The Ministry of Transport is developing a policy framework to regulate all small vessels and canoes to bring sanity into transportation on the Volta Lake and other inland waterways.
The policy framework is also intended to create the platform for the ministry to provide security and protection to the marine environment against oil spillage and toxic dumping.
Mr Mike Hammah, the Minister of Transport, made this known in a speech read on his behalf at a workshop for inspectors, surveyors and marine engineers in Accra.
A technical co-operation agreement has already been signed between the Ministry of Transport and the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) to develop a regulatory framework.
Apart from the IMO-sponsored model safety regulations, there is no international treaty regime to cater for small ships and fishing vessels that operate on inland waterways.
Mr Hammah explained that the regulatory framework was partly designed to prevent the perennial loss of lives and property on the Volta Lake and inland waterways in the country because of the absence of a law to regulate the activities of small ships and canoe owners.
He said the assumption that surveyors of big ships could take up the inspection duties of those local crafts, in reality, did not work.
He said Ghana, described as the a pacesetter in maritime affairs in Africa, had adopted the IMO model safety regulations which were currently being incorporated into the national laws to enable the law to hold boat owners responsible for acts which endangered lives of people on the sea and inland waterways.
The minister said for a country such as Ghana which had more than 90 per cent of the tonnage of vessels made up of small fishing vessels, the training of surveyors and inspectors of non-convention ships could not be overemphasised.
He announced that a bill using the model regulations had already been prepared and national stakeholders workshops held on those models while the draft bill was being finalised by the Attorney-General’s Department.
Mr Hammah said the current series of workshops, therefore, were aimed at providing surveyors and inspectors of non-convention vessels with the necessary tools to implement the law when passed.
He explained that under the new law, drawings and plans of new crafts and vessels would have to be approved before construction could take place.
Mr Hammah stressed that vessels would be inspected during construction to ensure that they conformed to the standards as stipulated in the regulatory framework to reduce the spate of accidents and their resultant loss of lives and property on the sea.
The Director-General of the Ghana Maritime Authority, Mr I. P. Azuma, said technical regulations relating to surveys, stability, as well as safety of equipment, fire protection and operating vessels, occupational safety and pollution were some of the areas that would occupy the attention of the participants to make the waterways safe for passengers.
Wednesday, September 2, 2009
MINISTRY TO EXPAND LANDS UNDER IRRIGATION (BACK PAGE)
THE Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MoFA) is to expand agricultural lands under irrigation from 33,000 hectares to 50,000 by 2015, the Minister of Agriculture, Mr Kwasi Ahwoi, has announced.
The total agricultural land area is estimated at 13.6 million hectares of which the potential irrigable land area is estimated at 500,000 hectares.
Mr Ahwoi, who announced this at the inauguration of Ghana Irrigation Development Authority (GIDA) Board of Directors in Accra yesterday, said out of the total 13.6 million hectares of agricultural land only 7.2 million hectares were under cultivation.
He explained that the country was endowed with extensive soils which could be developed to meet the agricultural requirements of the country, but the hostilities of the weather characterised by unreliable and uneven distribution of rain did not favour any systematic and sustainable development of the agricultural potential of the country.
He explained that the development of that vast agricultural land will require factors which included the adoption and expansion of irrigated agriculture as a guarantee against the risk of crop failure due to lack of water.
Mr Ahwoi said the use of irrigation technology in combination with good soil management and choice of appropriate crop types and varieties were the most important factors for sustainable food availability and food security.
He said the country’s experience in irrigation was woefully limited and appeared worsened by the habit of shifting cultivation, a farming system which predominated food production strategies.
He also attributed the limited irrigation experience to high infrastructural costs involved in developing and expanding irrigation facilities in the rural areas of the country.
He said because of the high cost of irrigation facilities, the provision of irrigation infrastructure over the years had been the sole responsibility of the government.
Mr Mallam Seidu, Chairman of the 11-member Board of Directors of GIDA, for his part, said the country was fortunate to have large amounts of water bodies and favourable topography, but it was ranked among the countries with the lowest percentage of irrigated agriculture in sub-Saharan Africa.
