Dr Comfort Asare, Director of the Department of Gender of the Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection (MoGCSP), said the Ministry was developing a five-year strategic plan to end the ‘Kayayei’ (head potters) phenomenon.
She said the plan, supported by the United Nations Populations Fund (UNFPA), was already being worked on, adding that: “as we speak, we have people in the field collecting data, like the number of Kayayei and others living on the streets for us.”
Dr Asare, who was speaking on behalf of the Minister of Gender, Children and Social Protection, said this at the 2018 Women in Logistics and Transport (WiLAT) Ghana Day forum, organized by the Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport (CILT) on Wednesday on the theme: ‘Women in Logistics and Transport: An Essential Brick in Nation Building.’
She added that the Ministry, in efforts to eradicating poverty among the vulnerable and marginalized on the streets and in the markets, had initiated a programme dubbed, “Operation get off the street now for a better life” to reduce the phenomenon of persons living in the streets for the next five years.
She commended WiLAT for its initiative to recognizing role models in the Logistics and Transport industry in Ghana, describing the move as progressive and complementing the Ministry’s effort to support women empowerment.
She said the WiLAT’s programmes, which sought to achieve women empowerment, accompanied the Ministry’s effort to doing the same, listing the “He for She” campaign, and the Ghana National Household Registry as examples of the Ministry’s commitment to achieving gender equality.
She added that the Ministry had established a 20 girl leadership clubs in schools and communities and would continue to work to make sure that girls did not drop out of school but would complete to become very good professionals.
Dr Asare said under the Ministry’s World Bank support programme, known as GISOG 2, the Ministry was developing a well-functioning and resourced social welfare system for Ghana to support the President’s vision of a ‘Ghana Beyond Aid’.
“The Ministry has continuously undertaken successive by-monthly payments, and is expected to expand LEAP (Livelihood Empowerment Against Poverty), from 213,044 households to 456,000 households by the end of May 2018,” she noted.
She said the Ministry in collaboration with the Ministry of Finance, has increased the daily feeding grants from 80 pesewas to GHC1.00, adding that: “Through the expansion of the program, the number of beneficiaries (pupils) has been increased by 30 percent from 1,672,464 to 2,174,000, bring an addition of 501,536 pupils to the programme.”
She said with socio-economic empowerment of Ghanaian women, they would be catalysts for change that would move Ghana forward. She commended WiLAT for producing women who dared to venture into industries deemed for men, stating: “It is admirable to see women as champions in engineering, industry, all models of transport, waste management, security services, and warehousing.”
WiLAT is a female wing of the CILT established in 2013 to provide the opportunity for women to also aspire to be professionals in professions dubbed men dominated, and empower them through their gender equality oriented projects.
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