“Commit more resources to support women’s work”

Daily Graphic, Pg 11, Sat. Jan. 02/10

Story Rebecca Quaicoe-Duho

THE Convenor of the network for Women’s Right (NETRIGHT), Dr Mrs Rose Mensah Kutin, has called on the government to be more proactive in addressing issues concerning women’s rights this year and subsequent years.
Adding her voice to calls from women on their expectations for 2010, she said the government needed to commit more resources to support women’s work.
According to her, last year was quite challenging for women in the country especially as the change in government brought in its wake unclear agenda on issues concerning women’s equity and empowerment.
Her expectations from the government, she said, was for the government to reduce polarisation in the country so that women could also freely talk on issues without being branded as being politically biased.
She called on the government to unite the country in a way that everyone would feel a sense of belonging.
Dr Mrs Kutin also expects the government to improve on the employment situation of the country, saying that the current employment status of the country is in crisis and that the government needs to create employment avenues for both men and women.
She also expects the government to look at the service conditions of teachers in the country, saying that it is the sure way of checking the fallen standards of education that the country was currently witnessing.
She further called on the government to take advantage of the benefits emerging from the conference on climate change held in Copenhagen and to tap into the benefits offered by governments from developing countries especially in areas where the issue of climate change directly affected women and their source of livelihood.
She also called on the government to use the upcoming Beijing +10 review meeting to update itself on how it had performed so far in terms of women empowerment in the country and also ensure that it participated fully in the meeting.
On the programme of NETRIGHT in the coming year, she said the organisation would co-ordinate the formation of a coalition which would solely focus on gender and climate change, as a way of educating women on how to combat the issue of climate change.
She said her outfit was also going to intensify its work on getting more women into the district assembly in the 2010 District Assembly elections.
She added that her organisation had already prepared initial strategy for women’s participation and would continue to mount a strong campaign for a quota system to increase the number of women in political decision-making.
She also called for support from the media in projecting the issue of women positively and further called on the private sector to also support socially relevant issues pertaining to women’s right.
She gave the assurance that NETRIGHT would continue to work to unite women from across the country.