The Netherlands Ambassador to Ghana, Mr Ron Strikker has appealed to traditional authorities to keep away from extremely unpleasant cultural beliefs and practices that impede the growth and development of its human resource.
According to him Ghana would make a sustained progress if it made conscious efforts to fully tap into the human resource potential of its citizens regardless of gender, colour, or body deformities.
Speaking at this year’s Girls’ Advocacy Alliance Project’s (GAAP) annual meeting held at Elmina, Mr Strikker charged traditional authorities and regional leaders to lead a relentless crusade towards achieving girls’ rights to help unearth their talents.
The meeting was attended by a consortium of NGOs implementing the GAAP including Plan International-Ghana, Defence for Child International-Ghana and the National Coalition of NGOs Against the Rights of the Child as the implementing of GAAP.
The programme offered the participants the privilege to re-strategize and reorganize themselves to effectively empower girls and women to make the right decisions that affect them.
The participants also deliberated on changes in the international, regional and teething national issues that have affected women and children such as illegal mining (galamsey), culture and tradition, girls’ empowerment, among others.
This is geared towards its vision to significantly stem gender-based violence, discrimination and other forms of sexual violence early and forced marriages, forced labour, child trafficking and improve access to education for children.
Mr Strikker noted that traditional authorities as custodians of cultural values and norms some of which sometimes contribute to inhibiting the full realisation of the economic and educational rights of females.
To reverse the trend, he stressed the need for the government, Civil Society Organisations and other stakeholders to coordinate their activities in the fight against those abuses to pave the way for the active participation of women and girls in developing their full potentials.
Source: otecfmghana.com/Charles Asare Frimpong
