Day: December 5, 2023

Dr Ernestina Tetteh, the Project Manager of Star-Ghana Foundation, has urged young people to encourage their peers to report Sexual and Gender-Based Violence (SGBV) to the appropriate quarters for redress.

She said young people were most likely to be abused due to several factors and they needed to report such matters for redress, to deter others from perpetrating such crimes.

As part of youth empowerment, young people must stand up against any form of wrongdoing or crime, by empowering their peers to stand for their rights in matters of Gender-Based Violence and all other issues which affect them, she said.

Dr Tetteh was addressing a Town Hall meeting on the Gender-Based Violence campaign as part of a three-year Action For Youth Development (AFYD), under the ‘Our City Project’ being implemented in Koforidua.

The Star-Ghana Foundation with funding from the BOTNAR foundation is implementing the project in partnership with four civil society organisations and youth groups, in collaboration with the New Jua
ben South Assembly and the National Youth Authority.

The project aims to contribute to Strengthening and enabling youth inclusion, influence in governance and access to quality public goods and services within the township.

Police Chief Superintendent Mrs Florence Anaman, the Eastern Regional DOVSSU Coordinator, said the lack of support for victims of SGBV was a big challenge in clamping down on perpetrators through legal prosecution.

She said most of the victims were from poor backgrounds making it difficult to foot the financial burdens including payment of medical endorsement fees.

‘Unfortunately, these developments and financial constraints have become a huge barrier in making headway in gender-based and sexual violence issues,’ she added.

Mr Isaac Apau-Gyasi, the New Juaben South Municipal Chief Executive, thanked the Star-Ghana Foundation for partnering with the Assembly to empower the youth to actively participate in governance and development.

He said Gender-Based Violence was a criminal offence
which must not be condoned, adding his voice to the call on the youth to encourage and direct victims to the appropriate quarters for better outcomes.

Source: Ghana News Agency

The Forestry Commission, through the Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources, has signed Emission Reductions Payment Agreement (ERPA) with Emergent Forest Finance Accelerator Incorporated (Emergent), a US-based non-profit organisation, to serve as the convenor and coordinator of the Lowering Emissions by Accelerating Forest Finance (LEAF) Coalition.

The agreement will see Ghana receiving payment of up to US$50 million for emission reductions of up to five million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent, at a unit price of US$10 per tonne of carbon dioxide equivalent.

The Agreement was signed on Friday, December 1, 2023, at the sidelines of the 28th Session of the Conference of Parties (COP28) of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.

Ghana is the first country globally, to sign ERPA under the LEAF Coalition for the supply of high-integrity jurisdictional REDD+ emission reductions and removals credit.

Costa Rica also later signed an agreement with Em
ergent, worth $14 million, thus, making the two countries the only forest countries to achieve this feat.

The LEAF Coalition was launched in April 2021 by the Governments of the United Kingdom, the United States and Norway, together with some leading global companies, as a voluntary global coalition to bring together companies and governments, to provide finance for tropical and subtropical forest conservation, to commensurate with the scale of the climate change challenge.

The Coalition aims to raise global climate ambition and contribute to halting tropical and subtropical deforestation and forest degradation by 2030, by ensuring that tropical and subtropical forest areas have access to large scale, predictable performance-based finance, to enable them to invest in reduced deforestation and sustainable rural development.

Following call for proposals of which 30 countries participated, and after the initial technical screening by a panel of experts, Ghana, Nepal, and Ecuador were selected as the first cou
ntries to sign a Letter of Intent with the Coalition as a part of initial steps towards signing a binding ERPA to access funds from the Coalition.

During the COP26 in Glasgow, United Kingdom, Mr Samuel Abu Jinapor, Ghana’s Minister of Lands and Natural Resources signed a Letter of Intent on behalf of the government of Ghana.

Subsequently, the Minister inaugurated a committee, chaired by Mr. Benito Owusu-Bio, a Deputy Minister responsible for Lands and Forestry, to work towards securing a binding ERPA.

The Committee has been working with the Forestry Commission as lead negotiators, leading to Ghana becoming the first country to secure a binding ERPA.

Some 25 countries and subnational governments, including forest countries like Republic of Congo, Bolivia, Columbia, and Brazil have signed Letters of Intent, and are, also, working towards a binding ERPA with Emergent.

