The Head of Women, Peace and Security Institute (WPSI) at the Kofi Anan International Peacekeeping Training Center ( KAIPTC), Ms. Joana Ama Osei-Tutu, has noted that the deployment of female military persons to peace support operations will be beneficial to the Ghana Armed Forces (GAF) and the country at large.
According to Ms. Joan, having an increased involvement of women in peace support operations will facilitate females in the profession, to harness their potentials and achieve their capacities fully.
She added that, female participation in peace keeping is prudent since it will reflect the demographics of the survivors of war.
She opined that, there is a change in the nature of war, with an increasing number of female survivors hence, deploying female soldiers to peacekeeping will create a fair representation that will facilitate their response to these survivors.
Ms. Joana Osei-Tutu made these statements in an interview with the press during their Garrison Tour in Tamale.
The tour which comprised a joint team of staff from the KAIPTC and personnel from the Ghana and Canadian Armed Forces have so far visited five (5) of the GAF nationally, consisting Sunyani, Tema, Kumasi, Ho and Takoradi with Tamale serving as the sixth Garrison to be visited.
The tour is in line with the Elsie initiative by GAF, supported by the KAIPTC to setup institutional capacities that will address issues hampering the deployment of women to UN peace keeping operations.
The tour which had covered six (6) garrisons so far primarily aims at broadening the awareness on Women, Peace and Security mechanisms in the GAF and various strategic measures to be implemented towards achieving a greater involvement of females in peace support operations.
Speaking to FiilaNews, the Point of Contact for the Elsie Initiative for Uniformed Women in Peacekeeping, Col. William Abosti reiterated the importance of having increased female participation in peacekeeping operations.
He disclosed that various measures are being put in place to ascertain the major objective of the Elsie project.
He stated that, the various commands and officers of the GAF will be enlightened more on gender equality and as much as possible aid some of the basic issues in the GAF.
Col. Abosti also announced that, the project will setup a female recruitment campaign that will enlighten females in schools about the various opportunities they are open to in the military instead of just going for the service support unit.
He stated however that, though the project is hoping to achieve its objectives, they believe that it will take time since it is a gradual process.
“Change is gradual, gender mainstreaming is a process and it’s going to take a number of years for the impact to actually be felt” He said.
Col. Abosti explained further that, the project will provide the GAF with a software for its operational database to monitor deployments, in pursuit of the goal of the project to address the barriers women encounter in peacekeeping, and ultimately increase their numbers in peacekeeping missions.
Source:Fiilafmonline/ShawanaYussif
