A two-week workshop dubbed “Cape Coast Harmattan School 2016” has been opened at the University of Cape Coast. The workshop, which has the theme: “Re-Activating Gender Sensitive Research on Land” will seek to enhance the capacity of academics in the area of gender and also form a strong network of gender advocates in Africa and around the globe. It attracted participants from Ghana, Nigeria, Sudan, Uganda, Ethiopia, Ireland and Germany. In a speech read on his behalf by the Vice-Dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences, Prof. Akwasi Kumi Kyereme, the Provost of College of Humanities and Legal Studies, Prof. S. B. Kendie said U. C. C has been at the forefront of gender issues for a long time and would continue to provide support to any venture that would ensure knowledge acquisition regarding the subject area. “We strive for equal opportunities for both male and female, we want to champion equality, that is why we set up CEGRAD,” he stated. According to Prof. Kendie, research has shown that women work harder than men and also shoulder other responsibilities, yet access to resource such as land remained a challenge to them stressing that “Women work hard on land in Africa but do not possess it”. He therefore called for gender sensitive workshops such as the Harmattan School to dispassionately discuss issues that were inimical to the well being of women. Prof. Kofi Awusabo-Asare who chaired the function on behalf of the Vice-Chancellor, said the theme for the workshop called for a re-engineering of our thinking to have new perspective of how things were handled concerning matters of women and land tenure system. Prof. Awusabo-Asare hoped that “at the end of the workshop participants will network because it is important to share the outcomes of the programme to affect society. You have to begin a long lasting networking relationship from this place”. He told participants to leave the workshop well positioned to handle women and land issues. “All of us have to leave the world in a better way than we came to meet it” he noted.
