Ghana joins world to mark International Women’s Day

 The First Lady, Re­becca Akufo-Addo, has challenged men to actively partake in the drive to build an equitable society.

“As we honour and celebrate the uniqueness and accomplishment of women, we also call for all to embrace equity.

Equity is not just nice-to-have, it is a must-have. A focus on gender equity must be part of every society’s DNA and I challenge everyone, especially our men to join the movement to make equity a must-have,” she urged.

Mrs Akufo-Addo made the appeal in a statement to mark International Women’s Day (IWD) yesterday on the global theme; “DigitALL: Innovation and tech­nology for gender equality”.

Under the campaign theme; “Embrace Equity”, this year’s IWD seeks to move the conversation on gender equality beyond giving equal opportunities to men and women, to ensuring equitable ac­cess to resources for true inclusion.

It recognises women and girls championing the advancement of transformative technology and dig­ital education while exploring the impact of the digital gender gap on widening economic and social inequalities across the world.

The theme also puts the spot­light on the importance of protect­ing the rights of women and girls in digital spaces and addressing online and ICT-facilitated gen­der-based violence.

Relatedly, the Association of Women in the Media (ASWIM) has urged the government to employ strategies to increase the participa­tion of Ghanaian girls and women in the digital space, to thrive.

“Equity interventions, ASWIM believes, should be pursued over those of equal opportunities, to creating fairness for girls and wom­en in STEM school enrolment, capacity building programmes, incubation and startups of busi­nesses and access to financing in this space.

Additionally, ASWIM supports the call of the UN Secretary-Gen­eral for action on online education, removal of systemic barriers and a proactive approach to increase women’s participation and leader­ship in science and technology to address the imbalance,” it said in a statement to mark the occasion.

According to ASWIM, while “Equality means each individual or group of people is given the same resources or opportunities; equity recognises that each person has different circumstances, and allocates the exact resources and opportunities needed to reach an equal outcome”.

Ghana, it said, needed to leap­frog its economic development with huge investments in Science, Innovation and Digital Technology and the only way to maximise that national potential was to use equity interventions to balance the partic­ipation of women and girls.

The association again, urged the government, parliament and all stakeholders to “rededicate to the urgent passing of the Affirmative Action Law which has been pend­ing more than a decade after it was initiated, to help make women’s contributions count even better for the building of a dynamic and balanced society in the interest of all.”

IWD is commemorated each year to celebrate the social, economic, cultural and political achievements of women in the past, present and future genera­tions.  

 BY ABIGAIL ANNOH

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