University of Ghana launches gender policy

Accra-Ghana, March 14, GNA – The University of Ghana (UG) has launched its gender policy to promote diversity and inclusivity and enshrine gender and equality in all aspects of the institutional culture of the University.
The policy seeks to push for equity, remove gender stereotypes and set a level-playing field for all sexes to compete fairly for available resources and opportunities.
It also covers the University’s gender principles, which include issues concerning staff and students.
At the launch of the policy on Tuesday in Accra, Professor Nana Aba Appiah Amfo, the Vice Chancellor, said the University was committed to the realization of Sustainable Development Goal five which focuses on gender equality.
“The school is the first University in Ghana to set up a gender center in 2005, the first university to develop a Sexual Harassment Policy,” she said.
The Vice-Chancellor said the University of Ghana had been working diligently at creating an environment free from bias, stereotypes, and discrimination.
She maintained that the University believed in creating room for competent individuals irrespective of their gender, emphasizing that the institution had an all-female set of principal officers.
Prof Amfo stated that because of the consistent application of the institution’s affirmative action policy, the University’s overall female student population stood at 50.15 per cent.
That feat, she stressed, needed to be sustained, but more importantly, insisting that the university needed to be more targeted at improving the participation of females in programmes such as IT, mathematical sciences, and engineering.
Prof Amfo called on all to forge a path that ensured women and men, boys, and girls, and the marginalized and vulnerable had an equal opportunity to attain their full potential.
Mrs Mary Chinery-Hesse, Chancellor, University of Ghana, affirmed the commitment of the University against all forms of gender-based discrimination.
She was confident that the University would continue to work to create a safe, healthy, and productive educational and work environment for every member of the institution.