Speaking at a ceremony to mark the signing of the Agreement on Sunday, December 3, 2023, at COP28, Mr Jinapor said the signing of the Agreeme
nt was a testament to Ghana’s determination to revamping her forest landscape restoration fortunes with the right sustainability protocols.

The Minister said the importance of forests and nature-based solutions to climate change was critical at this crisis moment, therefore, countries must scale up efforts to deliver on these solutions.

Mr. Jinapor noted that the new agreement would complement other interventions being implemented to halt climate change, such as the flagship Green Ghana Project, the Ghana Forest Plantation Strategy, and the Ghana REDD+ Strategy.

Ghana has already received result-based payments of more than US$4.8 million, under the Ghana Cocoa REDD+ Programme, and is implementing the Ghana Shea Landscape Restoration Programme with support from the Green Climate Fund.

The Minister said the new ERPA would help Ghana extend climate action to areas beyond her Carbon Fund area and called on the global community to come together to support actions towards forest restoration and protection.

‘Th
e time to act with speed and effectiveness against climate change is now. The time for partnership and collaboration in ramping up forest and nature-based climate action is, indeed, now,’ he said.

‘Let us, therefore, get on with this noble undertaking to save our planet,’ Mr Jinapor added.

On his part, Mr Eron Bloomgarden, the Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Emergent, congratulated Ghana for the feat chalked, noting that the commitment and zeal of the team from Ghana ensured that an agreement was reached within a record time.

Thus, making Ghana the first African country to sign the agreement.

He expressed his optimism towards delivering forest solutions to climate change.

The United Kingdom’s Minister for Energy Security and Net Zero, Mr Graham Stuart, commenting on the transaction, said halting tropical deforestation was critical to tackling climate change, and the commitment of forest countries like Ghana to protecting her natural ecosystems was commendable.

On his part, the Minister for Climat
e and Environment of Norway, Mr Andreas Bjelland Eriksen was excited for Ghana and Costa Rica for signing ERPA under the LEAF Coalition and called on other governments and the private sector to ramp up public and private finance for forest countries to partner with the LEAF Coalition to deliver high quality forest carbon.

Forest and nature-based solutions to climate change have been at the centre of successive COPs since 2021, as it has the potential to deliver up to a third of global climate solutions.

Source: Ghana News Agency

A day’s engagement forum to galvanise the support of youth groups and other stakeholders in the Northern Region towards ending Sexual and Gender-Based Violence (SGBV) has been held in Tamale.

The event, held under the theme: ‘Leveraging on the Energy of Young Advocates to End Sexual Violence in Ghana,’ was tailored to provide a common platform for young advocates of SGBV to interact with stakeholders and other youth groups on measures needed to curb violence against women and girls in the country.

It was organised by the Savannah Women Integrated Development Agency (SWIDA-GH) under its KASA project in partnership with the Media and Communication Studies Department of the Tamale Technical University (TaTU).

Other partners are the Centre for Equity and Equal Opportunities, African Women’s Development Fund, and funded by Ford Foundation and Open Society Initiative for Africa (OSIWA)

Participants were drawn from selected Senior High Schools in Tamale, young female leaders, women commissioners from tertiary i
nstitutions in the region, and male champions among other stakeholders within the women and girls’ empowerment space.

Hajia Alima Sagito-Saeed, the Executive Director, SWIDA-GH, at the event, said under the project sought to equip young women to legitimately advocate for their rights, some female leaders and male champions were trained on SGBV to take up responsibility as advocates within their communities.

The forum, she said, was to enable them to share their experiences, challenges and expertise with other young people to trigger a more comprehensive approach to addressing sexual violence.

‘We have trained them with information as to how to report cases of abuse, the referral processes so that they can become the pillars and sources of direction for justice for other vulnerable groups in their communities,’ she said.

She called for a holistic approach by all stakeholders in dealing with issues of SGBV.

Madam Bushira Alhassan, the Acting Northern Regional Director of the Department of Gender, called fo
r peer-to-peer education and community sensitisation as a powerful tool for combating SGBV.

Madam Eugenia Baffour Bankoh, the Violence Prevention and Child Safety Strategist and Executive Director of Safe Space Foundation said to enhance psychosocial support for survivors of SGBV, it was important to create an atmosphere where survivors could confidently share their experiences without fear of judgement and intimidation to speed up their recovery.

