The second Ghana National Action Plan (GHANAP II) on the UN Resolution 1325 on Women, Peace and Security has been finalised. The GHANAP II has an implementation period of five years i.e. 2020-2025. The NAP’s development was led by the Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection (MoGCSP) with participation and collaboration with local (WPSI KAIPTC, WILPF Ghana), regional (WANEP) and international (UNDP, Canadian High Commission) partners. The GHANAP II is structured with reference to the main pillars of UNSCR 1325: Participation; Protection; Prevention; and Recovery and Rehabilitation.The overall goal of the NAP is to build inclusive, secure and safe societies for women and girls in Ghana anchored on the tenets on UNSCR 1325. The second NAP seeks to address the lessons learnt and overcome the challenges faced in the implementation of Ghana’s first NAP (GHANAP I).
GHANAP I was developed in 2010 but launched in 2012 for the period 2012-2014. The development of the NAP was led by the Ministry of Women and Children’s Affairs with broad-based participation from civil society. Interestingly the implementation period was supposed to cover three years from 2012 through 2014 but the plan could not be put into effect for 2012 given the amount of time it took to formally adopt it. Moreover, there were some critical gaps in its implementation: 1. “Unavailability of an inter-ministerial steering committee to coordinate the implementation in a concerted manner”; 2. “Lack of dedicated budget for the implementation”; 3.” Lack of a fundraising strategy and initiatives to raise funds to complement the Ministry’s limited annual government funding”; 4. “Competing priorities and resources in the various implementing sector Ministries”; 5. “Lack of coordination between different stakeholders”; 6. “Non-availability of a pool of women with capacity in Women Peace and Security (WPS) to spearhead the implementation coordinated by MoGCSP”, 7. Lack of awareness of the NAP among various security institutions and the general public.
Ghana reported in its national report for CSW64/Beijing+25 that: “The Ghana National Action Plan 2018- 2022 (GHANAP II) on the UN Resolution 1325 on Women, Peace and Security has been finalised to ensure the full representation and active participation of women in conflict prevention, resolution, peace negotiation, mediation, crisis and security management at all levels of the Ghanaian society.”
The NAP, with an updated implementation period of 2020-2025, is available on the website of the Ministry of Gender, Children, and Social Protection.