Stakeholders in the Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights (SRHR) space say empowering girls and young women on their sexual rights will enable them to make informed decisions to improve their lives.
Mr Gideon Leckson Leckey, the President, Planned Parenthood Association of Ghana (PPAG), said most young girls often lacked information on their sexual and reproductive health, coupled with their inability to meet their financial needs, making them vulnerable to exploitation.
“Recently, there is a study that indicated that a lot of young girls, especially in the Ashanti Region, have multiple sexual partners.
If you dive deep into some of these issues, you will realise that most of them do not have education on how to protect themselves and do not have that empowerment to make informed decisions,” he said.
Mr Leckey said this at the EmpowHER Annual Meeting in Accra, organised in collaboration with the PPAG and International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF).
The meeting was on the theme: “Advancing Gender Equality and Empowerment Through Comprehensive Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights (SRHR).”
It emphasised evidence-based strategies, advocacy and collaboration to address persistent barriers to gender equality and SRHR access.
Mr Leckey said the challenges and social rights among young women and girls were different, hence providing adequate information about their SRHR, addressing their problems, and ensuring equality was necessary.
“So, the question then is, how do we plan to make sure these young people and young women have that kind of education and access to safe and productive work, and also their rights, to make informed decisions?” he asked.
He called for a policy action plan that would include empowering the boys as well, which would enable them to help provide a supportive environment for the young girls.
Empowering the boy-child would also ensure a future with reduced violence and aggression as well as reduced abuses on the rights of women.
Naadu Awura Adjoa Duho, Project Lead, EmpowHER Project, said the programme was to foster gender equality and empower young people with accurate information and services on SRHR.
It also looked at improving advocacy efforts for stakeholders to understand the issue and the barriers to create policies that would better respond to such issues.
Ghana is spearheading the Anglophone African countries while Togo leads the Francophone countries, with Columbia at the forefront of the North American countries.
The EmpowHER is a six-year transformative initiative under the IPPF designed to enhance access to comprehensive sexual and reproductive health and rights services.
The IPPF supports member associations, mostly from Anglophone and Francophone countries as well as Northern America in delivering gender-transformative, youth-inclusive, and rights-based services to improve health outcomes and gender equality.
The annual meeting served as a critical platform for stakeholders to reflect on previous years achievements, challenges, lessons learned and to strategically plan for the second year, with a focus on aligning programmatic efforts with IPPF’s global priorities.
