Kofi Ampeah Woode
As part of measures to encourage young women to join and choose combat and combat support arms in the Ghana Armed Forces (GAF), the Women, Youth, Peace, and Security Institute (WYPSI) of the Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping Training Centre (KAIPTC), in collaboration with GAF, with support from the Elsie Initiative Fund (EIF), are embarking on sensitisation tours in second cycle and tertiary education institutions.
The sensitisation tour, which took-off in the Central and Eastern regions on Monday, October 9, 2023, forms part of a national project dubbed: “Increasing Women Recruitment into the Ghana Armed Forces for increased participation in UN Peace Operations”, funded by the EIF for Uniformed Women in Peace Operations.
The Elsie Initiative is a global initiative to promote uniformed women participation in peace operations.
The team from GAF and the KAIPTC, which is expected to tour education centers across the 16 regions of Ghana by the end of the project, will educate students on career opportunities in GAF and address stereotypes and misconceptions about taking up a career in the military.
The KAIPTC, under the strategic leadership of its Commandant – Major General Richard Addo Gyane, launched the GAF recruitment campaign at the Centre in June this year, which encourages young women to take up opportunities within the Combat Units of GAF, and by extension provide greater opportunity for women to be available to take up leadership positions in the military.
The national campaign will cover three dimensions: lobbying the GAF High Command to inform policy; media campaign and visits to secondary and tertiary institutions in the 16 regions of Ghana.
The campaign will be complemented by the construction of women’s accommodation and facilities at the Army Recruit Training School (ARTS), Shai Hills and the Army Special Operations Training School, Daboya, to ensure that GAF has adequate space to accommodate the planned increase in numbers of women recruits.
The Project stemmed from the recommendations of the 2020 Measuring Opportunities for Women in Peace Operations (MOWIP) Report, which examined GAF’s ability to deploy women to, and ensure their “meaningful participation” in UN peace operations.
The Report identified eligible pool, gender roles, and social exclusion as top barriers to women’s meaningful participation in UN peace operations.
One of the key targets of the Project is to increase the percentage of women recruited into GAF from 16% in 2022, to 25% by 2028, which would enable a larger eligible pool of women to be available for selection for deployment.
