Ghana Association of Public Administrators and Managers (GAPAM) is calling on government to pay serious attention to issues affecting women in the country if the country hopes to achieve its objective of having more women contributing meaningfully to its development.

The group explains that having more women for instance in the public and governance sector will not be achieved on a silver platter especially if issues that confront women development in the country are not addressed head on.

The group explains that having a lot of women occupying significant positions in the country will mean removing all impediments that cripple their formative education and training especially at the basic and secondary levels .

This, they argue will aid females to climb higher the academic ladder, acquire the requisite knowledge and skills that will help them play meaningful roles in the Ghanaian society leading to improved growth and development of the country.

Speaking at a symposium at GIMPA on addressing challenges that impede women development and empowerment in the country, the president of the group Dr. Oforiwaa Gifty Gyamera identified teenage pregnancy as one of the cardinal challenges that hinder female education and empowerment in the country.

She described as high the statistics concerning girls who are not able to continue their education because of teenage pregnancies.

“In recent years, there have been records of increasing high level of teenage pregnancy across all the regions of Ghana. During the first part of 2017 alone about 57,000 teenage pregnancies were recorded in Ghana. Amongst this 9,100 adolescents were from the Ashanti Region. The rates of teenage pregnancy in Ghana are high and it requires urgent national response to combat it.

Alarmingly, the epidemic is plaguing the very young ones of between 9 years and 12, raising concerns to the detrimental effect of our lack of responsiveness to the real needs of these young persons” she stated.

She added that females are unsafe at all levels in the country as evidence over the years point to the fact that a form of violence is perpetrated against women in the country and efforts must be doubled to arrest the phenomenon.

“One of the critical challenges which undermine such efforts is child sexual abuse which may result in child pregnancy and motherhood with other subsequent effects. The national data on rape and defilement shows mostly a rise in rape and defilement cases in the society (Domestic Violence and Victim Support Unit, 2001-2011). Varied researches have indicated a rise in cases defilement. A study by DOVVSU (2012) indicates that 91.8% of victims of sexual abuse in Junior High Schools (JHS) and it could be higher now” she stated .

She argued that to enhance the life of children and their future contribution to society, the problem of sex abuse and pregnancy must be addressed with urgent priority as research has proven that violence, or the threat of violence, against women is an intractable barrier to women’s participation.

Dr. Gyamera who is also a lecturer at GIMPA indicated that the inaction of governments over the years in addressing the critical concerns of women which mostly come in the form of violation of their rights including sex will continue to affect the country’s chances of having more women participating in the governance process of this country thereby falling short of international requirements in terms of women empowerment and participation in government.

“In many areas of the Service, Ghana continues to operate below the 30% international mandate of women’s participation. It has been acknowledged for instance that ‘weak implementation of the existing laws promoting women’s rights; weak capacity of appropriate enforcement and related agencies; limited coverage of the institutions dealing with women’s rights; inadequate support for victims of violence; and poor implementation of the Domestic Violence law’ are not supportive of women’s involvement and participation” she stated.

Dr.Gyamera stressed that having good policies to safeguard the development of women come with many benefits and that the country should take drastic steps to remove all obstacles that cripple women empowerment as it is women who make the home what it is supposed to be including the raising of responsible children and ultimately having more women participate in governance.

“We argue that to enhance the life of children and their future contribution to society, the problem of sex abuse and pregnancy must be addressed with urgent priority. Violence, or the threat of violence, against women is an intractable barrier to women’s participation” she stated.

She also called on parents to live up to their responsibilities so that they don’t give room for the children including the females to engage in acts which tend to curtail their development in their quest for survival .

“We also noticed that apart from the lack of age differentiation to help focus attention on the needs of children and their developmental agenda, after birth, and due to a lack of education, life skill training and family support, for them to continue living or go back to school, many of these girls engage in prostitution, others in multiple sexual relationships and cohabiting partnerships with guy who are themselves lacking economic resources and are also young. Others too enter into unplanned early marriages” she added.

The association ,she added will also continue its role of sensitization and advocacy so that girls in the country receive the necessary training that will help them grow into useful adults.