World Vision International (WVI), an international non-governmental organization (NGO), says incidences of child marriages in some part of the country, especially Northern Ghana, pose a threat to national development.

It said the practice undermined the growth and development of young girls and robbed the nation of productive youth who could contribute towards national development.

Mr Timothy Akanpabadai, Northern Regional Operations Manager of the WVI, was speaking at the Savannah Regional dialogue on “End Child Marriage Now Campaign” at Damongo on the theme: “Combating teenage pregnancy to ending child marriage Now.”

The dialogue was organized by the WVI in partnership with the Savanna Women Integrated Development Agency (SWIDA-GH) and attended by traditional and religious leaders, Queen mothers, law enforcement agencies and policymakers.

It was to enable participants to discuss and determine the roles each institution could play to help protect young girls and to combat child marriage practices in some communities.

Mr Akanpabadai said child marriage destroyed the ambition of young girls and prevented them from realizing their potentials, adding that it contributed to poverty among families who gave out their girl child for marriage.

“We conducted a study in some parts of the Northern Region and we saw that about 59 per cent of young girls sampled said they were not safe in their communities out of fear of being given out for marriage and 24 per cent of parents still feel the need to give out their girl child for marriage, which is very worrying.”

He, therefore, called for the collective commitment of stakeholders to put in place measures that would protect the girl child from the social canker.

Hajia Alima Sagito-Saeed, Executive Director of SWIDA-GH, who facilitated the dialogue called on traditional rulers to be advocates for girl child empowerment in their communities.

“Our traditional leaders must be advocates for the empowerment of our young girls by ensuring that they are educated or given soft skills training so that we can achieve the desired results of having successful women in our society.”

Madam Barbara Asare Yeboah, National “End Child Marriage Now Campaign” Coordinator at the WVI, said the campaign was an initiative to reduce cases of child marriages by five per cent in the country through rolled out interventions that targeted key actors, including traditional and religious authorities, young girls and NGOs, to achieve set out objectives.

She noted that the campaign was aimed at influencing national policies that protect children from abuses and also mobilize young people to empower them and build their capacities to be lead advocates against child marriages in their communities.

Mr Saeed Muhazu Jibril, Savannah Regional Minister, in a speech read on his behalf, commended WVI and its partners for organizing the event, and urged participants to impart the knowledge they had acquired to other members of their communities to influence behaviour change to help achieve the desired results.

Participants present at the meeting took turns to pledge their commitment to end child marriage to help accelerate development in their communities.

On the International Women’s Day – 2021, the Savannah Women Integrated Development Agency (SWIDA – Ghana) is calling on Civil Society Organizations to continue to engage women and young girls on the various laws that have been made to protect the interests of women and to ensure the rights and protection of the girls are upheld.

The IWD, celebrated on the 8^th March, is a day set aside to campaign every year for the rights and protection of women, as well as to remind stakeholders about the laws that exist to support the course of women across the globe.

According to the official IWD Website “IWD sees a number of missions to help forge a gender equal world. Celebrating women’s achievements and increasing visibility, while calling out inequality, is key”.

The theme for the IWD – 2021 is “Choose to Challenge”, encouraging all women and stakeholders with special interests in women’s growth and development, to push they systems to help bring about change in society and to ensure equality across board.

The Savannah Integrated Women Development Agency (SWIDA – Ghana), as a women empowerment and development organization, has carried out several activities preceding the IWD and climaxed them all with an interface meeting under the Women – LEAD Project, to discuss the need for stakeholders to pay more attention to the call to action on inequality.

Government sector agencies in charge of women development including the Department of Gender, was present to engage some women on what their needs of society are, as the department assured them of what it mandate is to ensuring those needs are met, as far as the policy implementation at the local level is concerned.

Key amongst the immediate outcomes of the climax event is the acceptance of the government agencies that there is a problem with regards to equality and something must be done, to which they accept responsibility at the policy enactment and implementation level.

Other Civil Society Organization partners including PAORP – VWC and Songtaba played key roles in the IWD – 2021 event, largely also due to their numerous works and interests in women empowerment.

Northern Regional Director at the Department of Gender, Madam Bushira Alhassan also took keen interest in issues of domestic violence and sexual abuse of young girls, as she encouraged women and young girls to report such issues immediately they happen, to allow for quick intervention and help for them by the right authorities.

Women youth groups drawn from the Tamale Metropolitan and Sagnarigu Municipal areas indicated that their eyes have been opened to issues on women and girls they hitherto, did not know.

Many of the women and girls said they now know what to do and where to go anytime they become victims of domestic violence of sexual abuse of any form.

