By
Dennis Osei Gyamfi, GNA
Accra, Sept. 11, GNA – The National Board
for Small Scale Industries (NBSSI) in partnership with International Trade
Centre (ITC), has organised a two-day stakeholders’ workshop on gender equality
and mainstreaming gender to develop strategies to enhance policy-making.
The workshop dubbed “SheTrades,”
was organised to contribute to the implementation plan of the Micro, Small and
Medium Enterprises Policy.
The two-day workshop, which brought together
representatives of government agencies, including the Ghana Export Promotion
Authority, Ministry of Trade and Industry, NBSSI, Ghana Regional Appropriate
Technology Industrial Service Foundation, Ghana International Trade Commission,
and Free Zones Board ended on Tuesday, September 10.
Mrs Anna Armoo Himbson, the Deputy Executive
Director of NBSSI, said the partnership with ITC to organise the workshop had
been beneficial to both parties and the stakeholders.
As an Agency, she said, it was within its
mandate to help to grow businesses, adding that, there was a need to provide
women the platform to grow through better policies.
“Women constitute about 60 per cent of
the informal sector, but as you move up the industrial ladder, you realise that
it keeps dwindling and that is why it is important for us to identify the
issues that do not promote the enterprises of women,” she said.
“Once we are able to address them, then
we would also find women moving up the ladder and contributing substantially to
the economic growth of the country”.            Â
Madam Anahita Vasudevan, the Associate
Programme Officer of ITC, said gender equality was not only a social and moral
imperative, but also an economic necessity.
She noted that across the world, countries
were losing $160 trillion of wealth because of differences in lifetime earnings
between women and men.
She said “SheTrades,” was a joint
United Nations and World Trade Organisation initiative to create trade impact
by fostering the inclusive and sustainable development of small and
medium-sized enterprises.
“The workshop is looking at gender
equality and whether gender mainstreaming approaches or strategies should be
considered in designing and implementing national policies,” she said.
Madam Vasudevan noted that ITC also had as
part of its plans to find ways of helping women entrepreneurs and businesses to
meet the needs of buyers and connecting them through trade fairs and other
avenues.
GNA
