Women against roles discrimination within cocoa, mining value chain
A section of women working within the cocoa and mining value chains are proposing that employers offer them positions based on their capabilities and expertise.
They argued that some roles should not only be confined to a particular sex (male or female) for competent hands to be discriminately denied access to jobs.
The Days when lack of technical expertise among women particularly in artisanal and small-scale mining, assigning them to low level jobs were over.
“We equally can do better, we have what it takes to do the task” Nana Ama Odwira, Adanse-Adumanu Obaapanin echoed.
She was speaking at a training on gender and social inclusions in negotiations within the cocoa and mining value chain at Obuasi in the Ashanti Region.
The programme put together by the Center for Public Interest Law (CEPIL) in collaboration WILDAF and support from OXFAM brought together women leaders in cocoa and mining drawn from Obuasi East, Obuasi West and Adansi South Districts.
Nana Odwira said it has been observed a couple of times that particular roles were assigned to people in the cocoa and mining value chain.
Such perceptions must end for qualified people to take up their tasks diligently, she appealed.
Madam Louisa Amoah, Executive Director, Girls Shall Grow, a local empowerment NGO, said a noticeable issue was stigmatization when sharing views on issues bothering on cocoa farming and mining.
This is because people perceive that when women share views on such issues they are tagged as outspoken.
She used the occasion to call on women to be decorum when addressing such issues and also seek redress when they are not treated fairly in these sectors (cocoa and mining).
Mr. Augustine Niber, Executive Director CEPIL, said the organization would continue to join forces with stakeholders to advocate for the rights of marginalized communities through legal support and active engagements.
The aim is to ensure that mining activities do not compromise on human rights, livelihoods and the environment.
He explained that although Ghana had vast minerals, the country had not yet translated its resources wealth into tangible sustainable economic growth and this culminated into the sufferings of vulnerable groups including women, children and person-living-with-disabilities.
Training participants were exposed to topics including “understanding gender concepts and gender-responsive dialogue process for CSOs/CBOs within the cocoa-mining value chain”, “roles of women-led CSOs and CBOs in advocating for the representation of marginalized groups in decision-making and fair negotiations to hold private sector actors accountable”.
By Florence Afriyie Mensah, GNA