AKWAABA!

Welcome to our Ministry

The Ministry of Women and Children's Affairs (MOWAC) was established by an Executive Instrument (EI 8) in January 2001. This was as a result of the realization by government that, there was the urgent need for high level sector organization, which will specifically be responsible for coordinating national response to gender inequality and to promote the implementation of activities that address the rights of women and children towards advancing the status of women and the growth, survival and development of our children.

MOWAC is now therefore the National Women's Machinery (NWM), a structure that most governments have created to respond to the need for institutional arrangement for addressing issues on women's advancement. The UN defines National Women's Machinery as a 'single body or complex organized system of bodies, often under different authorities, but recognized by the Government as the institution dealing with the promotion of the status of women'. As a relatively new WM, MOWAC has the opportunity to learn from challenges that others have overcome and to create decentralized National machinery that effectively promotes the status of women in Ghana.

The Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) was established in June 1946 by the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) of the UN. This Commission by its mandate is required to report to the General Assembly through the Council. Successive annual sessions of the Commission has been devoted to substantive discussions on the implementation of the Beijing Declaration and the strategic objectives in each of the (12) twelve critical areas of concern of the Beijing Platform of Action (BPA). MOWAC participates actively in meetings of the Commission. Mowac also presents its periodic reports to the CEDAW committee and is currently up to date on its reporting.

The Ministry of Women and Children Affairs has since 2001 spearheaded a vigorous national drive to overcome the challenges of gender inequality. With the elevation of the National Machinery to a cabinet status and also as a Central Management Agency (CMA), gender issues have continued to receive attention at the highest level of decision making.