The Centre for Gender and Advocacy of the Takoradi Technical University has been challenged to use its office to nurture and encourage more female staff to pursue PhDs and Professorship. The Vice Chancellor of Takoradi Technical University, Rev. Prof. John Frank Eshun, who gave the challenge during the 1st Anniversary celebration of the Centre for Gender and Advocacy, CEGENDA, while commending the centre for its achievements within the short space of its establishment urged the centre to assist the university to get more female management members.
“I thank the Centre Director for the work done so far. It has not been long since the establishment of the Centre for Gender and Advocacy, but with the statistics shown, we have seen some fruits. I therefore encourage you to continue to explore more areas to push the mission of the Centre. This is necessary because, I have realized that in some top management positions, we do not have women and even at the professorial level, we have only one lady professor. So put your heads together so that we can see more lady professors up there as well as senior members with PhDs. With no cut-off point for student intake, you have to go to the Senior High Schools and encourage females for us to have the numbers“, he said.
The Director of the Centre for Gender and Advocacy, Dr. Mrs. Gladys Ama Quartey stating the objectives of the centre said it is focused on achieving gender equity at all front of the university’s forward match.
“Gender equality is not a woman’s issue, it affects us all. Takoradi Technical University opposes discrimination on all grounds so the centre has been set up to correct some of these discrepancies.
The Centre aims to project Takoradi Technical University’s obligation and responsibility to gender equity and equality. TTU is committed to building an all-inclusive academic community which provides the opportunity for all persons to develop their full potentials. However, the University is faced with challenging issues related to gender equity and equality. This has evidently been revealed in the situational analysis that has been performed on gender balance for both staff and students within the University. The creation of CEGENDA aims at liaising with all stakeholders of the University to bridge the gap to enable TTU attain an all-inclusive empowerment for all, through advocacy, policy making, curriculum development and service provision“, she said.
Also present at the 1st Anniversary of the CENGENDA, were the Registrar of Takoradi Technical University, Dr. Moses Maclean Abnory and Chairperson of the Sexual Harassment and Investigative Committee, Prof. Maame Afua Nkrumah, as well as Dr. Taghi Mohammed who is the Western and Central Regional representative of the Deutsche Gesellschaft fur Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH, an implementing partnership of the CENGENDA.
The establishment of the Centre for Gender and Advocacy was inspired by the Takoradi Technical University’s Strategic Plan of 2021-2025, Chapter 5, Article (2) of the 1992 Constitution, the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, CEDAW, 1998, the Sustainable Development Goals on Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment among others.
