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Through the General Assembly Resolutions 75/233 on the Quadrennial Comprehensive Policy Review (QCPR) and 72/279 on UN repositioning, the United Nations Development System (UNDS) is presented with a mandate to transform in order to respond to the ambition of the 2030 Agenda. Indeed, the 2020 QCPR places strong emphasis on the fundamental importance of promoting gender equality and empowerment of all women and girls, noting the multiplier effect for achieving sustained and inclusive economic growth, poverty eradication and sustainable development.
Led by an International Senior Gender Adviser who was deployed by UN WOMEN to Ghana for three months from August – November 2022, UN WOMEN has identified 4 priority areas in which to engage, in alignment with CCA and CF implementation process in Ghana.
Women’s Leadership and Participation: (1) Action needs to be taken to address the decline or the under representation of women in political and public life, ahead of the 2024 elections: in ministerial positions, in parliament, at district and regional levels, as well as on the boards of major Ghanaian companies. (2) The strengthening the leadership, as well as institutional capacity of the Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection to provide technical expertise, policy development and gender mainstreaming. (3) The passage of the Affirmative Action (Gender Equality) Bill is a critical and urgent area to engage.
Women’s Economic Empowerment: (1) Strengthening Women’s active participation in the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) Women in Trade Protocol drafting process. The process also opens opportunities to strengthen Women Business Associations (WBA) and protect vulnerable categories of women traders. (2) Supporting the activation of Ministry of Finance’s policy on Women in Procurement: this 2021 policy aims to have 20 % of procurement awarded to women. (3) Developing actions to support rural women farmers affected by climate crisis.
Women Peace and Security: Northern Ghana’s proximity with Burkina Faso poses a need to prevent potential extremist groups there from rallying and launching terrorism in the country. Security actors must collaborate with traditional leaders, opinion leaders, CSOs, religious groups, youth groups and women groups to sensitize the population and ensure terrorism is prevented and countered in Northern Ghana.
Ending Violence Against Women: UN WOMEN is exploring opportunities with the EU Delegation (EUD) to launch a UN WOMEN project inspired by the Spotlight initiative on Ending Violence Against Women in Ghana.
The Senior Gender Adviser launched several donor engagement initiatives during her mission, with the support of the RCO and UN WOMEN Regional Office for West Africa. These include concept notes to the HC of Canada on WLP and the EUD on EVAW, and other consultations and introductions of UN WOMEN to the Netherlands, GIZ, France, Switzerland, Norway, Spain, ACFTA and AFBD to determine mutual priority areas.
In order to effectively build on the avenues explored for our portfolio in Ghana, a mid/senior national will be recruited in early January. Over a period of 6 months, the Senior Gender Specialist will build on and deepen the work of the Senior Gender Advisor. The Senior Gender Specialist will support coherent gender mainstreaming efforts and progress on gender equality across the SDGs, in alignment with national priorities nexus. Additionally, the position will involve advancing programming opportunities and in building the case to establish a UN Women presence in Ghana to support the advancement of Gender Equality and women’s empowerment goals within the country programme.
The Senior Gender Specialist will support inclusive resource mobilization efforts that promote gender interventions in the country. Additionally, they will support efforts to ensure effective leadership and engagement of women’s Civil Society Organizations in the implementation of interventions, under the UN Sustainable Development Cooperation Framework (UNSDCF) 2023-2025, to ensure that they are gender responsive and reflect the diverse priorities and needs of women and girls. The position will support the Resident Coordinator (RC), UN Country Team (UNCT) and UN Gender Team (UNGT) in key areas of UNCT’s work and will play a catalytic role in supporting UN Women’s mandate of GEWE in the country.
Reporting to the UN WOMEN’s Deputy Regional Director and under the direct matrix supervision of the RC, the Senior Gender Specialist will support the development and strengthening of a strategic vision for gender mainstreaming for UN joint programming, as well as provide coordination and technical and policy advisory support on women’s rights and gender equality to the RC and the UNCT. The Senior Gender Advisor works in close collaboration with UN staff and UN agencies, government officials, technical advisors and experts, multi- and bi-lateral donors, private sector and civil society.
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