The Ghana Feminist Fourm held in 2021 was funded by the African Women’s Development Fund. It involved a series of activities aimed at exploring the changing discourses on gender equality/feminism and its implication for the transformative agenda of women/feminists to promote a stronger and inclusive Ghanaian feminist movement across various spaces.
Specifically, the GFF sought to:
- provide a safe space for intersectional feminist discourse;
- develop an inclusive agenda for the integration of voices of both older and younger feminists from different social classes and across the rural/urban divide;
- document the work of the feminist movement in Ghana.
Project Planning Committee
Setting-Up Planning Committee: The planning committee was set up to have oversight responsibility for the project. The committee is made up of feminists from diverse backgrounds such as the youth, academia, persons with disability, the media, women’s rights organisations and informal economy workers.
Feminist Series
Radio Discussion Programme: Two radio discussion programmes were held during the reporting period. The discussions were held at STARR FM and Unique FM. The radio discussions sought to address issues of concern to women and girls. Given the fact that Elections 2020 were being held during the period the discussions focused on the theme “Women and Election 2020: Building an Inclusive Nation”. Panellists explored challenges women face in being included in decision making processes in Ghana as well as measures that can be taken to address these challenges.
TV Discussion Programme: The TV discussion held on GTV’s Women’s Voice Show focused on the Theme Women in Leadership: Political and Public Sector Appointments. Panellists discussed the recent political and public sector appointments made as well as appointments made in the past, the gaps in ensuring inclusion in Ghana’s governance system and made recommendations for the passage of the Affirmative Action Bill into Law to ensure women’s representation in governance systems.
Webinar on Women’s Mental Health: The COVID-19 pandemic has seen women in particular experiencing higher levels of mental stress due to the lockdowns, school, closures and other interventions aimed at mitigating the crisis. In Ghana however, not enough attention has been paid to address the incidence of and solutions to mental health issues. The webinar was therefore organised to draw attention to and create a safe space for discussion of women’s mental issues amidst the pandemic.
The panellists included an expert who works on mental health, as individuals with lived mental health experiences. Panellists discussed mental health challenges that women face and made the following policy recommendations:
- Funding, training and empowering social welfare offices to enable them deal with mental health issues;
- Having a solid social protection system and decriminalising suicide;
- Creating enough shelters for mental health patients;
- Increase awareness and advocacy on mental health;
- Decentralize mental health and take it out of hospitals and institutions and incorporate it into the National Health Insurance Scheme.
50 participants drawn from women’s rights organisations (WROs), academia, CSOs, INGOs, trade unions, security agencies, private sector, formal and informal institutions and women living with disabilities attended the webinar.
Young Feminists Training- Empowering Young Feminists for a Coordinated Social Media Advocacy : In recent times, there has been the rise of young feminists and activists using social media as an advocacy tool to consistently question the status-quo and toxic gendered narratives surrounding women’s leadership, S&GBV, political representation and participation, and championing the economic emancipation of women.
These groups and individual young feminists have embarked on robust social media advocacy to ensure that gender becomes a priority on the national agenda. However, for a united and collective front to push for a feminist agenda, there has been the need for coordinated efforts to strengthen the collective voice of the women’s movement in Ghana to push for a gender-responsive and sustainable national agenda.
Guided by the above, NETRIGHT organised a 2-day training to strengthen the capacity of young feminists and their groups to undertake a coordinated social media advocacy on gender equality and women’s empowerment. The training brought together 20 young feminists who were equipped with the knowledge and skills to enhance their social media advocacy. Participants were taken through gender concepts and power dynamics, feminism and women’s mobilising in Ghana, legislations and policies promoting women’s rights, status of women in Ghana, leadership, lobbying and advocacy (including social media advocacy). Click on link for a story shared by one of the young feminist after the training on facebook https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=298432155236565&id=100052093480715&sfnsn=mo
Intergenerational Conversations
Feminist Activism in Ghana: A key concern related to feminism has been the need to bridge the intergenerational gap, which exists in the feminist movement. An intergenerational dialogue was held to discuss feminist activism in Ghana. The webinar sought to explore women’s mobilizing and how it can be explored to bridge the intergenerational gap to facilitate a collective feminist agenda. At the end of the dialogue, it was agreed that an appreciation of the gender issues that are of critical concern for feminists in Ghana presents opportunities to initiate interventions that are all encompassing with recognition of their difference or non-homogeneity. Also, Adequate stakeholder mobilization, continuous advocacy and adequate funding of women and girls related issues are necessary for championing feminism. (Promotional flyer, discussion guide and concept note and activity report attached).
Intergenerational Dialogue on an Affirmative Action Law for Ghana: In collaboration with the Affirmative Action Coalition, an intergeneration dialogue was held to broaden the scope of engagement to push for the passage of the AABill, and to enhance understanding among different generations of women and men on how to speed up the process of getting the Bill passed into Law.
At the end of the dialogue, it was agreed that there is an urgent need to mobilize from diversified spaces to ensure success. There is also the need for training of journalists to engender media discourse towards passage of the AA Bill. There should be more efforts to create platforms for intergenerational conversations as such platforms offer safe spaces for clarity, learning and sharing.
The dialogue brought together 50 in person participants. The event also streamed on Facebook and YouTube to enable a wide range of participants join the discussions virtually. (Promotional flyer, discussion guide, concept note, activity report and video recording attached).
Advocacy Campaign on Women in Politics: #LetWomen’sVoiceCount Campaign: NETRIGHT embarked on a social media campaign to sensitize the public on the need to vote for women parliamentarians during the election period and posted profiles of female aspirants for Election 2020. Awareness was created on the need for more women in decision making bodies in Ghana.
Documentary on the Feminist Movement in Ghana: A key challenge facing women’s rights organisations has been the lack to document the works of WROS. A 15 mins documentary was therefore produced to document the works of the feminist movement to serve as a source of evidence on strides made to promote gender equality in Ghana. The documentary focuses on the successes and challenges of the movement and the status of women in Ghana. (A copy of the documentary attached in the link provided)
Event Documents
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Start Date
30 Jun 2021 10:00AM
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End Date:
30 Jun 2021 06:00PM