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 .
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