Kutin, who said past governments had relied on donor support which, according to her, was not substantial for the operation of the ministry, suggested that more money should be channelled into the activities of the women’s ministry to help it to achieve the objectives for which it was established.
“Women’s movement is more concerned about making sure that equality is translated into actuality,” she said.
She further suggested that the new minister should tackle the issue of gender equality separately from children’s issues, arguing that gender equality was more of a power struggle and, therefore, had nothing to do with women and their children.
Issues raised by some women’s right advocates who called on President John Evans Atta Mills at the Castle on Tuesday are also relevant and the minister designate needs to address them.
In its way forward for 2009 to 2011, MOWAC has set out a target of achieving results in five thematic areas, which are institutional capacity enhancement to promote gender equality and child development, the socio-economic empowerment of women and children, gender and sex-disaggregated data collection for research and gender policy re-engineering, rights protection of women and children through the implementation of national laws and policies and advocacy, sensitisation and public education to create public awareness of government policies and interventions.
By Rebecca Quaicoe-Duho
Since its establishment in 2001, the Ministry of Women and Children’s Affairs has spearheaded a vigorous national drive to overcome the challenges of gender inequality, the socio-economic empowerment of women, as well as work towards the resolution of the myriad of problems militating against the survival and development of children.
As part of its mandate, the ministry, which was established by the erstwhile New Patriotic Party (NPP) administration with a Cabinet status, was also tasked to ensure the protection, survival and holistic development of children and co-ordinate all policies and programmes for the advancement of gender equality and the protection of the rights of women and children in Ghana.
The ministry, under its first Minister, Mrs Gladys Asmah, initiated a lot of policies, legislation and programmes, most of which were continued by her successor, Hajia Alima Mahama.
Some of the initiatives undertaken by the ministry are the National Gender Policy, the Early Childhood Care and Development Policy, the Orphan and Vulnerable Children’s Policy and engendering the strategic policy focus of the Ghana Poverty Reduction Strategy (GPRS I & II).
The ministry also facilitated the implementation of the Affirmative Action Policy that led to the establishment of gender desk officers (GDOs) in all ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs), the passage of the Human Trafficking Act, 2005 (Act 694) and the Domestic Violence Act, 2007 (Act 732).
Also, through the its initiative, Cabinet gave approval for the introduction of gender budgeting and, as a result, the government, in the 2008 budget, called for a pilot programme to be designed by three ministries — the Ministry of Health, the Ministry of Food and Agriculture and the Ministry of Education, Science and Sports.
The ministry, since its inception, has also introduced an access to credit programme by which, through the National Investment Bank, the Agricultural Development Bank and the rural banks, it has disbursed micro-credit to the tune of GH¢120,000 to 120,000 women to help generate employment and reduce poverty among women, especially in the rural areas, while 90 women in small-scale businesses have also benefited from loans ranging from GH¢200 to GH¢2,500, with a total of GH¢78,350 being disbursed to such women.
Documents made available to the Daily Graphic on the operations of the ministry indicate that in the area of building the capacity of women to acquire business skills, especially in credit management, savings mobilisation, marketing, customer relations, record keeping, financial management, among others, the ministry has trained 23,187 women, most of whom are food or petty traders or unemployed, from 464 communities.
The ministry has also built the capacities of 7,940 women in agro and food processing skills and through the HIPC funds procured 88 agro-processing equipment for 43 women’s groups, with a start-up capital of GH¢2,000 for each group to purchase raw materials. This initiative is so far benefiting over 3,520 people across the country.
In collaboration with the Ministry of Food and Agriculture, MOWAC, over the years, has again purchased 10 tractors for 500 farmers and has also distributed 300 food processing machines in eight regions of the country, while 88 women have benefited from eight processing equipment country-wide.
In the area of good governance, MOWAC, in 2006, launched the Women in Local Governance Fund, in collaboration with civil society organisations (CSOs) and the National Association of Local Authorities of Ghana, and 1,772 women who contested the 2006 district level elections were assisted financially from money accruing from the fund.
The ministry again, in collaboration with its development partners such as the United Nations Fund for Population Activities (UNFPA) and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), gave support in the form of capacity building to women political aspirants in the 2002 and 2006 district level elections.
From the foregoing, it is evident that when she is given the nod, the third minister, Madam Akua Sena Dansua, will inherit a good legacy set out by her predecessors but she will also face challenges that have bedevilled the ministry since its inception.
The ministry faces both financial and human resource constraints in its gender equality promotion, women's empowerment and the survival, protection and development of the child.
Specific constraints that the ministry faces include the socio-cultural mentality of people regarding women empowerment, behavioural and attitudinal changes within the country's cultural set-up, the lack of sex-disaggregated data to promote effective gender planning and evidence-based decision making on gender, women and children issues.
Another problem will concern budget allocation, as the ministry will have to ensure that national, sector and district budgets adequately address gender equality and women empowerment issues.
Gender advocates will also expect a lot from the minister, as they will be working closely with her on issues concerning women and children and, according to the Convenor of Netright, Dr Rose Mensah Kutin, there were many issues that they would want the new minister to tackle.
She said it was incumbent on the new minister to implement recommendations made by civil society organisations at the Third High Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness in respect of women.
She said the minister designate, when given the nod, would have to ensure that more money was channelled into the issue of gender equality to make it more effective.
Mrs Kutin, who said past governments had relied on donor support which, according to her, was not substantial for the operation of the ministry, suggested that more money should be channelled into the activities of the women’s ministry to help it to achieve the objectives for which it was established.
“Women’s movement is more concerned about making sure that equality is translated into actuality,” she said.
She further suggested that the new minister should tackle the issue of gender equality separately from children’s issues, arguing that gender equality was more of a power struggle and, therefore, had nothing to do with women and their children.
Issues raised by some women’s right advocates who called on President John Evans Atta Mills at the Castle on Tuesday are also relevant and the minister designate needs to address them.
In its way forward for 2009 to 2011, MOWAC has set out a target of achieving results in five thematic areas, which are institutional capacity enhancement to promote gender equality and child development, the socio-economic empowerment of women and children, gender and sex-disaggregated data collection for research and gender policy re-engineering, rights protection of women and children through the implementation of national laws and policies and advocacy, sensitisation and public education to create public awareness of government policies and interventions.
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