Maribel Akuokor Okine, Western Regional Director of the Department of Gender
The Global Gender Gap Report 2024 projects that despite progress, there is still much work to be done to achieve gender parity.
It is thus imperative that governments, organizations, and individuals worked together to accelerate progress and create a more equitable society for all.
Madam Maribel Akuokor Okine, the Western Regional Director of the Department of Gender, told the GNA that while Ghana and Africa had made significant progress in closing the gender gap, persistent challenges remained.
Addressing these challenges, she noted, required collective action, investment, and a commitment to creating a more equitable society.
According to her, Ghana’s overall score has been steadily increasingly, from 0.654 in 2006 to 0.672 in 2022, indicating that the country had closed about 67 percent of its gender gap.
“The Global Gender Gap Report, a comprehensive benchmarking tool that measured the gap between men and women across four key dimensions; Economic Participation and Opportunity, Educational Attainment, Health and Survival, and Political Empowerment had been tracking Ghana’s progress since 2006”.
The Gender Director said over the past 18 years, Ghana had made significant strides in closing the gender gap resulting in a notable progress.
She said in educational attainment Ghana had closed 96 percent of its gap with significant improvements in access to education for girls and women.
On health and Survival, Ghana had closed 97 percent of its gap with improvements in healthcare outcomes for women and girls.
However, Ghana still faced significant challenges in gender pay gaps and unequal access to economic opportunities, continued violence against women and girls, limited access to healthcare and reproductive rights and underrepresentation of women in decision-making positions.
Meanwhile, the Beijing Declaration was a landmark moment in the global fight for women’s rights, outlining 12 critical areas of concern.
Madam Okine said Africa as a whole had closed around 68 percent of its gender gap, slightly lower than the global average adding that “while the continent has made progress in educational attainment and health and survival, it still faced significant challenges in economic participation and opportunity, and political empowerment”.
She said accelerating Progress to address these challenges, Ghana and other African countries needed to prioritise investments in women’s economic empowerment, increase women’s representation in politics and decision-making positions, and address the social and cultural norms that perpetuated gender disparities.
“As we prepare to celebrate International Women’s Day on March 8th, we need to emphasize on the importance of rights, equality, and empowerment for all women and girls.
The campaign theme “Accelerate Action” serves as a reminder that we must work together to accelerate progress towards a more just and equitable society for women and girls worldwide”, she added.
