A total of 60 distinguished women leaders from the various security agencies have successfully completed the Women’s Leadership Development Programme (WLDP) 2020 organised by the Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping Training Centre (KAIPTC) in Accra.
The programme, fully sponsored by the German Government and offered in collaboration with the KAIPTC was to empower women in the security sector towards thoughtful leadership, career advancement and self fulfilment.
The female leaders were selected from the Ghana Armed Forces, the Customs Division of the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA), the Ghana National Fire Service, the Ghana Immigration Service, the Ghana Police and Prison Services and selected staff of KAIPTC.
Speaking at the closing ceremony on Thursday, the German Ambassador to Ghana, Mr Maritz Fischer congratulated the participants for a successful completion and urged them to put it into good use.
He expressed excitement for the German government pioneering such a state-of- the-art leadership development programme for women leaders from the KAIPTC and the six Ghana security agencies.
“Our support for this programme is yet another testimonial to the German government’s commitment to gender equity and to the area of international security-and of course fitting that we are celebrating this year the 20th anniversary of UN Security Council Resolution (UNSCR) 1325,” he said.
Mr Fischer added that societies whose women and men had equal participation were more stable, peaceful, prosperous and culturally innovative.
He said, although, Ghana had for the past decades demonstrated its commitment to equal opportunity and participation of women in all aspects of society there was more to be done.
“We have seen progress in the “women, peace and security” agenda, indeed there are more women than ever working in the security sector, but ladies and gentlemen representation is not enough. We have not yet reached the finishing line,” he stated.
He called for the need to strengthen the four pillars of UNSCR1325 and appoint more women to the most senior level positions within the national organisations.
The Commandant of the KAIPTC, Major General Francis Ofori, said the programme was timely as they celebrate their 20th anniversary of the UNSCR 1325 on women, peace and security.
He expressed gratitude to the German government for their leadership and continuous commitment to gender equality and their generous support for making the leadership development programme possible.
He urged the participants to make the best use of the leadership competencies acquired on the programme in their respective organisations.
“I look forward to seeing the positive impact of your leadership on your colleagues, agencies and finally on the public. I urge you to keep supporting one another and other women and men who wished to become more conscious and capable leaders,” he added.
Deputy Director of Prisons (DDP) Patience Baffoe-Bonnie who spoke on behalf of the participants thanked the German government for such a programme stating “the training was participatory and practical in approach and believe would go back to their irrespective institutions to apply the knowledge acquired”.
She appealed to the German government to expand the sponsorship in order to enrol more women, while special ones were planned suitably for very top-level managers.
BY VIVIAN ARTHUR
