FORWARD in Ghana

Gender and Reproductive Health Program, Northern Ghana

FORWARD's Ghana Project originally entitled Promoting the Rights of Women and Girls in Northern Ghana but now renamed Gender and Reproductive Health Program is now coming to the end of its second year. The project was renamed in order to better reflect the project's focus on tackling gender discrimination and addressing sexual and reproductive health and rights issues. FORWARD's partners are three local organisations in Northern Ghana - Association of Church Development Projects (ACDEP), Maata-N-Tudu (MTA) and Navrongo-Bolgatanga Diocesan Development Office (BDO).

The project's key objectives are:

1. To put gender and reproductive health issues affecting women and young girls on the public agenda and mobilise public support to address them.
2. To provide information, skills, knowledge and tools to local institutions and communities to work towards the promotion of women's reproductive rights and to address gender discrimination.
3. To assist local institutions to mainstream gender and reproductive health issues into their development agenda.

The Launch of the project in Jan 2004 was characterised by a series of consultative workshops with local communities in Tolon-Kumbungu and Bolgatanga Districts, attended by a wide selection of stakeholders including girls and women, NGOs, government officials, traditional leaders and other local dignitaries. Participants identified a broad range of issues to be addressed by the project including: child marriage; domestic violence (including marital rape); Female Genital Mutilation (FGM); rape; teenage pregnancy; child trafficking; non-education of the girl child; maltreatment of elderly women; lack of ante-natal care; inheritance laws; harmful widowhood rites and underlying poverty

In the first year, project partners successfully compiled a profile of all NGOs involved in gender work in the project area in order to facilitate networking and collaboration; completed a baseline survey on the incidence, causes, effects, and manifestation of all issues to be addressed by the project (listed above) for use in progress monitoring and evaluation; launched an interactive radio discussion program in English, Dagbani and Gonja addressing the four main issues of: child marriage; non-education of the girl child; violence against women and Kayayoo (young girls migrating to work as street porters in markets in Southern Ghana).

Following a first year of remarkable achievements, activities in 2005 have focused on the production of radio drama and jingles, the publication of a Manual on the Rights of Women and Girls for distribution among statutory sector organisations, NGOs and opinion leaders within target communities and community activities such as the setting up of school outreach programmes, clubs and young womens organisations. Recent demands from communities for follow up workshops and more radio discussions on similar topics are just one indication that the project is having a significant and positive impact. FORWARD has no doubt that this will continue to be the case for the coming years.

More information

More information about this project is available in the news section as well as our Annual Reports and Newsletters.

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