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Use our pull-down menus to find more stories OR subscribers use AllAfrica's Ghana: Inadequate Financial Resources Hamper Gender Equality This Page This Page on this article The Publisher's Site (Accra) 6 October 2008 Posted to the web 6 October 2008 Ama Achiaa Amankwah Accra The Convention on the Elimination of All Forms Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) is one of several international treaties and agreements signed and ratified by Ghana to promote gender equality and for the advancement of women in Ghana. CEDAW which has 16 provisions was agreed upon by countries worldwide to completely put an end to sexual exclusions or distinctions which create inequality between men and women. According to a Director at the Ministry of Women and Children Affairs (MOWAC), Mrs. Marian Tackie, even though Ghana has taken concrete measures to translate various conventions and treaties into implementation policies, inadequate financial resources to translate all its commitment into desired measurable results have been a major challenge. She said with the injection of more financial inflows especially from the United Nations (UN) system funding agencies, Ghana would be able to achieve its development goals and targets relating to gender equality and women's empowerment. Speaking at a seminar for media personnel on Ghana's Third, Fourth and Fifth combined Report on CEDAW in Accra; Mrs. Tackie said that Ghana has complied with its reporting obligation under the convention by submitting five periodic reports to the UN Committee on CEDAW with her Sixth and Seventh Reports due in 2011. She observed that the incorporation of CEDAW into Ghana's domestic laws has been by piecemeal methods. "Some provisions of CEDAW are already provided for in the 1992 Constitution of Ghana. Sections dealing with rights of women, children and people with disabilities and the Directive Principles of State dealing with fundamental rights and freedoms, economic, political and social matters, address issues raised in the articles of CEDAW." She said other provisions of CEDAW have been complied with through review of existing legislations or promulgation of new legislations such as the Domestic Violence and the Human Trafficking Acts. "About 46 Domestic Violence and Victim Support Units are in place to ensure enforcement of the law. There are few shelters in the country operated by civil society organisations. Government plans to establish shelters in all districts, however, funding is a big challenge." She cited Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) and Trokosi as some of the harmful practices that have been criminalized while sensitization programmes are on-going to educate communities on the law and implications of breaking it. She believes that Ghana has come far in the area of education, saying it is a developmental process and that at the basic education level gender parity is almost being achieved. A representative of the UN systems, Mrs. Doris Aglobiste, noted the role of the UN in Ghana in the area of providing Technical Assistance as well as some funding to MOWAC and other NGOs for the implementation of programmes that are of benefit to women and girls. Relevant Links She assured that the UN system will continue to provide support in these areas based on what the government presents as its area of priority. AllAfrica aggregates and indexes content from over , plus more than , who are responsible for their own reporting and views. Articles and commentaries that identify allAfrica.com as the publisher are . Share this on: © 2008 Public Agenda. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media ( ). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections -- or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, . | | | | | | Questions or Comments? . Read our . Today's Most Active Stories Most Read Most Commented Most Emailed