Women Academics From Ghana

"We should live in a world in which the productive years, right from childhood, hold boundless opportunities for all. This includes the option to be reproductive at an age when the choice can be autonomous, with an expectation to prevent unwanted pregnancies, survive and thrive through a desired pregnancy, childbirth, parenthood, and beyond, with access to high quality, patient-centered promotive, preventive, and curative care."

"The Harvard economist Claudia Goldin, who recently won the Nobel Prize, noted that the single most transformative intervention both for economies and gender equality is the control women have over their fertility. Even though that doesn't always necessarily translate into better access to contraception, it is the empowerment of women to decide not to be purely reproductive, but also productive beings beyond motherhood, that has enabled economies to grow. The whole idea of ensuring sexual health, which means that women can choose the nature of their relationships, when to have children, and space those children, is absolutely fundamental. It's so fundamental I find it difficult to even think about why this argument still needs to be made."

"Despite a challenging legal and policy environment that exists around SRH in many countries, I have the privilege, as director of SRH/HRP at WHO to work with an amazing team that continues to generate new knowledge, provide evidence- backed guidance and work with dedicated professionals in partner countries and organizations to contribute to supporting SRHR."

"It is clear to me that the scientific research and evidence-backed norms and standards provided by HRP are as important as ever. But I think what can do better by being more futures-oriented in the way we work. In the global public health space, we're still reacting to things we know from the past, rather than trying to plan and implement with a sense of what will be relevant for the future. How do we project a little bit of what's happening with changes in the population, or political, physical and social environment and so on? Whatever the futures-related interventions are – whether it's training or capacity building or technologies – we need to make that more embedded in our planning."

"Gender inequalities prevent women and girls from practicing safer sex, limits their use of contraceptives, increases their risk of acquiring STIs including HIV, and underpins violence and harmful practices. Gender inequalities intersect with other socioeconomic inequalities and discrimination on the basis of class, race/ethnicity, sexual orientation, gender identity, among others to shape inequities in SRH outcomes."

"It's shocking that around 800 women still die from preventable pregnancy-related causes every day and that these numbers have not moved significantly for a decade. Abortion care remains a neglected issue. Almost half of the 73 million induced abortions carried out each year are unsafe, putting women at risk of infection and death and less than half of all countries provide people with safe abortion care services. Programs to deliver comprehensive contraceptive services face bureaucratic and staffing bottlenecks that need to be overcome."

"An ongoing lack of access means that many women in low- and middle-income countries cannot be confident of receiving safe, respectful care when pregnant and giving birth. One million sexually transmitted infections are acquired every day. Most adolescents and young people do not receive comprehensive sexuality education, a known way to set them up for a healthy relationship. We still dismiss menstrual disorders and severe dysmenorrhoea as ‘normal’ for women, resulting in significant loss of quality of life and in productivity."

"It also tells me that, if you want something, you must carve the path for what you want. You don’t get there before trying to put things in order."

". I have also used mentors from all over the globe that I followed over the years to build myself. Learning from these people has helped me to navigate my space."

"Leadership positions have been reserved for men. After becoming the fourth woman vice-chancellor in the country, I saw it as a good sign that the world is ready to accept the leadership of women and also, being young, in terms of age, it also tells me that young people can also see a future – that they don’t need to wait until they are old before being given the opportunity."

"ARISE’s investment did not stop at infrastructure. It provided the resources and mentorship needed to scale my research and collaborate with peers across Africa. Today, my lab serves as a hub for researchers from Ghana and neighbouring countries like Nigeria, fostering regional collaboration and advancing marine science on the continent."

"In 2020, my career took a transformative turn when I became one of the principal investigators supported by ARISE. The programme provided funding that allowed me to establish Ghana’s first isotope ratio mass spectrometer laboratory—a groundbreaking achievement for marine science in the region. This state-of-the-art facility has enabled me to conduct advanced research, such as reconstructing climate history and assessing human impacts on marine ecosystems."

"With ARISE support, I have advanced research into the ecological and human health risks of heavy metal pollution in Ghana’s coastal waters. My work has informed policy discussions on environmental protection and sustainable development."

"I promised myself to excel in my field and demonstrate to the several young students I teach and mentor that aside medicine, there are several STEM fields such as oceanography that are promising in Africa if one looks beyond boundaries"

"My long-term goal is to build resilience in oyster fisheries in the sub-region to enhance the livelihoods of artisanal communities while enhancing other ecological benefits such as water quality and biodiversity."

"As an early-career scientist, I faced significant challenges, particularly the lack of infrastructure for advanced research. Before ARISE, I often had to ship samples abroad for analysis, a process fraught with delays and high costs. This hampered my ability to conduct timely and impactful research."

"My lab has become a regional resource, hosting researchers and fostering partnerships with institutions across Africa. This collaborative approach is key to addressing shared challenges such as marine pollution, food security, and climate adaptation."

