{"id":757224,"date":"2019-12-03T14:43:14","date_gmt":"2019-12-03T14:43:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ghana-mma.com\/2019\/12\/03\/foreign-minister-demands-equal-opportunity-for-african-women-children\/"},"modified":"2019-12-03T14:43:14","modified_gmt":"2019-12-03T14:43:14","slug":"foreign-minister-demands-equal-opportunity-for-african-women-children","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2019\/12\/03\/foreign-minister-demands-equal-opportunity-for-african-women-children\/","title":{"rendered":"Foreign Minister Demands Equal Opportunity For African Women, Children"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div>\n<p> <strong>Shirley Ayorkor Botchwey <\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Minister of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration, Shirley Ayorkor Botchwey, has indicated the need for African leaders to provide an enabling environment for the continent\u2019s women, children and young people to flourish and reach their full potential.<\/p>\n<p>She made the call at the Forum for Women Vice  Chancellors in Africa symposium in Cape Coast, on Monday, December 2, 2019.<\/p>\n<p>The symposium in Cape Coast aims at providing a platform for female leaders of higher education and other sectors in Africa to deliberate on gender equality in higher education and women\u2019s empowerment.<\/p>\n<p>According to her,  the growing concern regarding the lack of women in senior or leadership positions in all spheres of human endeavour, particularly in higher education, and more specifically in science and technology across Africa cannot be overemphasized.  <\/p>\n<p> She lamented that available statistics indicate that out of the total number of teaching and research faculty, over 70% are males while the female population accounts for less than 30% of the number.  <\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" data-src=\"blob:https:\/\/dailyguidenetwork.com\/f31305a2-b3bf-4408-8099-e8baf86b0c0a\" class=\"lazyload\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==\"\/><noscript><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"lazy\" src=\"data:image\/svg+xml,%3Csvg%20xmlns='http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg'%20viewBox='0%200%201%201'%3E%3C\/svg%3E\" data-src=\"blob:https:\/\/dailyguidenetwork.com\/f31305a2-b3bf-4408-8099-e8baf86b0c0a\" alt=\"\"\/><\/noscript><\/figure>\n<p> These figures at the University of Ghana reflect the trend in all public and private universities across the country and painfully confirms the fact that indeed African universities have not yet shed their cultural and other gendered discriminatory practices, she added.<\/p>\n<p>Regrettably, she stated, despite the widespread introduction and implementation of equal opportunity policies in higher education, women continue to face numerous impediments in reaching senior positions in academia. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis can be attributed to the endemic sociocultural and systemic barriers that many female academics face in universities across the world,\u201d the Minister added.<br \/>Resilience<\/p>\n<p>However, she noted that in spite of the challenges that continue to confront many women across universities in Africa and Ghana, various studies have also shown that female academics have learnt over the years to take these challenges in their stride and find ingenious ways of overcoming them. <\/p>\n<p>Agriculture Sector<\/p>\n<p>Also, she spoke about women\u2019s contributions to the development of the agriculture sector in Africa.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere is no gainsaying that agriculture plays a significant role in Africa\u2019s development trajectory,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p>According to her,  \u201cit remains the mainstay of the economies of most African countries, accounting for about 23% of the region\u2019s GDP.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Women, according to the UNDP, constitute about 80% of African farmers, yet they own only about 1% of the land.<\/p>\n<p>\u201d Women form over 50 per cent of the population, but have unequal access to economic, political, social and cultural opportunities. No doubt women bear disproportionate burden of poverty, illiteracy and diseases,\u201d the Minister bemoaned.<\/p>\n<p>Recognize Women\u2019s Contributions<\/p>\n<p>We all acknowledge that women are an integral part of the agriculture value chain \u2013 farming and harvesting in the field; rearing of animals; agro-processing; policy formulation, and of course, research and development like many of you gathered here today, she said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201d It is important, Ladies and Gentlemen, to recognize these contributions by women and mainstream them into policy formulation and implementation.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>About The Forum<\/p>\n<p>The Forum for Women Vice  Chancellors in Africa was established in 2016 to encourage more women to take leadership role and provide a platform to significantly influence the development of higher education in Africa.<\/p>\n<p>The symposium is organized by FAWoVC as part of the project implemented by Busitema University, Uganda on strengthening capacity of the Forum to promote gender inclusive participation in science, technology and innovation, which is funded by Islamic Development Bank and the Regional Universities Forum for Capacity Building in Agriculture.<\/p>\n<p> <strong>BY Melvin Tarlue <\/strong><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Shirley Ayorkor Botchwey Minister of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration, Shirley Ayorkor Botchwey, has indicated the need for African leaders to provide an enabling environment for the continent\u2019s women, children and young people to flourish and reach their full potential. She made the call at the Forum for Women Vice Chancellors in Africa symposium in [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":757225,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-757224","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-politics"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.8 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Foreign Minister Demands Equal Opportunity For African Women, Children - Ghanamma.com<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2019\/12\/03\/foreign-minister-demands-equal-opportunity-for-african-women-children\/\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:title\" content=\"Foreign Minister Demands Equal Opportunity For African Women, Children - Ghanamma.com\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:description\" content=\"Shirley Ayorkor Botchwey Minister of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration, Shirley Ayorkor Botchwey, has indicated the need for African leaders to provide an enabling environment for the continent\u2019s women, children and young people to flourish and reach their full potential. 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