Ghana continues to promote female leadership in diplomacy and foreign Policy

Research analysts at the Institute of International Affairs, Ghana (GhIIA.org) have commended Ghana for promoting female leadership in diplomacy and foreign policy in the ECOWAS sub-region.

They said research showed that Ghana continued to be a leader in the sub-region in assuring women of opportunities in leadership.

Ms Elizabeth Dela Tsidi and Mr. Charles Ansre, both Research Attaches at the Institute delivered the briefing session to mark the International Women’s Day 2023.

Ms Tsidi said many female Ghanaian diplomats were spearheading various roles of diplomacy and development that was positioning Ghana in the world of diplomacy and foreign policy.

She said, “the most obvious example of course is the fact that over the last 10 years, women have led the diplomatic and foreign affairs efforts of the government of Ghana.”

Ms Tsidi said this began with Ms Hannah Serwaa Tetteh and continued with Mrs Shirley Ayorkor Botchwey, and both women had excelled in their roles as Foreign Affairs Ministers.

“For instance, under the tenure of Mrs Botchwey as Foreign Affairs Minister Ghana successfully negotiated the citing of the AfCFTA Secretariat Headquarters in Accra,” she said.

She said it was also during her tenure that Ghana was serving on the UN Security Council as a non-permanent representative.

“Our record compares favourable in other developed countries including Australia, which has also had women at the helm of the foreign ministers since 2015,” she added.

Other women, who exercised excellence in leadership include Martha Pobee, Anita Kiki Gbeho, Dr. Victoria Kwakwa, and Gertrude Oforiwaa Fefoame delivering impact at Senior Levels with the International MonetaryFund, World Bank, and the United Nations.

She, however, bemoaned that women continued to be underrepresented in ambassadorial positions around the world.

Mr Charles Ansre, a Senior Research Fellow at the Institute indicated that according to sources including the Diplomatic Academy, the percentage of women ambassadors from the 40 largest economies in the world and the European Union for the year 2022 was 21.6 per cent.

In 2023, the proportion of women Ambassadors and permanent representatives of the 193 United Nations member states as of February 31, was 20.54 per cent and the average proportion of women Ambassadors and permanent representatives was reported as 18 per cent for the African Continent.

Ghana leads the African continent with 49.5 per cent of Her Ambassadors being women, followed by South Africa with 39 per cent.

Globally, Ghana is ranked 4th in the percentage of women Ambassadors in 2023.

Mr. Ansre said the recognition and celebration of female achievement in diplomacy and foreign policy provided a role-modelling effect for young ladies in Ghana and Africa.

He said, “this is very important, and the Institute is committed to highlighting success stories here, in line with its agenda of using role-modelling as an advocacy tool to get more and more ladies interested and applying to global careers.”

GhIIA.org aspires to be a leading independent non-partisan think tank, with a core focus on the analysis and study of International Relations topics as they apply to Ghana and West Africa.

The Institute aspires to achieve impact in the areas of policy formulation, objective analysis and recommendations, capacity building and advocacy.