A one-day Stakeholders’ Workshop to Develop a National Roadmap for Mainstreaming Gender into Social Protection Programming & Delivery was held in Accra on Wednesday, 22nd February 2023.
The Social Protection Directorate (SPD) under the Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection (MoGCSP) in collaboration with UNICEF Ghana is developing a National Roadmap for mainstreaming gender into Social Protection Programming and Delivery.
The overall objective is to build consensus among a range of national and international stakeholders on key entry points to move towards a gender and shock-responsive social protection system as envisioned by the National Social protection policy (2015).
One of the major strategic imperatives identified by the National Social Protection Policy (NSPP) is the mainstreaming of gender in social protection programming and delivery (NSPP 2015).
It also aims to use gender-sensitive instruments during program design, monitoring, data collection, and evaluation to guarantee that Ghana’s social protection systems are attentive to the needs of women.
The consultative workshop concludes the zonal interactions, which were held in Kumasi and Tamale, respectively.
The Minister for Gender, Children and Social Protection, Hon. Lariba Zuweira Abudu said the National Gender Policy, which is currently under review outlines the objective of mainstreaming gender, women’s empowerment and social protection concerns into the national development process to improve the social, legal, civic, political, economic and cultural conditions of the people of Ghana.
She indicated that social protection is a fundamental drive towards gender equity and equality adding that the Ministry has taken bold measures to implement and ensure effective coordination of social protection interventions to empower the most vulnerable persons in Ghanaian society.
The growth of women is nevertheless hampered by problems including poverty, climate change, conflict, urbanization, irregular migration, and detrimental socio-cultural practices, according to Hon. Lariba, despite the government’s commitment to gender mainstreaming and equality.
She, therefore, called for a more concerted effort to strengthen our social protection systems to be more gender-sensitive to shock responses.
