He said the Assembly has incorporated plans that would create equal opportunities and facilitate economic empowerment for women in the Municipality.

Mr Asmah made this known when he launched the “Going for Gold programme” aimed at enhancing women’s development at Tarkwa Nsuaem in the Western Region, to improve the standards of women in the mining area.

   The MCE said the Assembly has launched a programme dubbed “Women in development” which seeks to provide funds and skills training to women to be self-reliant.

He said the Assembly has also partnered with Non-governmental organisations (NGOs) to address the needs of women in the Municipality.

Mr Yaw Opoku Britwum, Programme Manager for Gold at Solidaridad, a consortium partner Organisations, indicated that the Going for Gold (GfG) is a 5-year programme being implemented by three International NGOs namely Simavi, Healthy Entrepreneurs, and Solidaridad; and two local NGOs namely Hope for Future Generations (HFFG), and Presbyterian Relief Services and Development (PRS&D), with support from the Ghana Health Service.

Mr Britwum said the programme sought to economically empower women living in and around artisanal and small-scale gold mines (ASGM) in Ghana and Tanzania.

He noted that women working in mines faced discrimination while men controlled and benefited from most resources such as access to land for mining, income, credit, mining and household commodities, thus limiting women’s opportunities for economic and social development.

“The responsibility to have and care for children, limited access to health services and prevailing socio-cultural norms further prevent women from benefitting from mining and other economic activities,” he said.

He said beyond the mines, women’s opportunities to engage in economic activities and improve on their status were also affected by their limited access to health care, contraception and sexual and reproductive health rights (SRHR) education.

He noted that some women, for instance were unaware of family planning options, resulting in early and repeated pregnancies and threatening their health and economic productivity.

The NGOs would therefore in the next four years, be working in selected informal gold mining communities in the Western Region to improve working conditions for women, including their status and their abilities to engage in economic activities.

Women working outside the mines in the Region would also benefit from the programme.

Nana Kwasi Attobrah II, Paramount Chief of Tarkwa who chaired the function,   called on all stakeholders to fully embrace the initiative made by the NGOs to broaden the scope of women, especially those in deep mining areas in the Region.