Accra. Nov. 20, GNA - A two-day West Africa Sub-Regional Workshop on Aid Effectiveness and Gender Equality opened in Accra on Monday with a call on governments to ensure that gender issues assumed key positions in policy planning.

Dr George Gyan-Baffour, Deputy Minister of Finance and Economic Planning, said since the description of gender issues made it residual in policy considerations it was unable to attract the required budgetary allocation.

He suggested that gender issues be singled out to stand as a pillar in chapters of policy deliberations to make it a front burner issue critical to nations' planning process.

The workshop, organized by the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM) and United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), is co-hosted by the Ministry of Women and Children's Affairs (MOWAC). The workshop is the result of a 2005 consultative meeting on new aid modalities by women organizations where participants concluded that there were opportunities to influence policy implementation. It would also provide opportunity for national women machineries to understand better the content of the new modalities and aid effectiveness and afford stakeholders with windows to engage key policymakers.

Dr Gyan-Baffour noted that developing countries could not consider the new aid modalities to have been effective if they did not address all issues of poverty reduction.

"If they do not they will not be able to deliver on targets of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) on which we all agree that have gender dimensions which have to be critically addressed if development is to be sustainable."

He stressed the need to align and harmonize development assistance with development partners and manage them for effective results while at the same time holding each other accountable to the collective international, sub-regional and national gender equality commitments. "For it is only by doing so within the new modalities will development assistance be effective to solve the Sub-Region's problems of reducing poverty and creating wealth by which MDGs will be realized," he said.

Hajia Alima Mahama, Minister of Women and Children's Affairs, said Ghana was making giant strides to influence the new aid modalities noting that MOWAC had gained observer status to the Multi Donor Budget Support Meetings.

"We also managed to work together on the draft policy matrix and offer suggestions to highlight gender issues, which we expect to be incorporated," she said.

Hajia Alima said the Ministry was working with the Ghana Statistical Service to collect and develop a data base on gender issues. She appealed to the donor community and governments to support the various women groups to work to address gender issues in the new aid modalities in the Sub-Region.

Mrs Florence Butegwa, Nigerian Representative of the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM), pledged the continuous support of the Fund to ensure that issues on women received the needed attention. 20 Nov. 06