MOWAC CONDUCTS GENDER AUDIT...In public, security services (PAGE 11)

The Ministry of Women and Children’s Affairs (MOWAC) is conducting a gender audit in the public and security services to establish the number of women and men employed in the public service as well as the police and military.
The Minister of Women and Children’s Affairs, Ms Akua Sena Dansua, who announced this at a consultative forum on the United Nations Security Council Resolution (UNSCR) 1325 on Women, Peace and Security, said the move was in line with the implementation of the resolution.
The resolution, which tasks UN Systems and member states to ensure that gender considerations are thoroughly integrated into all aspects of its security platform from conflict prevention to post-conflict reconstruction, was unanimously adopted by the Security Council in October 2000.
She said the audit would guide the government in recruiting a fair percentage of men and women in the public and security services.
Ms Dansua said the resolution recognised the disproportionate effect of armed conflict on women, children and other vulnerable groups and the need to involve women in the prevention and management of sustainable peace and development.
She explained that even though Ghana had not experienced armed conflict, the country had witnessed pockets of violence land and chieftaincy conflicts in some parts of the country, to which women and children were the most vulnerable.
She said in all these instances, even though women might not have played any major role in engineering the conflicts, they were among the worst affected and bore the brunt of rape and other gender-based violence in conflict situations.
Ms Dansua said it was in this direction that the UN Security Council came up with the resolution aimed at encouraging member states to draw up specific national plans of action for its implementation.
She said Ghana had already signed and adopted the Resolution, in addition to some specific action taken on issues relating to peace and security.
She said, for example, that Ghana had made tremendous contributions to maintaining peace and security on the continent by sending soldiers and police on peace-keeping missions of the UN and other African regions.
She said as the UN resolution required, Ghana had increased the percentage of female contributing to peace-keeping operations from zero to 11.5 per cent, as well as embarking on recruitment exercises to increase participation of women in peace keeping missions.
Furthermore, the minister said that training had been provided on the prevention of violence and response to sexual and gender- based violence to the refugee community through patrols by the police personnel and members of the neighbourhood watch teams under the auspices of the United Nations High Commission for Refugees programme.
Ms Dansua explained that gender audit was part of the positive developments in the Ghana Police Service and the military for the development of Ghana’s Action Plan on the implementation of the Security Council Resolution 1325.