Women in traditional leadership positions have been called upon to develop their capacity and potentials to enable them to confront development challenges of their generation.
Mr. Isaac Owusu-Mensah, Senior Programme Manager, Konrad Adenauer Stiftung (KAS), said as development emanated from the grassroots to complement the national agenda, there was the need to strengthen the role of traditional authorities to harness their development role.
Mr. Owusu-Mensah said this at a capacity building workshop for women traditional leaders in the Upper West Region organised by the Centre for Indigenous Knowledge and Organisational Development (CIKOD) in collaboration with KAS.
He said the workshop would serve as a tool to ensure effective local governance adding that capacity building was extremely important in the life of every entity and the country as a whole.
Mr Ben Guri, Executive Director, CIKOD, said traditional authorities and existing institutions were key to poverty alleviation and development in rural Ghana.
"CIKOD is therefore committed to developing strategies that build on our traditional structures and institutions to give voice to our rural communities to advocate for resources for development."
Mr. Guri said the training would educate traditional leaders on the relationship between traditional governance system and the formal local governance system, identify the role of traditional women leaders and strengthen awareness of the traditional women leader in utilising both modern and tradition conflict resolution methods.
Mr. George Hikah Benson, Upper West Regional Minister, lauded the initiative adding, "Programmes such as this must be supported to promote organisational development at all levels".
He urged the traditional leaders to see the training as an opportunity to improve on themselves for the socio-economic and cultural development of the people.
Mr Benson said: "Let us therefore dilate on the socio-cultural dynamics as well as issues of the economy against personal attacks."
Three modular courses designed for the workshop included Local Governance and Natural Management, Leadership, Gender and Conflict Management and Community Development and project management.