Erudite Women’s Empowerment Foundation (EWEF) with funding support from the European Union (EU) through UN Women, is implementing a project dubbed ‘The WYDE WPP’ to strengthen the leadership, advocacy and participation of young women in governance and community decision-making through mentorship, stereotype norms transformation and multi stakeholder collaboration.
The project is a support provided by the UN Women WYDE to EWEF to build and strengthen young women’s leadership and impact beyond the She Leads Project, which focused mainly on Girls and Young Women GYW) to develop leadership skills in young women to take up political feminist leadership roles.
Mrs. Ohenewaa Constance Ankoma, EWEF Executive Director at a coordination meeting and joint field monitoring programme at Agogo in the Asante Akim North Municipality explained that the ‘She Leads’ project created a lot of impact because some of the young women from the She Leads cohort contested in the District Assembly elections and, therefore, the need to sustain the momentum.
She said the ‘Advancing Young Women’s Political Participation and Social Norms Change in Ghana’ project is an extension of the ‘She Leads’ project which primarily was to build the capacity of girls and young women.
Mrs. Ankoma said the project is focusing “on connecting them to political leadership opportunities” and to challenge “social norms at the community levels and also building the capacities of young women” to be ready for opportunities and grab the opportunity to lead.
The project, according to the Executive Director, is targeting about 150 young girls and women within the three Asante Akim districts namely Central, North and South and would span 18 months from April 2026 to August 2027 with funding from the United Nations Women and a grant from the EU.
She explained that the project is focusing on three key pillars namely cultural and social norms change, the capacity strengthening and the young women political leadership participation through mentorship by connecting them to female political leaders.
The EWEF team and leaders of the Girls and Young Women group earlier paid a courtesy visit to the Municipal Chief Executive (MCE) of Asante Akim North, Madam Sarah Amoakoaa.
From Thomas Agbenyegah Adzey, Agogo
