Assessment of the impact of civil society organizations on gender equality and women empowerment advocacy in Ghana

Gender equality and women empowerment (GEWE) are important issues that require the support of governments all over the world. Inequalities in gender in any society lead to the lack of developmental growth. With the strong linkage of GEWE and development, developing countries need to give more attention and support to issues pertaining to GEWE to attain the Millennium Development Goals (MDG) on gender equality. The MDG on gender equality which is to ensure equal access to education, health care, descent life and political representation has not yet been achieved by Ghana, as government and governmental agencies have not enacted effective laws nor undertaken enough programs and projects that are geared towards gender equality and women empowerment. The lack of effective programs by government and its agencies require that civil society organizations (CSOs); which are non-governmental and non-profit organizations established for the good of the citizenry take up more roles to ensure the attainment of gender equality and women empowerment. Though CSOs in Ghana have carried out a lot of activities, programs and advocacies for gender equality and women empowerment, their efforts have not yielded the expected results. One of the main factors that account for this is the lack of effective studies to measure and evaluate the impact of their activities. CSOs can improve on their activities and make a tremendous impact if they are able to asses through a scientific way the impact of their programs and activities. This thesis therefore examines the contributions of civil society groups and their impact from the perspective of the general populace toward GEWE in Ghana. The study begins with a historical overview and nature of civil societies in Ghana. Through research survey, the evaluation of the impact of activities of civil society organizations is carried out. The activities of the Civil Society Organizations were assessed critically and comprehensively considering the view or understanding of the people concerning gender equality and women empowerment. The opinion of the general public was gathered across three geo-political zones of Ghana with the aid of questionnaires that were physically administered on one on one and face to face. The results were rated descriptively on the basis of frequency and percentage. The outcome of the empirical survey depicts that, the majority of the populace have a full view and understanding of the operations and programs of the CSOs and are very familiar with the activities and programs of CSOs that are involved in gender equality advocacy. It was also revealed that, most of the respondents believe that government policies do not have adverse effect on the activities on CSOs in GEWE. One of the important findings is that compared to government and governmental agencies, there are enough CSOs in Ghana which are perceived to have achieved proven results in terms of advocacy for economic independence, violence control, development and protection of children. This accounts for the fact that CSOs are generally seen to be more trustworthy and have a higher public participation than governmental agencies in gender equality advocacy. This does not underestimate the fact that there is the comparative advantage that exists between the CSOs and governmental agencies on gender equality and women empowerment as acknowledged in the studies. Aggregately, the study revealed that the Ghanaian people have an adequate understanding of the impact of the activities of CSOs', except in few cases where the respondents exhibited some level of little disagreement and indecision; but the respondents have a better view about CSOs' programs. Although the general findings from the studies alluded to the fact that CSOs in Ghana have made great impact in gender equality advocacy and women empowerment, they are faced with a lot of challenges such as the strong competition for funds and visibility, short duration of activities, lack of collaboration among CSO and lack of sufficient funds. To overcome the challenges identified and make CSOs have a better impact on gender advocacy and women empowerment, solutions such as monitoring the activities of CSOs, better funding methods, detailed and properly planned programs, collaboration among CSOs, Increase in gender-based CSOs, intensive publicity of activities, recruitment of dedicated volunteers and the effective management of state-CSOs interaction were recommended in this theses. Keywords: Gender Equality, Civil Society Organizations, Ghana, Women Empowerment