The dialogue is titled: “Mainstreaming Gender in Regional Economic Communities in Africa: Documenting Existing Models for Accelerating Achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the African Union’s Agenda 2063.”    

The event is being attended by key representatives from the African Union Commission, Regional Economic Communities (RECs), United Nations agencies, civil society organisations and academia, to discuss the challenges facing African countries in combating gender disparity and the way forward.   

 It would provide a platform for the participants to share their experiences on the issue of gender inequality and identify robust plans that could be employed to ensure gender mainstreaming in Africa.      

Addressing the participants to officially open the event, Madam Otiko Afisa Djaba, the Minister for Gender Children and Social Protection, said Government was adopting robust strategies and interventions to promote gender equality and women empowerment.  

 She said government was working assiduously on the Affirmative Action legislation, which aims at facilitating a minimum of 40 per cent representation for women in all decision-making structures. 

 Madam Otiko Djaba reaffirmed Government’s commitment towards empowering women economically to overcome the “feminisation of poverty” through ensuring equitable access to land, credit, markets, social protection, including property rights.  

The Gender Minister said the Livelihood Empowerment against Poverty (LEAP) cash transfer programme had since its inception provided bi-monthly cash grants to over 943,842 extremely poor individuals in Ghana as at the end of 2016.

 “Out of this figure, 56 per cent were women,” she said, and added that the cash transfer was expected to reduce poverty among the poorest in communities and improve their consumption while creating more opportunities for their economic growth.

These, including other initiatives such as the School Feeding Programme, according to the Minister, would propel the country’s efforts to work towards the achievement of the Africa Agenda 2063, a strategic framework for the socio-economic transformation of the continent over the next 50 years and the Sustainable Development Goals-2030.      

She expressed Government’s interest in fully participating in the policy dialogue which would serve as a basis for documenting how the regional and sub-regional institutions used a lens of gender equality for situation analysis, planning, policy making, legislation, resource allocation, implementation and monitoring of progress of gender empowerment activities.     

The policy dialogue also formed part of the African Union Commission’s initiative dubbed: “Building an Enabling Environment for Women’s Economic Empowerment and Political Participation in Africa Project” which receives technical support from the UNDP Regional Service Centre in Africa.     

The REC’s who would be represented at the dialogue included the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa, the East African Community, ECOWAS, the Intergovernmental Authority on Development and the Southern African Community. Other participants are representatives of the Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection, the UN’s Children’s Fund (UNICEF), the UN Population Fund and the Food and Agriculture Organisation.