Accra, April 15, GNA - Ms. Akua Sena Dansua, Minister of Women and Children's Affairs, on Wednesday commended the Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration (GIMPA) for the initiation of a draft gender policy for the training of public service officials. She said the draft policy would form the basis for the formulation of a comprehensive gender policy document for ensuring gender mainstreaming in the public service.

Ms Dansua, speaking at the opening of a two-day stakeholders' workshop on GIMPA's Gender Policy, said gender equality was crucial for good governance and sustainable development. Therefore all effort must be made to eliminate any form of gender imbalances starting from the institutional level. The workshop, which was organised by GIMPA in partnership with the Commonwealth Secretariat, is aimed at soliciting inputs to ensure a comprehensive Gender Policy document for training of public service officials.

Ms Dansua said GIMPA's gender policy had come at the right moment, as government acknowledged inclusive growth as a key factor for achieving sustainable poverty reduction and human resource development. She commended GIMPA for not relenting in its efforts over the years to improve human capacities for competent planning and administration in Ghana and beyond.

Ms Dansua said the establishment of a Gender Development and Resource Centre was to address the current gaps in the public service. She said the determination of the government in mainstreaming gender issues had reflected in its Affirmative Action Policy which had resulted

in the appointment of women in key decision-making positions such as Speaker of Parliament, Acting Inspector General of Police and other key ministerial positions. Ms Dansua said government was also committed to gender mainstreaming and gender responsive budgeting, noting that without equal participation of women in decision making at all levels, the goal of equality could not be achieved.

She said this new dimension therefore placed special responsibility on public sector officials to mainstream gender into different policies and programmes of their sectors, thereby facilitating the achievement of gender equitable development objectives. The Minster said it was expected that the final gender policy document would help address the gaps between what was expected from public sector officials and their existing levels of understanding of gender issues.

Ms Dansua urged GIMPA as an institution to face the challenge of understanding the significance of gender equality in good governance and integrating the necessary knowledge and skills among faculty and staff members so that the knowledge was handed over to the public sector for translation into actual practice. She further urged GIMPA to develop a well-defined strategy to integrate gender sensitivity both within its programmes as well as institutional set-ups to provide increased attention to addressing major gender disparities which were the main stumbling blocks in mainstreaming gender into the public sector reform processes.

"It is worthy to note that the policy identified the need to critically emphasized areas including capacity building, mainstreaming, gender-sensitivity, gender-planning and analysis, agenda-setting, networking, monitoring and evaluation that would be built into the curricula to be developed."

Ms Dansua said in a male dominated environment, such as in Ghana, fashioning out a good gender policy that could stand the test of time required a strong and coherent implementation, saying lack of accountability would hamper the good intentions of gender equality initiatives being developed at GIMPA.

She also called for the support of an effective implementation plan after the training of public sector officials for the translation of the objectives and strategies identified. Ms Dansua urged GIMPA to partner with government institutions, Civil Society Organizations and development partners who were engaged in promoting gender equality and women empowerment at different levels to ensure gender mainstreaming at all sectors.

Mrs Janet Kathyola, Adviser, Governance and Institutional Development Division, Commonwealth Secretariat, said GIMPA's initiative as the first African institution under the Commonwealth to establish a Gender Development and Resource Centre (GDRC) was commendable and would be supported and assisted by the Commonwealth Secretariat. She said GIMPA's draft gender policy currently focused on mainstreaming gender through research, publication, networking and advocacy and equipped various students of the institution with knowledge and skills to address existing gender disparities at their work places, particularly in the public service.

Mrs Kathyola said development outcomes including eliminating poverty, increasing literacy levels, reducing maternal mortality and the impact of HIV/AIDS, eliminating hunger and promoting gender equality, as captured in the Millennium Development Goals could only be achieved if the human resources were well utilized.

She stated that improving performances of the public service to achieve gender equitable outcomes was one of the core objectives of the Commonwealth Secretariat's work in public sector development, citing capacity building as a major component of ensuring sustainable development. Mrs. Kathyola noted that there was a symbiotic relationship between good governance and gender equality and their mutually reinforcing contribution to sustainable development. She said efficient utilization of human resources for achievement of development goals could contribute meaningfully to sustainable development.

She, however, stated that the development of the policy was not an end, but a means for the transformation of GIMPA into a gender responsive institution that would provide relevant gender, research and consultancy services to the public both in Ghana and beyond. Professor Yaw Agyeman Badu, Rector, GIMPA, said though the national policy and Civil Service regulations did not permit gender based inequalities and discrimination, majority of participants of GIMPA's need assessment report recognized that there were major gender imbalances in senior positions of civil service and government institutions.

He said the management of GIMPA was committed to support the gender centre to develop training curriculum both for gender specific training programmes and cross-cutting gender training into regular programmes. According to Mr Nabanyin Pratt, Acting Dean of GIMPA Public Services School (GPSS), said the institution had already taken steps at the GPSS to ensure that all training programmes had gender components in them and hoped to extend it to cover all courses.