The New Patriotic Party (NPP) Regional Women's Organizer for the Upper West Region, Nancy Amel Dery has held an apolitical forum for women of diverse political and religious persuasions in the Upper West Region.
The event was held in commemoration of the 2033 International Women's Day (IWD) celebration marked on the global theme, "DigitALL: Innovation and technology for gender equality".
The forum has been the first ever non-partisan women's forum organized by an avid politician, and for that matter, a party’s executive, in the region and the country.
The forum, held under the local theme “Advancing Women and Girls Parity through Innovation in a Digital World”, was organized by the Women Powering Possibilities (WPP), a women-centred not-for-profit entity championing the cause of female empowerment and development in the Upper West Region.
Madam Nancy Dery who is also the Founder and Executive Director of the WPP, addressing the women at the forum, said the world was fast-globalizing with the advent of emerging technologies which requires that every person, especially the woman, is equipped with some digital skills to meet the demands of the day.
She intimated that, with the stage at which the world has reached, no meaningful progress could be made without the use of one digital technology or another.
She thus urged women to support one another to reach at least intermediate levels in the acquisition and use of digital technologies to enhance their businesses and daily activities.
“I wish to urge the elite group of women to support our less privileged [women] in their activities for them to move forward when it comes to technology and innovation, especially with those who are into production.
“I, therefore, urge you the elite [class of women] to take good note of this and let us support them so that ‘together, we can’ because without ‘us’, we can’t do anything,” Madam Dery urged.
Madam Dery further admonished the women to cultivate a sense of unity of purpose and togetherness and to unite their efforts in supporting themselves to grow together, saying it was the very reason why the forum was not on a political basis.
“Look, all of us here in gathered belong to different political, some do not even belong to any, but a gathering here would enable us to connect with one another, know what business each person is engaged in so that we patronize and support one another’s businesses,” she said.
She appealed to the women to eschew hatred on the bases of political differences and embrace one another as women of the larger Upper West society towards the positive uplift of the region.
Madam Dery said too much partisanship and the politicization of efforts create many problems and thus urged the women to be circumspect saying “we came and met partisan politics, so shall we go and leave it.”
Madam Maria Johana Yuorpor, the Zonal Coordinator of the Northern Development Authority and Chief Executive Officer for Mara Foods, speaking on the theme, observed that women possess inherent innovation skills and urged them to nurture those skills to enhance their activities.
She urged the women to not shy away from learning digital technologies and skills but embrace the odds to learn and leverage those technologies to boost their businesses and marketing activities, especially with the mobile phone.
She said businesses flourish and thrive best on networking and connections and thus, admonished the women to make friends and build networks whenever and wherever they meet new people, especially in fora and seminars.
Madam Linat Osman Kundaribuo, a staunch member of the NPP and Founder of Teen Talk Ghana, also urged the women to use their smartphones to earn money rather than spend money to feed the phones with internet bundles without making any benefit out of that.
She said the phones are useful devices that could earn them if used judiciously but, however, cautioned the women to avoid using the devices to engage in online obscenity and nudity.
She encouraged the women to take interest in one another’s growth and development and stop “stabbing each other from behind” out of jealousy.
Other dignitaries at the forum include the Political Aide to the Upper West Regional Minister, and some executives of the both NPP and NDC, among significant others.