The minister said despite those challenges and irrespective of the many fiscal and financial problems limiting the rapid development of irrigation, it was one of the key areas that could play an important role in the realisation of the objectives of food security and poverty reduction in the rural areas.
He said for that reason the government was determined to make irrigation take its rightful place in the agricultural development agenda of the country.
Mr Ahwoi said MoFA, under its Medium Term Sector Plan for 2009-2015, had put irrigation development in its rightful place to play a key role in achieving reduction in rural poverty and overall equitable economic development.
The chairman said there was, therefore, the need to intensify the development of irrigation and in particular to expand production of high value vegetables and fruits to diversify the country’s exports.
The total agricultural land area is estimated at 13.6 million hectares of which the potential irrigable land area is estimated at 500,000 hectares.
Mr Ahwoi, who announced this at the inauguration of Ghana Irrigation Development Authority (GIDA) Board of Directors in Accra yesterday, said out of the total 13.6 million hectares of agricultural land only 7.2 million hectares were under cultivation.
He explained that the country was endowed with extensive soils which could be developed to meet the agricultural requirements of the country, but the hostilities of the weather characterised by unreliable and uneven distribution of rain did not favour any systematic and sustainable development of the agricultural potential of the country.
He explained that the development of that vast agricultural land will require factors which included the adoption and expansion of irrigated agriculture as a guarantee against the risk of crop failure due to lack of water.
Mr Ahwoi said the use of irrigation technology in combination with good soil management and choice of appropriate crop types and varieties were the most important factors for sustainable food availability and food security.
He said the country’s experience in irrigation was woefully limited and appeared worsened by the habit of shifting cultivation, a farming system which predominated food production strategies.
He also attributed the limited irrigation experience to high infrastructural costs involved in developing and expanding irrigation facilities in the rural areas of the country.
He said because of the high cost of irrigation facilities, the provision of irrigation infrastructure over the years had been the sole responsibility of the government.
Mr Mallam Seidu, Chairman of the 11-member Board of Directors of GIDA, for his part, said the country was fortunate to have large amounts of water bodies and favourable topography, but it was ranked among the countries with the lowest percentage of irrigated agriculture in sub-Saharan Africa.
The minister said despite those challenges and irrespective of the many fiscal and financial problems limiting the rapid development of irrigation, it was one of the key areas that could play an important role in the realisation of the objectives of food security and poverty reduction in the rural areas.
He said for that reason the government was determined to make irrigation take its rightful place in the agricultural development agenda of the country.
Mr Ahwoi said MoFA, under its Medium Term Sector Plan for 2009-2015, had put irrigation development in its rightful place to play a key role in achieving reduction in rural poverty and overall equitable economic development.
The chairman said there was, therefore, the need to intensify the development of irrigation and in particular to expand production of high value vegetables and fruits to diversify the country’s exports.
Monday, August 31, 2009
SIMPLIFY ISSUANCE OF PERMIT (PAGE 3)
NII Armah Ashitey, the Greater Accra Regional Minister, has called for the simplification of issuance of building permits to reduce corruption.
He alleged that the state lost GH¢300,000 (¢3 billion old cedis) through under-invoicing of building permits perpetrated by a head of department of a municipal assembly in the Greater Accra Region.
The officer, whose name is being withheld, is under investigation for allegedly issuing a building permit of ¢2 billion instead of ¢5 billion for 17 storey buildings in his municipality.
Mr Ashitey made the allegation at the first ordinary session of the Ga West Municipal Assembly last Friday.
He said the restructuring of the issuance of building permits to make the process simple would eliminate corruption and encourage more people to apply for building permits thereby reducing unauthorised structures.
The Regional Minister noted that the three months land developers had to wait to obtain approval for building permits was not good enough and explained that it should be possible for prospective developers to obtain the permits within, at most, a month.
He advised staff of assemblies in the region to desist from conniving with developers to build unauthorised structures and cautioned that those caught would be sanctioned.
He said there was a lot of revenue generating items such as property rate, development permits, fees and fines and a host of others that the assemblies could rely on to generate the required revenue.
Mr Ashitey, therefore, urged the assemblies in the region not to rely only on the District Assemblies Common Fund but evolve innovative strategies to generate enough revenue for development.
