Madam Delphina Bonaa, a Women Economic Skills trainer has challenged women in the Upper West Region to go the extra mile by putting skills they have acquired during training programmes into practice.

“It is not enough to just acquire the skills and sit with it doing nothing, but your ability to put the skills learnt into practical use to help change your social and economic life is what is important and what people want to see”, she emphasised.

Madam Bonaa who issued the challenge during a four-day alternative livelihood training for women groups across Lawra, Nandom and Wa East Districts of the Upper West Region expressed worry that many women in the region were refusing to put the skills they acquired during such trainings into practical use to help them earn extra income.

Using herself as an example, Madam Bonaa said her success today did not come from her parents, but her ability to grab such skills training opportunities and going the extra mile to put the skills she acquired into practical use.

“If you acquire these economic training skills and you are ready to put it into practice, there is no way you will remain the same”, she said and added that one who did this would not only become a business owner but also an employer as well.

Madam Elham Mumuni, Gender and Women Empowerment Manager for the Centre for Indigenous Knowledge and Organisational Development (CIKOD) expressed concern about the situation.

She said for the past five years, CIKOD together with its local and International Partners had been offering economic skills training to a lot of rural women through a project dubbed “Women Leadership for Economic Empowerment for Food Security in Ghana” (EMPOWER), but only about half of the beneficiaries were actually putting the skills they had acquired into practice and were really benefiting.

“Many women from this part of the country are not too confident and bold, they still need that push to be able to step out boldly and take advantage of opportunities”, she stressed and added that the project next level of training would focus on how to build the self believe in women.

Madam Mumuni downplayed the role of illiteracy in the situation, saying illiteracy was not a barrier to one’s ability to put into practice skills she acquired in her own local language.

On the project, Madam Mumuni explained that the training need was identified through an action research by the University for Development Studies (UDS) as an alternative measure to addressing the difficulties women faced during the dry season due to the lack of any income generating activities.

The four-day alternative livelihoods training for women groups in Lawra, Nandom, Goripie, Tissaa, Dupari, Charingu, Gbelizieri and Tuosaa communities is focused on training the women on how to make Shea butter pomade, powder and parazone.

The Project is being led by CIKOD and UDS with local partnership from ProNet North, Rural Women Farmers Association of Ghana (RUWFAG) in the Upper West Region, Sirigu Women Pottery and Arts Association (SOWPA), and Widows and Orphans Movement (WOM) as well as Centre for Cosmovision and Indigenous Knowledge (CESIK) for the Upper East Region.

The EMPOWER Project is being implemented in Ghana, Zambia and Ethiopia with funding from Global Affairs Canada through the Coady International Institute – Canada.