For GAF personnel in the Northern Region, a sensitization workshop on the project "Enhancing Ghana Armed Forces (GAF) capabilities to address barriers to Women in Peacekeeping" and the GAF's gender-mainstreaming initiatives has begun.
The topics being covered at the five-day sensitization workshop, which began on January 23 and will conclude on January 27, include the project's background; the results of the MOWIP, which measures opportunities for women in peace operations; the GAF's agenda for gender mainstreaming; fundamental overview of gender concepts, gender roles, gender perspectives, and military efficacy; the Women, Peace, and Security National Action Plan for Ghana; Policies for Change in a Military with a Gender-Based Culture; Gender stereotypes and roles in the military, as well as gender relations.
The 18-month project, which is funded by Global Affairs Canada and carried out by the Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping Training Centre (KAIPTC), aims to improve the GAF's institutional capacity to address obstacles that prevent women from participating in UN peace operations.
The 2020 MOWIP Report, which evaluated the GAF's capacity to deploy women to UN peace operations and ensure their meaningful participation, provided the project's foundation.
As part of the development of this groundbreaking and comprehensive methodology for the Elsie Initiative for Women in Peace Operations, the GAF was the first military institution in the world to conduct a MOWIP assessment.
From 2019 to 2020, KAIPTC collected data for the GAF's MOWIP Report. The report found a number of obstacles to women's meaningful participation in UN peace operations, with the eligibility pool, gender roles, and social exclusion being the top three.
It recommended, among other things, the creation of specific policy interventions to address various obstacles to women's eligibility and the implementation of training and professional development programs to improve women's skills and capabilities in the GAF, which is why the workshop was held.
In accordance with the project, a joint team consisting of KAIPTC staff and Ghanaian and Canadian Armed Forces personnel went to five GAF garrisons in Sunyani, Kumasi, Tema, Ho, and Takoradi between September 2022 and January 2023 to conduct a similar sensitization workshop.
During the sensitization workshop held at the Barwah Barracks in Tamale, Head of the Women, Peace, and Security Institute at KAIPTC Miss Joana Osei-Tutu stated that gender mainstreaming was necessary for the GAF to ensure that the needs of all personnel, including civilian employees, were met.
According to Ms. Osei-Tutu, "The GAF has been working toward mainstreaming gender into its activities over the past five years, not only looking at women’s activities but also looking holistically at what they can do as a Force to ensure that all personnel, including civilian employees; In order to guarantee a more comprehensive armed force, their requirements are being met effectively within the Force.
She emphasized that "A lot of the times when we deploy, we deploy more men, which has been quite to some extent a load on the men," and that deploying more women in peacekeeping operations was beneficial to the GAF and the nation as a whole. We have female employees who can be utilized equally. This enables us to harness the potential of the females who are currently enrolled in the system and allows us to reduce the burden of adding more men to the workforce.
She continued, "The survivors of conflict are also increasingly becoming females, and the nature of war is changing." Therefore, it is prudent to send individuals who are representative of the demographics of war survivors or victims to respond to global conflict. Therefore, it will be prudent for the deployed forces to have a reasonable number of men and women to respond to the individuals they are going to be responding to.
The sensitization workshop, according to Colonel William Abotsi, GAF Point of Contact for the Elsie Initiative for Uniformed Women in Peacekeeping, was a complement to the institutionalization of gender training in the Armed Forces training institutions, which would guarantee a better working environment for both men and women.
According to Col. Abotsi, the GAF was working on gender curricula for the four levels of military training for officers and other ranks.