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The Eastern Regional Minister, Mr Samuel Kwakye Darfuor has called for the need for all international protocols to be incorporated into the development planning process to achieve gender equality and sustainable development as a nation.

He said the quest to achieve gender equality even becomes more difficult for Ghana and other countries in the sub region that have large number of its population being rural.

The Regional Minister who made the call at a Regional Dialogue on Women’s Empowerment organised by the Gender Department of the Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection said until protocols such as the Beijing platform for action, the Sustainable Development Goals and the CEDAW are incorporated, it would be difficult to achieve the purpose.

Th dialogue was organised in partnership with the All Nations International Development Agency (ANIDA) to commemorate the International Women’s Day Celebration.

He said the ‘Unpaid Care Work’, which is any activity that serves people and their wellbeing such as cooking, cleaning and washing, working on farmlands, taking care of elderly parents or wards affected by chronic diseases, mostly done without remuneration had to be given a second look to empower the rural woman.

He noted that because care work takes place outside cash transactions, it was not included in the system of national accounts and therefore not accounted for, adding that, “the care economy is both an important aspect of the economic activity as well as an indispensable factor contributing to the wellbeing of families and societies”.

The Eastern Regional Acting Director of the Department of Gender, Mrs Juliana Abbey-Quaye, said the rural woman could not be empowered to be part of the decision making process if their unpaid care work issues were not addressed.

She said in order to achieve the sustainable development goal, it was critical to restructure the care economy in order to develop strategies to ensure that care work was recognised, redistributed and reduced the care givers can invest in the productive sector.

The Krontihene of the New Juaben Traditional area, Nana Baffour Nyantakyi Tutu Boateng, said the approach to achieve gender equality must be tactical and convincing in order to realize the fullest support from all especially, men.