Professor Adiza Sadik, the Dean of International Programmes and Institutional Linkages, and Head of the Centre for Equity and Equal Opportunities at TaTU, called for more advocacy and sensitisation, to break down cultural barriers that were not helpful in the fight against SGBV.

Sulemana Zakaria, a male champion under the project, whose advocacy campaign is centred on arts and films, shared his experience, saying it was an effective tool for creating awareness of SGBV.

Source: Ghana News Agency

The Ghana Investment Promotion Centre (GIPC) will on December 8, honour some 100 businesses as the Centre hosts the 20th edition of its esteemed Ghana Club 100 awards.

The event, to be held at the Grand Arena of the Accra International Conference Centre, will celebrate businesses for their outstanding performances in multiple sectors, and contributions to the country’s economy.

It will be on the theme: ‘Accelerating Economic Growth: Amplifying Ghana’s Global Market Footprint through AFCFTA’.

In a statement copied to the Ghana News Agency, a media partner of the awards, the Centre explained that the GC100 awards served as an effective mechanism to assess Ghanaian companies.

It said it was to instil the character and confidence needed by the businesses to compete in the global marketplace.

Mr. Yofi Grant, the Centre’s CEO at the event’s launch earlier this year, noted that organising GC100 for 20 years was a clear testament to GIPC’s commitment to celebrating corporate Ghana

The Centre do so by showcasin
g the achievements of the business, and incentivise them to do more, while motivating others to work harder to get into the list.

He assured that the event would continually help in promoting Ghana’s corporate capacity through creative media vehicles and activities.

Like previous years, the 20th edition of the GC100 would feature executive networking sessions before the main awards ceremony, and an exciting post-awards event.

Source: Ghana News Agency

Mr Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu, the Minister for Parliamentary Affairs, has called for the enactment into law of the proposed Property Rights of Spouses Bill.

He explained that the passage of the Bill would direct the distribution of spousal property among spouses going through a divorce or separation.

Mr Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu, also the Majority Leader and Leader of Government Business of Parliament made the call in Accra at the Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs engagement with the core leadership of Parliament dubbed: ‘Revisiting the Property Rights of Spouses Bill.’

The day’s engagement had the objective of seeking the commitment of the leadership of Parliament to support processes that would lead to the re-laying of the Bill before the House in the next session.

Participants included the leadership of Parliament and the members of the Queen Mothers Association in Ghana.

Players discussed the challenges hampering the passage of the Bill and strengthened institutional collaborations for it.

The Property Rights
of Spouses Bill, 2009, was introduced in Parliament by the Ministry of Justice. However, Parliament was unable to pass the Bill as envisaged.

The objective of the Bill when passed would address the plethora of issues divorcees and those in widowhood, especially women, faced in terms of sharing or distribution of property.

Research suggested that the Bill contained many useful provisions, such as who qualifies as a ‘spouse’; the concept of cohabitation; the introduction of marital property agreements (also known as prenuptial agreements in some jurisdictions), and the need for a spouse to obtain the other’s consent before entering any transaction that relates to joint property of the spouses.

Mr Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu, also the New Patriotic Party Member of Parliament (MP) for Suame, in his address, emphasised that the Constitution, in Article 22(2), enjoined Parliament to ensure that spousal property rights were protected, a reason lawmakers ought to promise to fulfil the dictates of Article 22(2) to actualise
the passage of the bill ‘as soon as practicable.’

‘…It appears the blame for non-passage of the Property Rights of Spouses Bill has been rightly laid on the doorstep of Parliament because the bill has been laid twice, referred to the committee and allowed to lapse,’ he said.

Article 229(1) states that ‘A spouse shall not be deprived of a reasonable provision out of the estate of a spouse whether or not the spouse died having made a will.

And 22(2) says ‘Parliament shall, as soon as practicable after the coming into force of this Constitution, enact legislation regulating the property rights of spouses.’

Mr Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu expressed worry over how in the absence of such a law, the courts and judicial activists had gone ahead to pass some judgements which had become guidelines for the distribution of property acquired during the subsistence of a marriage upon dissolution.

‘The current measures in use by the courts are only focused on parties in monogamous marriages, leaving out those in the polygamous se
tting. In all of this, there is no certainty and as such the law is needed to ensure that equity prevails,’ the Suame legislator said.

