WOMEN DELIVER CONFERENCE 2023: OFFICIAL OPENING & SIDE EVENT

The 2023 Women Deliver Conference (WD2023) has officially been launched in Kigali – Rwanda. This year’s conference is themed: “Spaces, Solidarity, and Solutions”. Ghana is participating in the Conference which will be held from Monday 17th to Thursday 20th July, 2023.

Ghana’s delegation, led by the Minister for Gender, Children and Social Protection – Hon. Lariba Zuweira Abudu, through WD2023 seeks to share with the world the efforts and impactful experiences the Government of Ghana is making to push and achieve gender equality goals. WD2023 is the world’s largest conference on gender equality and the health, rights, and wellbeing of girls and women in the 21st century.

WD2023 will serve as a critical policy moment and an opportunity for stock-taking and accountability at the midpoint of the Generation Equality Forum’s five-year process for global gender equality action, to achieve irreversible progress towards gender equality by 2026, founded on a series of ambitious actions.

In effect, WD2023 will provide advocates and Action Coalition Leaders alike the necessary platform to reconvene, evaluate progress, and reconfigure actions, as needed, to ensure these transformative gender equality commitments will be realized by 2026.

At a side event held prior to the official opening, Hon. Lariba Abudu partook in a Ministerial Forum where she joined other Ministers of Gender, Finance, Health, Youth and Education from different countries, to discuss policies and strategies that have worked to advance key issues.

Speaking during the Ministerial Forum on Digital Technology and Innovations in Ghana, the Minister noted that the national Gender Policy has been amended to take into account contemporary developmental trends, such as ICT for girls and the promotion of women as innovators and business owners.

Regarding legislative and regulatory frameworks, Hon. Lariba mentioned that the Cyber Security Act, 2020 (Act 1038) has been passed with provisions that, among other things, make the online inducement of sexual abuse and the grooming of girls and women into criminal offences.

She said, “Digital Forensic Lab had been established within the Criminal Investigation Department of the Ghana Police Service to provide solid evidence to investigate and prosecute criminals and protect children and young women online.”

Discussions also focused on accountability towards adopted commitments during global platforms in advancing gender equality across different sectors as a way of accelerating progress in reaching the long awaited gender equality and equity outcomes.

SOURCE: MoGCSP