Africa-Press – Ghana. Ghanaian women will join the rest of the world to commemorate International Women’s Day (IWD), an annual event, which falls on March 8.
The Day is celebrated globally to commemorate the cultural, political, and socioeconomic achievements of women. The 2022 IWD falls on Tuesday with the theme “Gender Equality Today for A Sustainable Tomorrow” with a call for climate action for women, by women.
It is also a focal point in the women’s rights movement, bringing attention to issues such as gender equality, reproductive rights, and violence and abuse against women.
Research has shown that women and girls experience the greatest impacts of the climate crisis as it amplifies existing gender inequalities and puts women’s lives and livelihoods at risk.
It said across the world, women depend more on, yet have less access to, natural resources, and often bear a disproportionate responsibility for securing food, water, and fuel.
As women and girls bear the burden of climate impacts, they are also essential to leading and driving change in climate adaption, mitigation and solutions.
Without the inclusion of half of the world’s population, it is unlikely that solutions for a sustainable planet and a gender equal world tomorrow will be realised.
Officially recognised by the United Nations in 1977, International Women’s Day (IWD) first emerged from the activities of labour movements at the turn of the twentieth century in North America and across Europe. IWD has assumed a new global dimension for women in developed and developing countries alike.
The growing international women’s movement, which had been strengthened by four global United Nations women’s conferences, has helped made the commemoration a rallying point to build support for women’s rights and participation in the political and economic arenas.
Even though significant gains have been made globally, gender inequality continues to hold women and girls back and deprive them of basic rights and opportunities professionally.
Mrs Cecilia Abena Dapaah, the Caretaker Minister of Gender, Children and Social Protection and Minister of Sanitation and Water Resources, speaking at the launch of the 2022 IWD said this year’s theme sought to recognise the contribution of women and girls around the world.
She said Ghana had adopted the theme as the country celebrated the tremendous efforts by women and girls in shaping an equal future devoid of the negative impacts of climate change.
The Minister said the Government of Ghana through the Gender Ministry had initiated several projects and policies to advance the course of women and girls.
“Key example is the development of a National Gender Policy, which sought to regulate and mainstream gender in all sectors of the country’s institutional mechanism. This has encouraged a lot of institutions to develop their sector specific gender policies,” she said.
Some of the key strategies she mentioned included the National Climate Change Policy, the National REDD strategy, the National Forestry Development Master Plan, Food and Agricultural Sector Development Policy and the Gender and Agricultural Development Strategy as well as the Ghana Plan of Action for Disaster Risk Reduction and Climate Change Adaptation.
Mrs Dapaah said to incorporate a gender perspective successfully and effectively required that women and girls had equal access to information, knowledge, capacity building, resources and technology, which were prerequisites for influencing climate change in Ghana.
She called on all to make deliberate efforts towards involving women in all climate change interventions to increase women’s access to climate information, including climate smart practices and technologies as well as increase women’s leadership at the community level to aid Disaster Risk Reduction.
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