Speech Delivered by Hon Daniel Dugan,Deputy Minister for Women and Children’s Affairs During the Golden Jubilee Celebration of National Festival of Arts And Culture (NAFAC) Kumasi on Saturday,3rd November,2007

The Chairperson,

Hon Members of Council of State,

Hon Ministers of State,

Hon Members of Parliament,

Hon Chief Executives of Metropolitan, Municipal and Districts Assemblies, Nananom,

Members of the Diplomatic Corps,

Members of the Press Corps,

Ladies and Gentlemen.

I deem it a great pleasure and an honour to be part of this celebration themed “50 years of Ghana’s cultural integration and National Development.” The aim of this festival is to assess Ghana’s level of development after 50 years of nation-hood.

It may be useful to remind ourselves what culture of a people pertains. Culture is manifested in ( the life of a people (food, music, literature, painting, theatre and film).More recently, the United Nation Educational, Scientific and cultural Organisation (UNESCO) [2002] described culture as follows:---“ Culture should be regarded as the set of distinctive spiritual, material, intellectual and emotional features of society or a social group, and that it encompasses, in addition to art and literature, lifestyle, ways of living together, value systems, traditions and beliefs.

After 50 years of Ghana’s independence it is pertinent for us to undertake sober reflection on our achievements, failures, intractable problems and opportunities. It is only doing this that we can have an honest assessment of the socio-cultural, economic and political situation as a nation.

In that direction a few questions that come to my mind are the following:

1. How culturally integrated are we are as a nation?
2. Are we less polarized as a nation now than at independence?
3. How much of the culture of other ethnic groups do we know?
4. How much do we understand the culture and the significance of culture and practices of other ethnic groups?
5. To what extent have we patronized and promoted the consumption of our local food to enhance child and maternal nutrition and health?
6. Do we appreciate the food of other ethnic groups or despise them?
7. To what extent do we encourage marriages among our ethnic groups?
8. Do we uphold the dignity of other ethnic groups or do we look down upon them?
9. Lastly, can we sincerely say that we are culturally more integrated as a nation after 50 years of nation-hood?

Ladies and Gentlemen, Ghana was the first Country in the whole world to ratify the UN convention on the Rights of the child in 1990. In order to integrate the Convention into the National Implementation Strategy, the Government of Ghana in 1990, developed the National Programme of Action (NPA) dubbed. The Child Cannot Wait.” The action plan focused on sectoral activities geared towards the welfare of children. The NPA chalked a number of successes in enhancing the situation of children; however, some targets could not be achieved due to some implementation lapses. It is encouraging to that Government, NGOs and other organization including Faith Based Organisations have contributed to protect and give hope to the Ghanaian Child.

Chairperson, Ladies and Gentlemen, the establishment of the Ministry of Women and Children’s Affairs in 2001 was a giant step which the Government of Ghana took to protect and support the family which of course includes the Ghana child.

Another very important step which the government took to protect families which also ensures the protection of the child is the transformation of the Women and Juvenile Unit [WAJU] of the Ghana police Service into the Domestic Violence and Victims Support Unit in 2001 to cater for all victims of domestic violence.

To further improve the situation of children and to ensure their survival protection and development, government passed a number of legal instruments to protect and give hope to the Ghanaian child. These include ‘The Children’s Act (560) 1998’ and its related legislative Instrument LI1705, of 2002, the Criminal Code Amendment Act (554) 199, the Juvenile Justice Act (653) 2003, the Human Trafficking Act, (694), 2005. These laws aim at ensuring the safety and the overall protection and ensure welfare of children.

The other policies passed are the Gender and Child Policy 2005, the Early Childhood Care and Development Policy 2005 and the national Policy Guidelines on Orphans and Vulnerable Children.

All these measures are in place to address the very core of gender and child related issues for national development.

Furthermore, the Growth and Poverty Reduction Strategy [GPRS] II has also been put in place to address core poverty in the society and to empower families to be able to take care of their children.

Above all, the constitution of Ghana ensures the rights, survival, protection and development of children. The successful implementation of these laws, policies and programmes have improved considerably although not to the level expected but, still, there is hope for the Ghanaian child.

An issue which is still of great concern to us is that of the mortality rates among our children and mother during child birth. The Ministry is in Collaboration with Ministry of Health and other relevant stakeholders to address the issue. The measures taken so far to address issue pertaining to infant mortality include the promotion of exclusive breastfeeding for the first six month of life , a vitamin A supplementation, a distribution of insecticide-treated bed–nets to children and pregnant women, immunization and the school feeding programme.

Urgent steps are also being taken in collaboration with Ministry of Health and other relevant stakeholders to address the maternal mortality problem. These include the formulating of enabling policies, the provision of and access to essential obstetric care at all levels especially district levels, improved adolescent health and enhanced behaviour change.

Chairperson, Ladies and Gentlemen, as far as women’s issues are concerned, significant strides are being made to advance women’s empowerment in economic, political and social spheres of life. A high level meeting was held in June 2007 which culminated in the production of an important communiqué which was presented to the chairman of the African Union Summit of African Heads of state and Government, Urging them to take specific measures to address purposefully the factors that hinder progress in Gender equality and women’s participation in decision making.

A directory of Eminent Women is being compiled to establish a database of eminent women for consideration in decision making positions among other reasons.