The Municipal Chief Executive for Ga West, Mr Armah Tachie, said as of June, this year, the assembly had collected GH¢332,054.61 out of a projected revenue of GH¢1,067,647.50 representing 31.1 per cent of the total budget for 2009.
He said within the same period last year the assembly realised GH¢373,589.87 out of the projected revenue of GH¢1,270,163.00 representing 29.41 per cent of the total projection.
He said the assembly had put in place a number of long-term measures to improve revenue mobilisation for next year and into the future.
Mr Tachie said the measures included the completion of the collection of data on all properties and businesses operating within the municipality and the revaluation of all properties would be completed by the end of the year to ensure realistic budget for the ensuing year.
He alleged that the state lost GH¢300,000 (¢3 billion old cedis) through under-invoicing of building permits perpetrated by a head of department of a municipal assembly in the Greater Accra Region.
The officer, whose name is being withheld, is under investigation for allegedly issuing a building permit of ¢2 billion instead of ¢5 billion for 17 storey buildings in his municipality.
Mr Ashitey made the allegation at the first ordinary session of the Ga West Municipal Assembly last Friday.
He said the restructuring of the issuance of building permits to make the process simple would eliminate corruption and encourage more people to apply for building permits thereby reducing unauthorised structures.
The Regional Minister noted that the three months land developers had to wait to obtain approval for building permits was not good enough and explained that it should be possible for prospective developers to obtain the permits within, at most, a month.
He advised staff of assemblies in the region to desist from conniving with developers to build unauthorised structures and cautioned that those caught would be sanctioned.
He said there was a lot of revenue generating items such as property rate, development permits, fees and fines and a host of others that the assemblies could rely on to generate the required revenue.
Mr Ashitey, therefore, urged the assemblies in the region not to rely only on the District Assemblies Common Fund but evolve innovative strategies to generate enough revenue for development.
The Municipal Chief Executive for Ga West, Mr Armah Tachie, said as of June, this year, the assembly had collected GH¢332,054.61 out of a projected revenue of GH¢1,067,647.50 representing 31.1 per cent of the total budget for 2009.
He said within the same period last year the assembly realised GH¢373,589.87 out of the projected revenue of GH¢1,270,163.00 representing 29.41 per cent of the total projection.
He said the assembly had put in place a number of long-term measures to improve revenue mobilisation for next year and into the future.
Mr Tachie said the measures included the completion of the collection of data on all properties and businesses operating within the municipality and the revaluation of all properties would be completed by the end of the year to ensure realistic budget for the ensuing year.
Friday, August 28, 2009
ENSURE FAIR COMPETITION...Veep urges telecom investors (SPREAD)
THE Vice President, Mr John Dramani Mahama, has urged investors in the telecommunications industry to ensure fair and healthy competition to enable services to be extended to all consumers, irrespective of their geographical location.
He explained that the decision to introduce competition in the telecommunications sector was informed largely by the desire to give players in the sector the opportunity to initiate technical and commercial collaboration in order to share network and infrastructural facilities.
The Vice-President said this when he officially opened the new corporate head office for tiGo at Millicom House in Accra on Wednesday.
He noted that instead of the mobile telephone service providers sharing facilities such as masts to bring down cost of infrastructure and thereby reduce cost of services and products to the benefit of the consumer, the networks had entered into a ‘mast war’.
Mr Mahama said the networks were engaged in competition with one another to erect masts and the competition was so keen that in one area one could count as many as five masts competing, with one another with every mast having its own set of generators to power it.
In an environment where the competition was healthy, he said, one mast and one generator could have been adequate to serve the needs of all the competitors to reduce waste and cut costs.
Mr Mahama, therefore, stressed the need for the operators to collaborate on a higher scale to co-locate to bring the technological and economic benefit accruing from such collective efforts to themselves, as well as consumers.
He said each operator had its major area of technical strength which, when brought under the principle of co-location, could lift Ghana to a higher technological platform to enhance deployment of Information Communication Technology (ICT)
He said quality service was crucial in the telecommunications sector and, therefore, called on the National Communications Authority (NCA) to regulate the performance of key services offered by the operators by setting standards for quality of service.
The Vice-President said the standards must enjoin the operators to submit periodic reports of their service quality as determined by the NCA.
