The project also seeks to empower another 6,400 rural women to have more secure and sustainable access to markets and productive resources leading to increased income.

Dubbed ‘Promoting Opportunities for Women Empowerment and Rights’ (POWER), the project was initiated by ActionAid to address the denial of women’s civil rights caused by the unequal distribution of work.

A baseline report on the project found that women in Ghana did approximately 10 times the amount of care work men did and had significantly longer workdays overall.

The project partly sought to recognise the household chores performed by women for which they were not paid.

According to the report, for most women, time spent on unpaid care work was disproportionately high compared to men, saying the burden of unpaid care work affected all women but had worst effects on women in poverty, as it tended to increase their poverty levels.

Unpaid care work

The report classified unpaid care work as girls and women spending longer hours in fetching water, collecting firewood, doing laundry, preparing food, caring for children and the elderly and other household chores.

The project is aimed at sensitising women, men and boys to the time women spend on household chores, addressing cultural norms and also engaging with policy and decision makers for increased focus and funding.

The objective of POWER is to also empower 6,000 rural women and influence their ability to control their income through the practice of Climate Resilient Sustainable Agriculture (CRSA).

The project will also use trainings and interventions to address violence against women at household and community levels while it works with groups at the local, national, regional and international levels to improve policies addressing violence against women and improved existing policies.

Launch

Speaking at the launch of the POWER project baseline report, the Minister for Gender, Children and Social Protection, Ms Otiko Afisa Djaba, reiterated the need to appreciate women for their contribution to the development of society.She observed that 80 per cent of agriculture was handled by women, saying women did planting, weeding, spraying, cultivation, selling and cooking.

She observed that 80 per cent of agriculture was handled by women, saying women did planting, weeding, spraying, cultivation, selling and cooking.

On some measures being taken, she said, “We want to pass the Affirmative Action Bill to ensure equal rights and gender mainstreaming. We also want to ensure that a minimum of 30 per cent of the Planting For Food project is assigned to women while 10 per cent is assigned to disabled persons.”

Ms Djaba then said the ministry would also ensure that they bought directly from farmers to facilitate the School Feeding Programme, instead of importing them.

“We also want to ensure that home grown food is used for school feeding and that will create jobs for people,” she added.

The Country Director at Actionaid, Mr Sumaila Abdul-Rahman, recommended a broad and robust protection for women to safeguard their interest.

 According to him, women worked more than their male counterparts but were not recognised as such.