In the economic sphere, women are being economically empowered through such schemes as the grant of micro-credits, a total of Thirty-two Billion, Five Hundred and Seventy Million Cedis

(¢ 32,570,000,000) has been distributed to women country-wide from March, 2006 to date. Training programmes have also been given to women in micro-finance concept, entrepreneurial skills, basic book-keeping, and operations of Micro-credit institutions, credit repayment and savings. Additionally, forty-three [43] Agro-processing equipment, including cassava, shea-butter, palm oil and ground-nut processing equipment were procured from the HIPC fund and were distributed to 43 women group country-wide to enable them add value to their product.

Culturally, our women had and continue to play prominent roles in the peaceful and orderly development of our communities. These roles range from leading armies in battle as evidenced by Yaa Asantewaa, to playing vital role in the choice of suitable candidates as chief in Akan area, to adjudicating in intractable disputes at the Chief’s place, keeping our environments clean as well as displaying our rich culture in clothes, drumming, dancing and diverse nutritious dishes.

Chairperson, Ladies and Gentlemen, after the lessons learnt from the terrible armed conflicts in some African countries such as Nigeria in the1960s and recently in Liberia, Sierra Leon, and Togo, and La Cote D’Ivoire, Ghanaian need to make concerted efforts to make our country more culturally integrated and united as a people as a guarantee against inter-ethnic armed conflict and civil wars.

The worst we can do is to be complacent and just and that Ghana is immune to civil wars just because we are gentle and peace loving people. Let us continue to preach tolerance, peaceful co-existence, peaceful resolution of differences, and respect for one another.

Let us eschew the making of inflammatory statements, looking down on other tribes and avoid discrimination.

Chairperson, Hon Ministers of State, Hon MPs and Chief Executive, as a Ministry we are particularly concerned about using, cultural integration to maintain and sustain the peace in our country because when the society disintegrates and armed conflicts arise, it is the children and women who bear the brunt of the devastation, famine and suffering. It therefore behoves on our women, our youth as well as all concerned stakeholders to continue to preach cultural unity in diversity, tolerance, peaceful co-existence and resolution of differences, respect for members of other ethnic groups, social mobility, intertribal marriages, internal tourism, and inter-alia. Most importantly let us all help to empower our women and children to help to keep the society orderly, peaceful and prosperous. Let us also continue to make greater and concerted efforts to advance the cause of our children by seeing to their welfare, protection and participation in national life.

It is worth mentioning that our women have made significant contributions during the 50 years of Ghana’s nation-hood and their contribution in the cultural area is no exception.

It is now known that the designer of Ghana’s Coat of Arms was Mrs Theodora Oko. In the public administration arena, many women featured as Ministers and MPs in the first Republic. As at now, we have a woman as Chief Justice, the first in Africa. We also have as many as Seven [7] women Ministers and twelve [12] Deputy Ministers. Professor Akua Kuenyehia is the Deputy Head of the International Criminal Court in The Hague, Netherlands. Professor Harrietta Mensah Bonsu has also recently been appointed as the UN Deputy Representative in Liberia.

For the first time, ladies are now Presidents of Student Representative Councils [SRC] at University of Ghana, Legon and University of Education at Winneba. We have Mrs Elizabeth Mills-Robertson as Deputy Inspector General of Police, Ms Elizabeth Adjei as Director General of Ghana Immigration Service, Ms Anna Bossman as Acting Commissioner, Commission on Human Right and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) AND Ms Joyce Aryee as the chief Executive Officer of the Chamber of Mines.

It is a fact that our young girls and ladies are excelling in our educational institutions as exemplified by their performance at the West African Senior Secondary School Certificate Examination (WASSSCE) at the Universities and other tertiary institutions.

Our youth and young children have also done marvellous things during the past 50 years. Some of them have invented cars; some have written books while they have just finished Junior Secondary Scholl at the age of about 11 years. However, we still have a lot to do towards facilitating an improvement in the lot of women and children and children of Ghana.

Chairperson, Ladies and Gentlemen, as a nation we want to ensure accelerated national development and economic growth in peace and tranquillity, then it behoves on us to continue to empower our women and children to achieve their full potential in the educational, political, economic social and cultural fields. It is on record that countries which are most advanced are those which place the greatest premium on the empowerment and welfare of women and children. Examples of these are Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Canada, USA, Germany Great Britain, France and Holland.

Chairperson, Ladies and Gentlemen, Ghana as a nation has made significant strides during its 50 years of nation-hood. However, a lot more needs to be done for Ghana to achieve the middle-income status like some of the countries with which we gained independence such as Malaysia and Singapore. It is my firm belief that one of the strategies Ghana can use to promote accelerated is the empowerment of our women and greater care, protection and welfare of our dear children. Our women have great potentials, are naturally peacemakers and ensure greater cultural integration. Likewise our children have the potential to turn the fortunes of the nation around since they have great innovative ideas. As a nation let us make concerted effort to tap the rich potential, creativity, intellectual capacity, business acumen, and peace-making abilities of our women. Let us utilise the rich potential and fertile imagination of our children. This way our dream of attaining the middle income status as a nation could be realised earlier than anticipated.

Individually and collectively we can all make a difference in Ghana’s socio-cultural and economic development. Let us all make that difference.

Thank You.