He recalled that it had been 30 years since the 1992 Constitution came into effect, adding ‘It took 16 years to present the first draft Property Rights of Spouses Bill to Parliament and another seven years to consider the bill.’

According to Mr Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu, about 8,366,466 Ghanaians were married per the 2021 Housing and Population Census and over 950,000 marriages in Ghana were currently divorced or the couples were separated.

He gave the breakdown that while 553,065 marriages dissolved, 405,090 had separated, ‘these are just the official figures,’ he added.

‘Out of the almost 8.4 million married Ghanaians, 6,748,622 of them have not registered their marriages, with only 1,617,844 registered,’ he said.

He therefore said the passage of the Land Act 2020 should be celebrated by supporters of the bill for the commendable depth of the provisions on the Spousal Rights to
Property.

However, he said it was simply not enough and could not replace the urgent need for a fully-fledged Property Rights of Spouses Law.

‘My study of the two draft bills that were presented to Parliament in 2009 and 2013 but failed to pass shows that they contained germane and beneficial provisions,’ he said.

Alhaji Mohammed Mubarak Muntaka, a National Democratic Congress MP for Asawase, condemned the differences in cultures, ethnic, marriages and religious backgrounds of the Ghanaian society for being a major limitation to the passage of the bill.

He, therefore, advocated for the urgent need for a second look at the bill to incorporate all the differences in society to facilitate the passage of the bill.

He said: ‘We need to have a bill that will be able to, for example, regulate marriages because of the way we are intermarrying.’

‘But if you want to assume that we want to do it one size fits all, the bill will continue to have the kinds of challenges it is facing,’ he said.

On her part, Nana Otu
bea, the President of the Queen Mothers Association in Ghana, expressed worry at how in specific areas in the country women were often ‘packed out’ of their matrimonial homes when their husbands passed away.

She, therefore, urged Parliament to expedite the passage of the Property Rights of Spouses Bill to protect the rights of women in marriages.

Source: Ghana News Agency

An Accra High Court has granted GHC200,000 bail with one surety to the alleged girlfriend of Benett Agyekum Adomah alias Kikibee.

Mam Yandey Joof, a hotelier, filed for bail pending trial at the High Court (Criminal Court 5).

Joof is facing a charge of murder following the death of her boyfriend, Kikibee, the owner of Kikibee restaurant.

Kikibee is said to have behaved strangely in Joof’s apartment. She and a friend rushed him to the hospital, but he (Kikibee) allegedly died shortly.

Joof, who has been appearing before a Madina District Court, has had her plea reserved.

Mr Muniru Kassim, in a plea for bail pending trial, told the court that after receiving the autopsy report, the charges against his client had no bearing on the facts presented.

Mr. Kassim said the deceased, according to the postmortem report, died of ‘severe fall due to alcohol ingestion.’

According to him, Joof had a fixed address, worked at a hotel, and had people of sufficient means to stand surety when bail was granted.

Mr Kassim
admitted that Joof was in an amorous relationship with the deceased before his sudden death.

According to the defense counsel, three months before the incident that resulted in Kikibee’s death, he (Kikibee) left the country and returned on October 7, 2023.

He said around midnight, the same day, the deceased visited Joof’s apartment at East Legon.

The defence counsel said about 0130 hours, Kikibee began hallucinating and said that ‘some people were after him.’

He said that Kikibee broke some items in the apartment and made so much commotion that the occupants were awoken.

Joof then went downstairs and asked a friend of the deceased to assist her with the matter.

‘It was at this point that when the applicant (Joof) was downstairs waiting for the arrival of the deceased friend that the deceased fell heavily creating a budding noise.

‘When the friend arrived, they went upstairs, and they found the deceased lying unconscious. He (the deceased) was rushed to the hospital where he eventually died,’ the defenc
e counsel told the court.

According to counsel, ‘the facts do not support the charges and charge does not contain any ingredients of murder.’

Miriam Boakye Yiadom, a State Attorney, objected to the bail application, claiming that it was not the first time that Joof had applied for bail before the court.

She said Joof filed for bail on October 18,2023.

According to the state attorney, the bail application had been turned down by another High Court

She said investigations were underway and prayed for the court to decline the bail application.

Source: Ghana News Agency