He said Ghana’s telecommunications policies would continue to be geared towards developing a world-class telecommunications network capable of providing high quality telecommunications services at competitive prices to the benefit of the consumer.
In this connection, he said the government believed that having a good telecommunications infrastructure was one of the critical factors that would drive the country’s economic development in this era of Next Generation Network and converged telecommunications markets.
Mr Mahama commended the management of tiGo for taking advantage of the creation of the enabling environment by the Government for private sector participation to enter the telecommunications market of Ghana as the first private telecommunications company to commence investment in the mobile market segment.
The Minister of Communications, Mr Haruna Iddrisu, assured investors in telecommunications that the government would not increase the number of operators in the mobile telephone sector to compromise the market.
He, however, reminded operators in the mobile telephone industry of government policy of encouraging the operators to have their scratch cards made locally.
Mr Mahama explained that the mobile telephone sector was an area that made use of a lot of foreign exchange of the country and having their scratch cards made locally would save foreign exchange and provide jobs for the local people.
The outgoing Chief Executive Officer of tiGo said the network would remain sophisticated but accessible saying that his outfit had re-invested its profits in the Ghanaian economy, adding that tiGo currently provided direct jobs to 450 people in the country and thousands of jobs indirectly through the sale of its products on the Ghanaian market.
Mr Christophe Soulet, the incoming Chief Executive Officer of tiGo, said since he visited the country 12 years ago, Ghana had undergone great transformation in infrastructural development.
Mr Soulet observed that Ghana was poised to lead the continent of Africa in the new ICT industry.
He explained that the decision to introduce competition in the telecommunications sector was informed largely by the desire to give players in the sector the opportunity to initiate technical and commercial collaboration in order to share network and infrastructural facilities.
The Vice-President said this when he officially opened the new corporate head office for tiGo at Millicom House in Accra on Wednesday.
He noted that instead of the mobile telephone service providers sharing facilities such as masts to bring down cost of infrastructure and thereby reduce cost of services and products to the benefit of the consumer, the networks had entered into a ‘mast war’.
Mr Mahama said the networks were engaged in competition with one another to erect masts and the competition was so keen that in one area one could count as many as five masts competing, with one another with every mast having its own set of generators to power it.
In an environment where the competition was healthy, he said, one mast and one generator could have been adequate to serve the needs of all the competitors to reduce waste and cut costs.
Mr Mahama, therefore, stressed the need for the operators to collaborate on a higher scale to co-locate to bring the technological and economic benefit accruing from such collective efforts to themselves, as well as consumers.
He said each operator had its major area of technical strength which, when brought under the principle of co-location, could lift Ghana to a higher technological platform to enhance deployment of Information Communication Technology (ICT)
He said quality service was crucial in the telecommunications sector and, therefore, called on the National Communications Authority (NCA) to regulate the performance of key services offered by the operators by setting standards for quality of service.
The Vice-President said the standards must enjoin the operators to submit periodic reports of their service quality as determined by the NCA.
He said Ghana’s telecommunications policies would continue to be geared towards developing a world-class telecommunications network capable of providing high quality telecommunications services at competitive prices to the benefit of the consumer.
In this connection, he said the government believed that having a good telecommunications infrastructure was one of the critical factors that would drive the country’s economic development in this era of Next Generation Network and converged telecommunications markets.
Mr Mahama commended the management of tiGo for taking advantage of the creation of the enabling environment by the Government for private sector participation to enter the telecommunications market of Ghana as the first private telecommunications company to commence investment in the mobile market segment.
The Minister of Communications, Mr Haruna Iddrisu, assured investors in telecommunications that the government would not increase the number of operators in the mobile telephone sector to compromise the market.
He, however, reminded operators in the mobile telephone industry of government policy of encouraging the operators to have their scratch cards made locally.
Mr Mahama explained that the mobile telephone sector was an area that made use of a lot of foreign exchange of the country and having their scratch cards made locally would save foreign exchange and provide jobs for the local people.
The outgoing Chief Executive Officer of tiGo said the network would remain sophisticated but accessible saying that his outfit had re-invested its profits in the Ghanaian economy, adding that tiGo currently provided direct jobs to 450 people in the country and thousands of jobs indirectly through the sale of its products on the Ghanaian market.
