Community Aid for Rural Development (CARD Ghana), a Wa-based civil society organization, has engaged youth associations and groups to mobilize membership for the She Leads Social Movement in Wa, Upper West Region over the weekend.
The She Leads Social Movement forms part of the implementation strategies of the She Leads project in the Upper West Region by CARD Ghana in partnership with Plan International Ghana.
The She Leads project aimed to increase the sustained influence of girls and young women (GYWs) in leadership and decision-making and transform gender norms in formal and informal settings.
The Upper West Regional Chapter of the She Leads Social Movement, a network of GYW organizations and groups, was launched in July 2023 to promote equal opportunities for GYWs and break barriers that limit their participation in leadership and decision-making.
Ms Ernestina Biney, the acting Executive Director of CARD Ghana and coordinator of the She Leads Project, said the engagement with the youth associations was to sell the objectives of the social movement to them and request them to join the movement.
She said there was a need for the She Leads Social Movement to expand its membership by reaching out to other youth- and girl-led organizations and groups who were initially not part of the movement from the launch.
She indicated that the coming on board of the other young people-led organizations would help strengthen the movement and cause collective action towards achieving its goals and objectives.
"Today's program is to bring on board other youth groups who are in line with the agenda of the She Leads project, so that we can come together as a movement and advocate on issues that are affecting girls and young women," she said.
Ms. Biney added that groups, when together with a common objective, could collaborate to undertake initiatives through resource and knowledge sharing which further gives a united voice for impactful advocacy.
"It [collaboration] gives us a stronger voice, it also helps us when it comes to resource and knowledge sharing, we can use that as a platform to learn from each other and also it gives us an exposure as youth groups," she said.
The Vice President of She Leads Social Movement, Ms. Portia Dumba indicated that having other organizations as part of the movement would help fast-track the achievement of the Movement's objectives.
"We believe that we alone, we are doing something and we are achieving results, it means that we will even achieve greater results if we are able to collaborate with other organizations who are doing the same thing," she said.
The Speaker of the Upper West Regional Youth Parliament, Mr. James Baba Anabiga expressed optimism that the collaboration fostered among the youth organizations would deepen the impact and reach of the She Leads project campaign's message.
"Once we're collaborating, it means more platforms; more people would be reached out to. And of course, we've different capacities and capabilities, somebody is good at public speaking, someone is good at advocacy, somebody is good at leadership, so when the collaboration comes, we are able to complement these capabilities to achieve the overall goal of the project," he said.
The Wa Municipal Director of the National Youth Authority, Mr. Felix Wuurah emphasized the importance of collaboration in overcoming funding and capacity challenges and encouraged the youth organizations to foster more collaboration.
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