Get to know us
Empowering women and youth Economically, Politically And Socially.
Who We Are
Gender Centre for Empowering Development (GenCED) is a Non-governmental Organisation that seeks to empower women and youth for sustainable development in our communities. Established in May 2011 as an independent, not-for-profit, research and advocacy organisation, GenCED is currently focusing on the following key areas of development as enclosed in the 12 Critical Areas of Worry in the Beijing Platform for Action: Governance, Social interference Issues and Entrepreneurship.
Educational Impact
GenCED seeks to impact lives through educating masses on issues such as politics, climate change, economics and history.
Inaccessibility to vital information is one of the causes of delayed development, gender equality and democratic governance. By impacting women and youth, since they make up the majority of population, with knowledge can be a gateway to achieving better results.
Integrating traditional knowledge management structures and modern ones can ensure that no information is lost and that all generations benefit from their history which then helps make better decisions for the future.
Building the capacity of women through information sharing gives them a better chance to articulate their issues.
GenCED’s work is therefore aimed at helping increase women’s participation in decision-making and in the governance process. GenCED also seeks to do more research on women’s experiences, participation in policy making and their representation in governance to influence the level of advocacy and outreaches which the women need to increase their understanding of the democratic process and also influence national and regional policies on women.
Our Inspiration
The inspiration behind GenCED’s work is that, the emergence of multiparty democracy provides the opportunity to enhance civic participation, social accountability and economic governance which includes mechanisms/platforms. This will increase men and women’s access to increased knowledge, participate in decision-making processes and demand accountability from their duty bearers. However, civic knowledge among women remains to be low impacting their ability to participate in democratic processes. By getting involved in research based advocacy and policy dialogues, we hope to ease the current situation and increase the number of women actively involved in democratic governance.
Gender Equality
Countries in Africa are yet to Achieve gender parity in their house of representatives and Ghana is no exception. This is particularly evident by their slim percentage in parliament, district assemblies, corporations and other public positions. For example, after more than two decades of implementation of Ghana’s decentralization policy, several challenges still remain to be addressed as women participation compared to men in governance and development is still low. Under representation of women in key decision making spaces denies them the chance to express their issues and push on women’s agendas. This derails the advancemnet of women rights and realisation of frameworks put in place for the advancement of women rights.
Through our evidence-based advocacy we seek to bridge the gap by providing in-depth information on current affairs pertaining to women, evoking dialogues that will lead to solutions and challenging innovating ways that will get people involved in championing for inclusion and equality
Objectives
As a non-governmental organization that seeks to empower women and youth for sustainable development in our communities GenCED aims to achieve its objectives through research, public education, advocacy, and capacity building for stakeholders. Some of the specific objectives of GenCED include.
- Conduct research on thematic areas aligned with GenCED’s areas of focus
- Promote women and youth participation in democracy, elections, and governance
- Educate women on issues that affect their development, climate change, and socioeconomic issues.
- Promote women’s participation in peace and security
- Protect women and human rights defenders
- Advocate for the elimination of gender-based violence against women and girls
Mission
GenCED’s mission is to promote and protect women’s rights and empower them through research, education, evidence-based advocacy, capacity building, community service and information sharing, to boost the capacity of the youth and women in democratic governance.
Vision
GenCED’s seeks to become a leading gender-based CSO that promotes gender equality, women’s and girls’ rights, and youth participation in inclusive democratic governance in West Africa.