Ghana to host First Ladies Conference in May

Atinkaonline.com – The Minister for Gender, Children and Social Protection, Otiko Afisa Djaba, has disclosed that Ghana will soon host First Ladies of African countries to deliberate on issues affecting African women and the way forward.

The conference scheduled for May 2018 will provide the platform for the First Ladies to talk about ending negative traditional cultural practices that inhibit the progress and welfare of women and the fight to achieve gender equality. It will also demonstrate and exhibit how first ladies in Africa are contributing to end these negative traditional cultural practices.

The Gender Minister made the statement when she was addressing African Women one the sidelines of the ongoing sixty-second United Nations Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) at the United Nations Headquarters, New York.

The session was chaired by Mrs Martha Ama Akyaa Pobee, Ambassador and permanent representative of Ghana to the United Nations.
She averred that negative cultural practices must be put aside so as to achieve the New Africa we aspire to have and live in. “Taboos that inhibit the progress of women must be broken,” she said.

The minister disclosed to the gathering that, in some parts of Ghana, girls who are in their menstrual period are not allowed to cross rivers to school and that government was working in close collaboration with traditional rulers to ensure that these taboos do not inhibit the progress of women especially those in the rural areas.

She challenged African Women Leaders to get the men involved in the fight to achieve gender equality. “Women issue can’t be handled by just women. It should be seen as a national agenda, a global agenda so that together gender mainstreaming, gender responsive budgeting and all the other issues will be factored into national activities”.