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The President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has charged world leaders to extend a blanket protection to all women and to ensure that their rights become the bedrock for equality and social justice.

“We do ourselves and future generations a great disservice if we leave women out of the agenda for development”, he emphasised.
The President made these comments at the launch of the Gender and Development Initiative for Africa (GADIA) conference in Accra yesterday.

GADIA is a flagship programme under the President’s AU Gender and Development Championship initiative, structured around the pillars of developing women’s economic empowerment through the private sector and increasing their political participation.

Earlier in the year, President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo was appointed as the African Union leader for gender and development and also as the African Union’s Gender and Development Champion for his work in promoting gender parity and the socio-economic development of women and girls in Africa.

These positions, the President hopes to use as a tool to mobilise political synergy to give women the needed support to play their rightful role in development on the African continent.
“As any gender champion, my goal to this end is to help mobilise political support to help transform Africa into an exemplary continent with sound policies and solid programmes to successfully change the fortunes of women in the society”.

According to the President, leadership must find a way of putting the continent ahead in the promotion of gender equality, and this, he said, must be done by working fully with women leaders to develop solutions to achieving this aim.

The President made reference to studies which support the fact that investing in women is arguably the most effective measure any developing nation can employ to improve its standard of living.
Additionally, educating girls produces considerable social and welfare benefits such as lower infant mortality and fertility rates, with further research indicating that mothers’ level of education has a direct influence on economic productivity for both their family, community and the nation as a whole.

“Thus, having African women as leaders in business and politics, as is the theme of this event, is a must if we are to shed off the evils of poverty, ignorance and disease and put our continent on the path of progress and prosperity.”

He noted that although there has been deliberate polices to bridge the gender inequality gap, more efforts must be made to increase women’s participation in decision-making processes at all levels.
“A higher number of women in decision-making capacities goes well for the rapid development of our continent”, he noted.

He noted that Ghana has made significant progress towards bringing the gender gap by initiating policies and programmes such as the adoption of the gender policy, the formulation of the affirmative action bill, which is due for enactment in parliament, and a number of other social protection programmes.

These strides notwithstanding, the President bemoaned the phenomenon in the private sector, where women are not creating their own businesses but are also underrepresented in top positions.

“My government believes that the creation of a business-friendly and a people-friendly economy in Africa, through private sector empowerment, we should create prosperity and jobs for all Ghanaians and Africans, including our women who account for nearly 52 per cent of Ghana’s population; it’s our surest bet for success,” he emphasised.

President of Liberia, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, who was the special guest at the conference, commended President Nana Addo for his exemplary role in promoting gender equality on the continent.
She was grateful for the support given her as the first woman president of Liberia in reconstructing the economy of that country after years of civil unrest.

“With the support of women and the leaders of Africa, we have been able to keep that peace; we have been able to reconstruct; we have been able to regain our credibility and credit worthiness in the international community; we have been able to demonstrate that indeed a woman can lead,” she noted.

Minister for Business Development, Mohammed Awal Ibrahim encouraged women entrepreneurs to exhibit all the confidence they can muster in their business endeavours as government is committed to offer them the necessary support to make them thrive.

He noted that as part of efforts to promote indigenous businesses in the country, the plan is to ensure that that within the next four years, out of a 100 successful indigenous Ghanaian businesses to emerge, at least 50 of them should be owned and managed by women.

He pledged his ministry’s support to offer the needed conditions to grow women entrepreneurs in the country.

Otiko Afisa Djaba, Minister of Gender, Children and Social Protection, noted that although Ghana has instituted a number of policies to increase women’s participation in top decision-making processes, more needed to be done to rally women as real partners in development.