Psychological empowerment of women, has been described as critical in developing the skills of women towards national development.

Speaking on JoyNews Current Affairs program PM:Express, Programs Officer at the Ministrghy of Children, Gender and social protection, Clarke Noyoru, said, some women are very talented but the circumstances they find themselves  do not  help their progress in life.

He cited instances where children are given out for marriage while they can be in school building their future.

Discussing the draft national gender policy on the Show, she said, a lot of gender issues come about as a result of socio-cultural lapses.

 “We are providing the avenue for them to go to school, encourage them to be able to take into politics and do all the things that ordinarily men are doing”

According to the programs officer, when women are empowered, the number of issues relating to children “running around in town and fending for themselves will reduce”

The essence of the legislation is to correct all the imbalances that are preventing the right and welfare of women also the focus of the policy is to link up with ministry of education to find out the gender issues in the ministry and cooperate it in the policy to develop a strategic implementation planning in the education sector to find out the gender issues needed to be addressed, he said.

“We need a lot of advocacy and sensitization activities to be able to bridge issues of discrimination and gender related issues”, she said.

Clerke Noyoru said discrimination is everywhere and the most important thing is to promote sensitization and awareness creation which he believes should start from the basic level, that is, from our homes.

The National gender policy of 2004, is based on article 17 of the constitution and prior to the 1992 constitution. According to gender experts, the policy has implementation gaps; as a result of lack of broad consultation during the development process. This resulted in “lack of ownership” from stakeholders such as Metropolitan Municipality, District Assembly, Ministry Department and Agencies, most importantly Civil Society Organization.

The policy, also didn't come out with a very comprehensive implementation strategy  and the fact that it combines children issues with gender issues, which are two broad areas, have resulted in calls for a separation.