Mr Christophe Soulet, the incoming Chief Executive Officer of tiGo, said since he visited the country 12 years ago, Ghana had undergone great transformation in infrastructural development.
Mr Soulet observed that Ghana was poised to lead the continent of Africa in the new ICT industry.
Thursday, August 27, 2009
DON'T RAISE HOPES OF GHANAIANS ...On oil find (PAGE 33)
Politicians have been advised against raising the expectations of Ghanaians that the oil discovery in the country is going to solve once and for all, the unemployment situation of the youth.
This is because oil economies alone could not generate mass employment for the youth until the Government invest the oil revenue in other areas of the economy such as agriculture, the services and the manufacturing sectors to generate the needed jobs.
Prof. Andy Mckay, of the Economics Department of the University of Sussex and Overseas Development Institute, London, who delivered a paper on the impact of the Oil and Gas find on Ghana’s economy in Accra last Monday, said Ghanaians, therefore, should not expect direct poverty reduction impact because of the oil find.
The seminar was organised by the Institute of Statistical, Social and Economic Research (ISSER) of the University of Ghana, Legon.
The seminar was under the theme “Managing a new oil economy”.
He explained that since oil economies have weak linkage with the rest of the economy, oil could not change the economic structure of the country by providing employment to the youth.
Prof. Mckay said research had revealed that oil economies did not as a rule lead fast structural transformation of any economy.
He, therefore, urged Ghanaians to desist from unrealistic expectations in relation to the discovery, since the find, if not properly managed, could provide incentive for corruption.
He said the possibilities of the Government striking cosy relationship with oil companies at the expense of the suffering masses was high, as research in many African countries had revealed.
He, however, said Ghana being a democratic country, as well as a resource-rich state, had had some negotiating experiences, adding that the activities of civil society was required to hold the Government accountable, and operate a transparent system to check corruption in the oil economy.
He said in an oil economy, the Government should use more revenue from the oil find to finance other sectors of the economy so as to provide jobs create the necessary competition in other areas of the economy.
He explained that another curse of the oil find was the likelihood that the Government would abandon its traditional sources of revenue and only concentrate on the oil revenue for the development of the economy.
He said because oil was a finite resource that could be depleted, the Government found itself with no other alternatives of making money when oil prices went down and all grandiose projects immediately became abandoned.
Prof. Mckay advised the Government to spend more on rural development and agriculture to avoid the ‘Dutch disease’ when Holland discovered gas and abandoned its manufacturing sector.
This is because oil economies alone could not generate mass employment for the youth until the Government invest the oil revenue in other areas of the economy such as agriculture, the services and the manufacturing sectors to generate the needed jobs.
Prof. Andy Mckay, of the Economics Department of the University of Sussex and Overseas Development Institute, London, who delivered a paper on the impact of the Oil and Gas find on Ghana’s economy in Accra last Monday, said Ghanaians, therefore, should not expect direct poverty reduction impact because of the oil find.
The seminar was organised by the Institute of Statistical, Social and Economic Research (ISSER) of the University of Ghana, Legon.
The seminar was under the theme “Managing a new oil economy”.
He explained that since oil economies have weak linkage with the rest of the economy, oil could not change the economic structure of the country by providing employment to the youth.
Prof. Mckay said research had revealed that oil economies did not as a rule lead fast structural transformation of any economy.
He, therefore, urged Ghanaians to desist from unrealistic expectations in relation to the discovery, since the find, if not properly managed, could provide incentive for corruption.
He said the possibilities of the Government striking cosy relationship with oil companies at the expense of the suffering masses was high, as research in many African countries had revealed.
He, however, said Ghana being a democratic country, as well as a resource-rich state, had had some negotiating experiences, adding that the activities of civil society was required to hold the Government accountable, and operate a transparent system to check corruption in the oil economy.
He said in an oil economy, the Government should use more revenue from the oil find to finance other sectors of the economy so as to provide jobs create the necessary competition in other areas of the economy.
He explained that another curse of the oil find was the likelihood that the Government would abandon its traditional sources of revenue and only concentrate on the oil revenue for the development of the economy.
He said because oil was a finite resource that could be depleted, the Government found itself with no other alternatives of making money when oil prices went down and all grandiose projects immediately became abandoned.
