John Ackon, Deputy Minister of Gender, Children and Social Protection, has emphasized that empowering women to participate fully in all aspects of life, was key to national development.

He said this at a day’s Community Dialogue Session on Women’s Empowerment, Sexual and Gender-Based Violence and Teenage Pregnancy at Winneba.

It was attended by a cross-section of people, including school children, heads of department, religious leaders, chiefs and parents.

He said unequal power relations among men and women, boys and girls, are largely the root causes of sexual and gender-based violence, adding that these have perpetuated male dominance and control over women.

The Deputy Minister said the ills of sexual violence have resulted in unwanted pregnancies, and sometimes sexually-transmitted diseases, saying that these have led to unsafe abortions, school drop-outs and in some cases death.

It is for these and other reasons why the Ministry is working to get women empowered in all aspect of life, by putting in place the necessary policies and legal framework to protect the interests of women, he said

Mr Ackon said the Ministry collaborates with implementing partners to give scholarship needy girls, to pursue technical courses in Community Development Technical institutes.

He said a total of 68 women with fistula have had their cases repaired and reintegrated to their families.

The Deputy Minister said the Ministry has finalized the Affirmative Action Bill and has forwarded it to the Attorney-General for consideration.

The Omanhene of Effutu, Neenyi Ghartey the Seventh, who chaired the programme, appealed to parents to invest properly in their children's education, to enable them become responsible future adults.