The Network for Women's Rights in Ghana (NETRIGHT) has called for renewed efforts to enhance livelihood choices for all Ghanaians especially rural dwellers.

It pointed out that there had to be greater recognition of the fact that rural women, yesterday’s girls, were major players in the eradication of poverty and hunger.

The call was contained in a statement to mark International Women's Day on the theme “Connecting Girls: Inspiring Futures, Reducing Rural Poverty” in Accra. Poverty remains sensitive to the charge to include girls as a measure to inspire their young minds and secure their future and our collective visions.

It said NETRIGHT deemed it timely that Ghana had opted to link the fight against poverty with the need to connect with girls by way of inspiring futures.

"The socio-cultural and economic practices that structure women’s unequal status are directed at girls who grow into women. The results of the discriminatory practices that girls face are exemplified in their lower levels of educational attainment and their unequal share of domestic work. Ghana has chalked some successes in female enrollment, reduction in maternal and child mortality, increasing the number of women in high profile public office.

"Legislative provisions like the Domestic Violence Act provide some measure of protection to females both young and old. Girls in Ghana however, continue to bear the brunt of violence, as can be seen in the numerous media reports on rape and defilement. Ghana is yet to come to terms with harmful socio-cultural practices such as trokosi, forced marriages, witchcraft banishment as well as human trafficking. Rural poverty continues to push numerous girls onto the streets in our cities. Above all, the phenomenon of kayaye continues to defy all interventions."

NETRIGHT salutes all girls and women in Ghana for the dynamic role they continue to play in national development in spite of the numerous challenges they encounter. Women cultivate almost 40 per cent of all land holdings under production in Ghana, engaged primarily in food crop cultivation. Women and girls provide considerable inputs into cash crop production participating as unpaid family labourers. They play lead roles in post-harvest activities such as shelling grains, food storage, processing and marketing. They constitute important actors in the food chain from farm production, through the market to the household.

"Despite women’s central role in agriculture, their access to critical productive resources is much more restricted. Women farmers located predominantly in rural communities constitute the poorest among the poor in Ghana. Additionally, women farmers belong to a low prestige occupation and therefore stand the double risk of being marginalised on the basis of gender and low status as farmers.

"Compared to men, women have the least access to the factors of production like land, agricultural extension, technology and credit. The food crop sector where they dominate suffers from inadequate storage facilities and access to markets. Factors such as ecological degradation, climate change, outdated agricultural technology and practices combine to restrain their ability to increase productivity and therefore expand their incomes", the statement said.