Accra: Madam Winnie Osulah, Lead-Gender Integration at AGRA, has emphasized the pressing need for African countries to shift focus from merely drafting gender-responsive agricultural policies to ensuring their effective implementation. While numerous African nations have developed such policies, many remain outdated or unimplemented, leading to a significant disparity between policy intentions and their tangible impact on women farmers.

According to Ghana News Agency, Madam Osulah made these remarks at an AGRA-organized event in Accra, focusing on the Gender Scorecard in Ghana’s agriculture sector. The event revolved around the theme ‘Enhancing Gender-Responsive Decision-Making in Agriculture through AGRA’s Gender Mainstreaming in Agriculture Scorecard.’ The scorecard aims to evaluate governments’ performance across three areas: the enabling environment, government commitment, and capacity to address gender issues in agriculture.

Madam Osulah highlighted that women make up about 80% of Africa’s agricultural workforce, yet their needs are often neglected in policy and programming. She pointed out that Ghana scored 72% on the enabling environment but only 56% on the capacity to implement policies. Government commitment was roughly 60%, indicating room for improvement to achieve gender responsiveness, which requires scores above 75% in all categories.

She advocated for a methodical approach, starting with identifying and addressing the weakest areas in a country’s score. This involves targeted capacity building and phased implementation, focusing particularly on women smallholder farmers. She called for practical investments in training, institutional strengthening, and monitoring systems to ensure policies lead to meaningful changes.

Mrs. Faustina Acheampong, Director of the Department of Gender at the Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection, echoed Madam Osulah’s sentiments. She underscored the need for a unified effort to dismantle barriers facing women and announced plans to review the national gender policy and establish a women development bank to enhance financial inclusion and support for women and girls, especially in underserved areas.

The efforts aim to create environments where women’s leadership in agriculture is encouraged, their voices influence policy, and their innovations drive sector transformation.