December 12, 2018.

Yesterday, I joined Hon. Janet Mensah, MCE GA East and Madam Bernice Ofori, Municipal Education Director, the Regional Director of Education and some Teachers at the Presbyterian Women's Center, Abokobi for the Ghana Teacher Prize 2018, Ga East Municipal Edition, which was under the theme, 'Quality Education - Quality Teacher.'

Teachers offer a great service to our nation, and are the fulcrum around which, the lives of our children are built from a tender age, so a day to Celebrate them and their efforts and contributions is the least we can do to show appreciation.

The success or otherwise of Government's Free Senior High School Education is dependent on the effort and contributions of our teachers. Government, in putting the Teacher First as part of this program has restored the Teacher training allowances as promised and begun processes to pay the outstanding allowances of Teachers.

In all, 12 Hardworking Teachers within the municipality were awarded for their hard work. I encouraged them to continually work hard and called on other teachers to also give their best to merit the awards next year.

Source : Hon Sarah Adwoa Safo

The Women Leaders Global Forum in Reykjavik brings together extraordinary women from around the world. A new index shows there's still much work to be done when it comes to the perception of women in leadership posts.

"My father was the first feminist I know." Sarah Adwoa Safo beams as she says that. The 37-year-old is Ghana's minister for public procurement. A lawyer by trade, she recounts how her father, a preacher, motivated her early on to speak in front of large audiences in their congregation. "I don't know stage fright," she says. She is convinced that it was her father, who laid the foundation for her professional and political success. ​

Opportunities for girls

Speaking to DW, she emphasizes how important a good education is for girls. "This year, 120,000 additional students are attending senior high schools because they are free of charge in Ghana now," she says. "This creates new opportunities for girls as well."

Before the fees were waived in Ghana, tuition rates for senior high school ranged from $1,000 to $1,200 (€886 to €1,063) per year. For many families that was too much, and if money was tight, oftentimes the boys were given priority when it came to education. Adwoa Safo says that is changing because the only obstacle now for students wanting to attend a secondary school in Ghana is the admissions exam.

"In our newly approved budget, 60 percent of the money goes to education," the minister says proudly. But she doesn't shy away from the problems either — classrooms are overcrowded and teachers often aren't sufficiently trained.

Marie Louise Coleiro Preca, President of Malta; at the Women Leaders Global Forum, Reykjavik

"Ghana has been a regional leader in the delivery of education for all, reaching the education Millennium Development Goals well ahead of the 2015 deadline," the UN children's fund, UNICEF, states.

Woman power

Adwoa Safo has come to Iceland to present her government's new education initiative but also to cultivate networks. At the Women Leaders Forum in Reykjavik​, she is on the podium for a discussion of digitization — together with Mari Kiviniemi, Finland's former prime minister and current deputy secretary general of the OECD, as well as Ana Birchall, the deputy prime minister of Romania. Hundreds of women from all around the world who hold top posts in business and politics are taking the opportunity for an intense exchange of ideas. There was so much interest in attending the conference that the event even stopped accepting registrations for a while. Nobody here talks about "woman power," but you can sense it everywhere.

Reykjavik Index for Leadership

However, prejudices against women in leadership positions still persist,  according to a new index presented at the Reykjavik conference.

Kantar, one of the world's leading data, insight and consultancy companies, conducted an extensive investigation for the leaders forum looking at the perception of women in leadership roles in G7 countries.

The data experts considered 100 points the ideal, signifying "that across society, there is complete agreement that women and men are equally suited to leadership in all sectors."But, in fact, the overall score came to just 66 points — that's like wanting to drive 100 kilometers (62 miles) per hour but only making it to 66. The results also varied significantly between male and female respondents.

The Harpa Congress Centre, Reykjavik, venue for the Women Leaders Global Forum

"Across the G7, the Reykjavik Index for Leadership is higher for women (67) than it is for men (61)," explains Michelle Harrison, Global CEO for Kantar Public. "This means that women in the G7 are more likely than men to view men and women as equally suitable for leadership roles."

Unexpected outcome for Germany

The results for Germany came as surprise: "In Germany, men are more likely to be perpetuating stereotypes about who should lead in professional sectors," Harrison says. The perception in France and the UK was significantly better.

So far, there has not been an investigation for Africa, but in the long term, Kantar wants to measure the perception of women and men on all continents. 

In the meantime, Sarah Adwoa Safo, the government minister from Ghana, continues to build on her networks. In Reykjavik, she met with representatives of the World Bank. Her goal: to secure more support for Ghana's education initiative.

Source: www.dw.com

December 3, 2018.

As the First Female Deputy Majority Leader and the Chairperson of the Women's Caucus in Parliament and First Minister of Public Procurement, I joined Women Leaders from across the globe at the Women Leaders Global Forum in Reykjavik, Iceland from 26th-28th November 2018.

The Women Leaders Global Forum is organized annually by the Women Political Leaders(WPL) in collaboration with the Government and Parliament of Iceland as the platform to discuss ideas and solutions on how to increase equality between women and men in Leadership, increase the influence of women in political office, encourage women in decision making to influence Politics and Policies for the better and to promote and develop the number of women in Leadership positions.

I shared the panel with the following top Women Leaders, Ana Birchall, Vice Prime Minister of Romania and Jewel Taylor, Vice President of Liberia and Mari Kiviniemi, OECD Deputy Secretary on the 'Topic: The Digital Age: The Women's Era' which was chaired by Donna Leinwand Leger, Principal DC Media Strategies LLC and former Managing Editor of USA Today.

The digital revolution is the single biggest driver of Change in the world today. The well-being of societies is tied and linked on how governance frameworks optimize the benefits. Technology opportunities, characterised by artificial intelligence, big data, cloud computing and mobile robotics influence economy, environment and society in general.

In my presentation, I acknowledged that the world has gone digital. Digital literacy is very important for the girl child and women. Gender equality also means equal access to technology and digital training.

Illiteracy is a huge barrier for girls and women to take advantage of technology. Over 700 million illiterate adults are women. It is in this light that the President, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo Addo introduced Free Senior High School education in Ghana. This is aimed at giving every child of school going age the chance of getting educated to the Senior High School level in which girls form a critical part.

There is a technology gap that prevents girls from accessing, using and creating digital works, so Girls, must therefore be engaged at an early stage to take part in digital careers. I encouraged Governments to prioritize STEM education (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) for girls in their early stages.

The lack of Female role models in technology in Africa is a problem. There is therefore, the need for African governments to invest heavily in digital education. There is the need to set up Special Start Up Funds for Women Technology Entrepreneurs. We need to embark on a campaign and advocacy to get more girls into the digital industry. In Ghana we are going E-Procurement with the support from the World Bank, if girls and women are left out of the digital world how will they be able to be active participants in government procurement? How can they take advantage of the allocation of 30% of government contracts to Youth, Women and persons with disability policy that will be introduced soon?

The contributions of my co-panelists enriched my worldview on how we can ride on the current digital age in creating a better and meaningful future for our girls and women in technology.

Source: hon Sarah Adwoa safo