Prof. Mckay advised the Government to spend more on rural development and agriculture to avoid the ‘Dutch disease’ when Holland discovered gas and abandoned its manufacturing sector.
MAKE ISSUANCE OF BUILDING PERMITS SIMPLE (PAGE 14)
NII Armah Ashitey, the Greater Accra Regional Minister, has called for the simplification of issuance of building permits to reduce corruption.
He alleged that the state lost GH¢300,000 (¢3 billion old cedis) through under-invoicing of building permits perpetrated by a head of department of a municipal assembly in the Greater Accra Region.
The officer, whose name is being withheld, is under investigation for allegedly issuing a building permit of ¢2 billion instead of ¢5 billion for 17 storey buildings in his municipality.
Nii Ashitey made the allegation at the first ordinary session of the Ga West Municipal Assembly last Friday.
He said the restructuring of the issuance of building permits to make the process simple would eliminate corruption and encourage more people to apply for building permits thereby reducing unauthorised structures.
The Regional Minister noted that the three months land developers had to wait to obtain approval for building permits was not good enough and explained that it should be possible for prospective developers to obtain the permits within, at least, a month.
He advised staff of assemblies in the region to desist from conniving with developers to build unauthorised structures and cautioned that those caught would be sanctioned.
He said there was a lot of revenue generating items such as property rate, development permits, fees and fines and a host of others that the assemblies could rely on to generate the required revenue.
Nii Ashitey, therefore, urged the assemblies in the region not to rely only on the District Assemblies Common Fund but evolve innovative strategies to generate enough revenue for development.
The Municipal Chief Executive for Ga West, Mr Armah Tachie, said as of June, this year, the assembly had collected GH¢332,054.61 out of a projected revenue of GH¢1,067,647.50 representing 31.1 per cent of the total budget for 2009.
He said within the same period last year the assembly realised GH¢373,589.87 out of the projected revenue of GH¢1,270,163.00 representing 29.41 per cent of the total projection.
He said the assembly had put in place a number of long-term measures to improve revenue mobilisation for next year and into the future.
Mr Tachie said the measures included the completion of the collection of data on all properties and businesses operating within the municipality and the revaluation of all properties would be completed by the end of the year to ensure realistic budget for the ensuing year.
He alleged that the state lost GH¢300,000 (¢3 billion old cedis) through under-invoicing of building permits perpetrated by a head of department of a municipal assembly in the Greater Accra Region.
The officer, whose name is being withheld, is under investigation for allegedly issuing a building permit of ¢2 billion instead of ¢5 billion for 17 storey buildings in his municipality.
Nii Ashitey made the allegation at the first ordinary session of the Ga West Municipal Assembly last Friday.
He said the restructuring of the issuance of building permits to make the process simple would eliminate corruption and encourage more people to apply for building permits thereby reducing unauthorised structures.
The Regional Minister noted that the three months land developers had to wait to obtain approval for building permits was not good enough and explained that it should be possible for prospective developers to obtain the permits within, at least, a month.
He advised staff of assemblies in the region to desist from conniving with developers to build unauthorised structures and cautioned that those caught would be sanctioned.
He said there was a lot of revenue generating items such as property rate, development permits, fees and fines and a host of others that the assemblies could rely on to generate the required revenue.
Nii Ashitey, therefore, urged the assemblies in the region not to rely only on the District Assemblies Common Fund but evolve innovative strategies to generate enough revenue for development.
The Municipal Chief Executive for Ga West, Mr Armah Tachie, said as of June, this year, the assembly had collected GH¢332,054.61 out of a projected revenue of GH¢1,067,647.50 representing 31.1 per cent of the total budget for 2009.
He said within the same period last year the assembly realised GH¢373,589.87 out of the projected revenue of GH¢1,270,163.00 representing 29.41 per cent of the total projection.
He said the assembly had put in place a number of long-term measures to improve revenue mobilisation for next year and into the future.
Mr Tachie said the measures included the completion of the collection of data on all properties and businesses operating within the municipality and the revaluation of all properties would be completed by the end of the year to ensure realistic budget for the ensuing year.
Sunday, August 23, 2009
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.
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.
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