Ms Akua Sena Dansua, Minister of Women and Children's Affairs, on Wednesday urged delegates attending the United Nations Climate Change conference in December, to identify gender sensitive strategies in mitigating the effects of climate change.
"Without the involvement of women in planning and decision making, the quality of adaptive measures and their successful implementation will be limited," she said.
Ms Dansua gave the advice at a two- day summit on climate change on the theme: "Gender Perspectives in Climate Change, Adaptation, Mitigation and Disaster Risk Reduction: The Role of Women in Ghana."
The conference is expected to provide the general public with information on the different scenarios involved in climate change and look
at how women respond to the effects.
The summit is also part of activities to solicit public inputs in a run-up to the conference in Copenhagen, Denmark.
Ms Dansua stressed that all people affected by climate change must be part of the planning and governance process.
She pointed out that gender inequalities in access to resources including credit, extension services, information and technology must be
highly considered in developing mitigation activities.
She said the adaptation mechanisms must effectively address issues like water, food security, agriculture and fisheries, health, industry and human settlements.
Ms Dansua advised Ghanaians to adopt good environmental practices such as tree planting, organic farming and rainwater harvesting.
Mr Stig Barlyng, Danish Ambassador, said addressing climate change was a current global priority and unless the phenomenon was effectively dealt with, it would have devastating effects on the economic and social development of the people.
Emphasizing the importance of gender in climate change decisions, he said women possessed knowledge on effective and innovative solutions to the growing problems associated with changing climate.
He said women however had limited access to resource and decision making process, which increase their vulnerability to climate change.
"Women are not only victims of climate change, but also effective agents of change in relation to both mitigation and adaptation," he noted Mr Barlyng therefore recommended that women be granted equal access to training, credit and skills development programmes to ensure their full
participation in climate change initiatives.
"Technological development related to climate change should take into account women's specific priorities and needs and make full use of their
knowledge and expertise including traditional practices."
He suggested that the deal in Copenhagen in December must prioritise the needs of the most vulnerable people and ensure that they had voice in shaping the response to climate change.
He expressed the hope that the summit would make important input to the negotiations in Copenhagen.
Ms Sherry Ayittey, Minister of Environment, Science and Technology, said women represented the majority of the world's poor and were therefore
more proportionately dependent on natural resources.
"In Ghana, women constitute 52 per cent of the agriculture labour force and control key productive sectors particularly in agriculture.Women and children are most vulnerable to hunger related deaths and illness which would be indirectly exacerbated by climate change through food and water shortages."
She said women were important partners in the protection of the environment since they had a great potential for practicing sustainable
management of natural resources.