The Aya Institute on the observation of International Women’s Day, extends greetings to all Ghanaian women, young and old to recognise, celebrate and centre the abiding progress of women in Ghana.
Despite the historical and current challenges that women face, women have been consistent in making strides towards their varied goals in life, amidst surviving the barriers and becoming inspirational to other women.
On this day, we celebrate individual women and pro-gender organizations alike who keep working towards achieving a gender-responsive society through individual and corporate efforts.
This year’s theme “DigitALL: Innovation and Technology for Gender Equality” is significant because we have in the last decade, witnessed new ways of using digital technology to break barriers and close the various inequality gaps.
Increasing access to digital technology for women has rippling impact on their businesses and the management of their homes and community through access to information and data. Some women are better able to balance the conflicting demands of work and family through the flexibility and enablement of digital platforms. While advocating for access in digital technology through the provision of infrastructure, providing a safe space for Ghanaian women who use digital technology for several uses; business development and promotions, customer-care and feminist crowd-support and advocacy will go a long way to achieve gender equality.
Ghana has made significant gains, especially in the training and recognition of women in Information and Communication Technology (ICT) and Innovation through the ‘Girls in ICT’ initiative spearheaded by the Ministry of Communication and Digitalization. This initiative is laudable as it recognises young girls excelling in this area and encourages other school girls to participate in this initiative thereby having a better representation ultimately.
We applaud the Ministry and its allied institutions for these initiatives and additionally for the newly-established Cyber Security Authority.
Aya Institute on this day is asking government, international development partners, academic institutions, business support entities, CSOs and all stakeholders of national development to first, recognise the instrumental role digital technologies can play in breaking barriers.
The Aya Institute admonishes same that we harness digital technology for advancing gender equality. Improved digital structures in education, health, business, and general day-to-day transactions in different aspects of our lives will expand women’s lives and opportunities and bring them closer to better living standards.