Development centre urges women empowerment to ensure development

Kadjebi, March 4 GNA-Mr Wilbert Tengey, Executive Director of African
Centre for Human Development (ACHD) on Friday said economic
empowerment of women has a multiplier effect on the growth and
development of the family setting, transcending into the community and
nation at large.He therefore urged stakeholders to tackle all
bottlenecks, which hitherto militate against the economic emancipation
of women since they constituted an indispensable group in the
development chain.
Mr. Tengey was speaking at the inauguration of the Sankofa Rural
Women In Development Networking (SARWiDNET) for the Volta Region, a
subsidiary of the Sankofa Programme, a development oriented
Non-governmental organization based at Kadjebi.
The SARWiDNET project is being implemented by the ACHD with support
from DIMITRA project under the auspices of the Food and Agriculture
Organization (FAO) both based in Belgium.
Mr. Tengey said the project would empower 40 selected women groups in
Kadjebi, Jasikan and Nkwanta to undertake business ventures; provide
training and skills in family health education and HIV/AIDS
management, promote participation in governance and decision-making at
the grassroots level.He said the new phase of the Sankofa Programme
would enhance government's effort at gender mainstreaming in
development and further provide soft loans, agricultural inputs to
redistribute wealth in the rural setting for rapid socio-economic
development.Mr. Tengey said the project would be replicated throughout
the country when it passes the litmus test and enjoined stakeholders
to surmount all hindrances for the success of the project.Ms Tiziana
Franceschelli, representative of Dimitra/FAO said her outfit was
responsible for the dissemination of information on rural women in
development, especially on agro-processing, entrepreneurialship and
other income generating activities.She said her organization partners
10 other donor agencies in Africa and the Middle East.Nana Akua Safoa
II, Queen of Ahamansu on behalf of the group commended Sankofa
Programme and their collaborators from Belgium for their corporate
vision to ameliorate the difficulties of rural women for self-reliance
and pledged their collective support.
04 March 07