The second edition of the Jamila International Women’s Forum has been held in Accra with a call on women to take leadership roles in governance, business, and social transformation to drive the development of Africa.
The opening session saw traditional authorities, government officials, and development partners unite behind a common message that gender equality is a prerequisite for economic resilience.
The event was on the theme: ‘Empowering Women, Empowering Humanity, Breaking Barriers, and Building Future.’
Speaking at the launch, the Chief of Abossey Okai, Nii Abossey Okai Mantse, who spoke on behalf of the Ga Mantse Nii Tackie Teiko Tsuru II, said the event was designed to empower women and celebrate all of their works and contribution to nation-building.
He said women’s empowerment was not merely a women’s issue but also a societal issue.
“Women’s empowerment is not merely a women’s issue. It is a societal issue. When women are empowered, families become stronger, communities become more resilient, and nations become more prosperous”, Nii Tackie Teiko Tsuru said.
The Ga Mantse averred that when women were empowered, families became stronger, communities became more resilient, and nations became more prosperous.
He said he encouraged every woman to recognise her value, and urged young girls to dream boldly and big adding that they should let the sky be their limit.
“I encourage every woman to recognise her value, and the young girls to dream boldly and big. Let the sky be your limit”, Nii Tackie Teiko Tsuru, stated.
For her part, the Director General of Prisons, Mrs Patience Baffoe-Bonnie, said the theme for that year’s forum, Empowering Women, Empowering Humanity: Breaking Barriers, Building Futures, reminded them of a profound truth that whenever women were empowered, entire communities prosper, nations develop, and humanity as a whole advances.
She said that through the presentations and panel discussions, they had seen how women continued to shape society through leadership in government, healthcare, education, media, security services, law, aviation, business, civil society, and community development.
“Through the presentations and panel discussions, we have seen how women continue to shape society through leadership in government, healthcare, education, media, security services, law, aviation and business’’, Mrs Baffoe-Bonnie said .
The Executive Director of Jamila Trust for International Development, Mr Kobla Asamani, said they had sought to bring to prominence and increase the consultation of women’s voices about how women were causing and driving change locally, internationally, and across the world.
The Executive Director said the programme was to celebrate women, assess the state of women empowerment in Ghana, and to forge a strong alliance to promote the socio-economic interest of women.
“Basically, one objective was to celebrate them, another was to assess where women’s empowerment had reached, the third was to celebrate them again, and the fourth was to forge a strong alliance, since the stakeholders who were gathered came from different, diverse backgrounds,” he said.
BY AGNES OWUSU
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