The incoming Gender, Children and Social Protection minister has been urged to consider the five year development agenda, drafted by the immediate past minister or else the ministry may not make desired progress in good time.
The five year strategic plan(2017-2021) which was created after wide consultation with interested stakeholders captures issues regarding the Livelihood Empowerment Against Poverty (LEAP) program, concerns over persons living with disability, the school feeding program amongst others.
These according to Awo Aidam Amenyah, a gender activist and head of J-Initiative, are the key priority areas in the strategic plan which are similar to promises made by the New Patriotic Party in their manifesto which the minister would be working with therefore it is important to align the key issues in the manifesto to the existing framework.
“When I looked at the present governments manifesto, chapter 11 talks about social development and under that the focus is more on persons with disability, school feeding program and LEAP and all of these are all captured in the five year framework as well.
Speaking on TV3’s Midday Live, madam Awo Aidam Amenyah said “I am expecting the gender minister designate when confirmed to work within the framework setup by the previous government. We are looking forward to seeing a transformative change which should be reflective in the lives of every beneficiary including young girls.”
“So I don’t want the situation where the minister will come and throw overboard what has been done by the previous government and start entirely new things. If we want to see a change, I feel the change must feed into a system and that system is the five year strategic framework in place.”
Otiko Afisa Djaba has been named minister designate for the Gender, Children and Social Protection ministry and she has been asked to continue the agenda of the previous government if the ministry is to succeed in addressing the gender inequality in Ghana.
By Martin Asiedu-Dartey|3news.com|
Twitter: @3newsgh