Current/Ongoing Activities

• Enhancing the leadership skills of adolescent girls and young women in Nkwanta North and South Districts in Ghana

• The Women Peace and Security Network is expanding its Young Girls' Transformative Programme, which it has been implementing in Liberia since 2008, to two Districts in the Volta Region of Ghana; Nkwanta North and South, in order to enhance the leadership skills of adolescent girls and young women in the area. Understanding and promoting women's empowerment and gender equality is vital to the eradication of poverty, achievement of sustainable peace, and the increase of women in decision-making. The Young Girls' Transformative Programme will enhance the leadership capacity of young girls at various levels to become effective leaders who will positively impact development and make a difference in decision-making in their schools and communities. The target districts in Nkwanta have a high poverty rate and cultural practices such as trokosi (servant hood to religious shrine) forced marriage, and a high observance of patriarchy continue to serve as barriers to young women taking active part in decision-making.

  The proposed WIPSEN project is designed to respond to this gender based challenges and enhance the leadership potential of girls in the target communities. The project intends to contribute to young girls' leadership capacities through training and mentorship

• Enhancing Gender Mainstreaming and Gender Responsiveness in Ghana Security Sector

• From 2010 to 2011, the Women, Peace and Security Network – Africa (WIPSEN-Africa) held a series of roundtable discussions with 8 security sector institutions and civil society organisations. The objective of the series was to identify gender gaps and entry-points for supporting the implementation of United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325 (UNSCR 1325). The findings of the series higlighted that more than 10 years after the adoption of UNSCR 1325, the security sector in Ghana remains a male dominated institution which discriminates against female security sector personnel. Moreover, women's organisations are not able to play an oversight role due to their lack of technical expertise and lack of collaboration they have with female security personnel. Therefore WIPSEN-Africa is currently implementing a programme that seeks to address these gaps in 4 security sector institutions in 4 regions of Ghana through enhancing gender mainstreaming and gender responsiveness.