After the main event on the IWD – 2021, on – air discussions around the celebration of the day were carried out in radio stations including Kesmi FM and Radio Savannah, both in Tamale.

Executive Director of the Savannah Women Integrated Development Agency (SWIDA – Ghana), Hajia Alimah Sagito – Saeed has called for the swift passage of the Affirmative Action Bill by Parliament to help provide a platform for more women to be mainstreamed into national decision – making, for harnessing diverse perspectives towards development.

Hajia Alimah made this call at an event to celebrate women around the world, organized by RAFELA – Ghana in partnership with SWIDA – Ghana, in which she was also the chairperson.

The event took place under the theme “Generation Equality: the role of Women in Local Governance.

RAFELA was launched in Tangiers, Morocco in 2011 and is being managed by an Executive Bureau including members representing the five Regions of Africa. It supports the development of Women Leadership within the African City, MMDAs, as well as the inclusion of the concerns of women in the definition and implementation of African City and Local Government’s policies and strategies.

RAFELA – Ghana Chapter was launched on the International Women’s Day, with focus on how it will support women in Ghana through advocacy for capacity building and for inclusion in the Ghana local governance system.

Speaking on the topic “Enhancing Women’s Active Presence in Local Governance”, the SWIDA – Ghana Director indicated that even though there has been an improvement in the number of women who participate in Local Governance in Ghana, their impact is still not felt because they are not placed in positions where they can influence decision making, as she attributed the challenges of women’s active presence in local governance to low educational levels, inadequate finance, the social – cultural orientation on the role of women in society, among others.

Host of the event, who is also Chief Executive for the Sagnarigu Municipality, Honorable Mariam Iddrisu, encouraged women to see themselves as equally competent as men, to participate in politics and decision making.

The Guest of Honour for the event and Minister for Local Government and Rural Development, Hajia Alimah Mahama who spoke on the theme of the event “Generation Equality: The Role of Women in Local Governance”, stated that it was important for women in Northern Ghana in particular to take keen interest in political and decision making processes.

She added that the number of women in Ghana’s political landscape was not encouraging, based on which they must be bold to take up political positions to increase the presence of women in the political space.

The event was climaxed with solidarity messages from partners such as the Country Director for Plan Ghana, as well as a Representative from Action Aid-Ghana, who expressed their gratitude to the organisers of the event for heightening discussions on the need for more women in the decision – making space in Ghana’s local governance system.

Each of them spoke briefly to how important it was for the world to recognise and celebrate the efforts of women, as they indicated their willingness to collaborate and support activities of the newly launched RAFELA – Ghana Chapter in the near future.

Citations were presented to 13 women who have distinguished themselves in several ways in helping to ensure the course of women preserved and guarded for the achievement of purpose.

The Savannah Women Integrated Development Agency (SWIDA – Ghana) has launched a project aimed at contributing to dismantle gender-stereotypical norms that affect the progress of women in the Northern Region.

The Women Empowerment for Leadership and Action for Development (Women-LEAD) Project also seeks to mentor and empower young girls to help them reach their potentials, as well as promote gender equality at all levels in the Northern Region.

The project will be implemented in the Tamale Metropolitan and Sagnarigu Municipal areas, with five communities from each district as direct beneficiaries.

The components for the Women-Lead project include the economic empowerment of women, mobilization, sensitization, and campaign to end gender-based and all forms of violence against women.  Also, the project seeks to work with policymakers and implementers to influence the implementation of gender-sensitive policies through engagements with duty bearers and stakeholders responsible for women issues.

The three-year project is being funded by Global Affairs Canada and Plan International Ghana, under the auspices of Plan International’s “Women’s Voice and Leadership” project in Ghana.

Speaking at the launch of the project,  Executive Director of SWIDA – Ghana, Hajia Alima Sagito-Saeed said the organization had identified issues of a high prevalence of definition of gender-based roles and responsibilities affecting women in the implementing districts, hence, the need to undertake the project to help curb the problem.

Women-LEAD Project Lead at the SWIDA – Ghana, Khadijah Abdul-Samed indicated that as part of the project, ‘HeforShe’ clubs would be formed in Basic, Senior High and tertiary schools to help the campaign against gender-based violence in the communities and to garner respect from boys to girls.

To further help achieve the aim of the project, she explained that the organization would dialogue with religious and traditional authorities on social norms that impede women’s and girl’s empowerment and find lasting solutions to such issues.

SWIDA – Ghana is a women empowerment Non-Governmental Organization (NGO), based in Tamale with its core mandate to economically empower rural women.

Over the years, SWIDA – Ghana has facilitated the acquisition of lands for women to farm, worked with youth groups in the Northern Region to sensitize and campaign against child marriage, violence against women, and has run mentorship programs for young girls.