About 100 civil society organisations (CSOs) and the media have committed to sustaining surveillance on issues of gender equality and social inclusion.

Partners recognise prevailing barriers such as the limited voice of influential women, abuse of the rights of children and other vulnerable groups in society as stifling the gender equality campaign.

The agreement was reached at STAR-Ghana and its partner’s learning event on Social Inclusion for Sustainable Development.

The meeting sought to strengthen CSO and media capacity to mainstream and respond to gender equality and social issues.

It was also to foster linkages and strengthen coordination among Gender Equality and Social Incursive Goals partners.

Beneficiaries and stakeholders will liaise for ownership and sustainability of initiatives under the scheme. Groups resolved to provide technical support to each other and build synergies.

The two-day event on the theme, “Social Inclusion for Sustainable Development,” was funded by European Union, Danida and UKAid.

A communiqué released at the end of the two-day session summed up the resolve of partners to intensify watchdog roles.

Chairman of the Learning Event Planning Committee, Selete Nyomi, says the group will build upon strategic engagement and communication through multiple channels; use of social media platforms and traditional media.

The communiqué also indicated the following:

- Recognising that there are still barriers that limit voice and influence of women, children, persons with disabilities and other social groups in decisions that affect their lives

- Mobilise key stakeholders such as traditional and local government authorities for collective actions to address systemic barriers including certain socio-cultural norms against socially excluded groups

- Maintain and promote inclusion of beneficiaries in project design, implementation and feedback loop to help sustainability and ownership of results

- Sustain the use of participatory approaches and local languages to reach under-served communities

- Pursue proactive interventions that target stakeholders to impact GESI consciousness into curricula and other public education activities

Star Ghana is currently running two grants; the small grant partnership that spans June 2017 To June 2018 whiles the strategic partnerships spans September 2017 to February 2020.

Implementation of these projects has begun with both small grants and strategic partners doing more than 9 months and 6 months of projects implementation respectively.

STAR-Ghana, therefore, organised this learning event to harness and share the results and learning from the implementation of these projects; incorporate the learning into its programme and stimulate discussions around best practices for further engagement.