The project, captioned “POWER- Promoting Opportunities for Women Empowerment and Rights” has a five year life span with a 3.5 million euro funding from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands.
The second phase was as a result of the successful implementation of the first phase under the Women’s Right to Sustainable Livelihood (WRSL) one in six regions.
Mr Sumaila Abdul-Rahman, Country Director for ActionAid Ghana, said the project would be implemented in five regions in Ghana in eight districts including Adaklu and about 6000 women could be beneficiaries.
He said women inequality has become a topical global developmental challenge that needed to be tackled from all angles.
Mr Abdul-Rahman said the project sought to recognize and reduce “unpaid care work” that women went through on a daily basis.
“We all know that our women and girls are overburdened with a lot of domestic and social activities that consume all their time, leaving them no space to develop themselves professionally and pursue leadership and economic opportunities,” he said.
Mr Abdul-Rahman said across the world, there is increasing recognition for women’s rights and economic empowerment as the most sustainable way to bridge inequalities and to achieve economic prosperity.
He lauded Ghana for making strides in the fight against gender inequalities but said more needed to be done, especially the passage of the Affirmative Action Bill, which would reserve 40 per cent of leadership space for women in political and policy making structures.
Mr Francis Komla Ganyaglo, Deputy Volta Regional Minister, applauded ActionAid for selecting Adaklu to benefit from the project by improving their capacities to demand their rights to participate in household and community decision making.
He called for utmost priority in gender issues, and said; investing in gender equality yielded the highest return in all developmental projects.
Source: GNA/News Ghana