"To become a successful marine scientist in Africa, you must be prepared to work harder than you would in other fields. Make no room for naysayers! Look beyond boundaries, oceanography is a global science! You may not be recognized or even relevant to people at the onset of your career in your country, but your work may attract international attention."

"You must start demonstrating competence, quality, consistency over the years. I feel that, with this appointment, it shows that no matter your background, you can achieve your dream. I come from a poor background"

"International recognition will lead to national recognition. Giving up due to a lack of capacity and infrastructure should not be in your books. Study your system to understand the barriers to progress and work hard to develop skills that can help you break those barriers and achieve success."

"The training of a nurse or midwife is more skills-based, and so they are trained to care, not to write papers or research. But I decided that, once I found myself in academia, I needed to do what it would take to be a rounded academic – not only a clinical nurse, but to be able to have that tag of an academic."

"We are trying to recruit moms and daughters now because we have to get their baseline measures"

"I am also trying to partner up with local organizations to get food donations so that we can provide dinner for mom and daughter, so that mom does not have to go home after the program to make dinner."

"Once you know you are competent, you know you are qualified, and you get appointed, it goes to substantiate the fact that what you have worked for has come to light."

"I have always loved nature, especially the marine world! However, I come from a region where marine science was not recognized as a career promising field. Therefore, to me, that passion for water could become a lifelong hobby while I pursue an academic programme that guarantees a job."

"Increasing physical activity has been shown to improve children's academic performance, how they feel, their classroom behavior, and their risk of obesity and diabetes."

"The reason we are dividing it into two years is that we do not have the resources to complete the entire sample in one year."

"Being an African-American woman, I am very passionate about improving the levels of our African-American children. For this program we are defining 'mother' as the primary female role model living with the girl"

"Currently, there is no scientific information on mother-daughter physical activity programs in African-Americans"

"God has been good. I didn’t even know about this feat. And now everybody is celebrating me. And I’m very grateful to all my loved ones. It was hard to combine a lot of this with my academic work and my colleagues were supportive and understood me"

"She’s been very useful to the chapter and we are happy to celebrate her. She has a brilliant way of critiquing. She is down-to-earth, humble, ready-to-learn and affable. For us she is an icon, so we cherish her so much."

"She's one of the great Professors AERC gave me. Congratulations, Prof. Indeed, I am proud to be one of your Monetary Economics students"

"The world will make room for us."

"I urge policy makers to recognise women’s high participation in non-agricultural self-employment activities as an opportunity to increase rural employment and access to economic resources in strengthening a collective action especially within women groups."

"I am sharing the good word of IP, because by sharing the knowledge, I prevent myself from forgetting it."

"Sometimes it’s important to hold your mentee’s hand and guide them towards opportunities they never knew existed."

"She said inadequate data on gender sensitive indicators had been a serious impediment to understanding the phenomenon, making informed policy decisions which would necessitate the drive to improve statistical systems and ensure the full mainstreaming of gender into data production, analysis and dissemination."

"Rural men and women lack decent work opportunities. Women in particular face greater difficulties in transforming their labour into more productive employment activities and their paid work into higher and more secured incomes."

"Efforts to promote gender equity in labour markets and income generating activities as well as the support for decent employment initiatives in rural areas were hampered by the lack of comprehensive information on the multiple dimensions of social and gender inequalities."

"In the end, life takes you where you want to be. Just don’t make fear-based decisions. Have the confidence in yourself to overcome a more challenging path."

"It is an access issue that limits the availability of such key tools for research in Ghana, and the COVID-19 pandemic made the process of getting consumables and equipment much worse. We had zero access and our research came to a standstill."

"To that little girl who is me, I say value your uniqueness and be kind to yourself. Be confident in who you are, never doubt and never stop dreaming. That which is meant for you will find you!"

"The country’s unadjusted GDP growth decelerated to 5.3 percent year-on-year in the second quarter, sharply down from a revised 10.8 percent in the same period last year."

"Non-food inflation rate of 24.1 percent is about four times as high as the food inflation rate of 5.8 percent."

"But despite contraction in several sectors, some as a result of the Ebola crisis in Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea, the 2014 growth forecast, while down on 2013, still puts Ghana well above the IMF forecast for sub-Saharan African growth of 5.1 percent. Ghana, which exports gold, oil and cocoa, has been hard hit in the hospitality sector."

"There was the need to introduce innovative programmes that would focus on rural areas and farming communities for the rural folks to get access to credit and savings, affordable public and private mechanisms which could provide access to land, markets, seeds, fertilisers and machinery."

"Religious chauvinism presupposes a monopoly of truth and of God and so undercuts the roots of our common humanity in a way that prevents our acting humanely toward the other."

"Sharing spirituality across religious boundaries will make us neighbours who honour each other's specificities while at the same time seeking mutual caring and sharing and learning together."

"She would love it. Just as he loved her. He paused for a second, his fingers touching the door handle. He was in love. The realisation came to him quite suddenly."

"How could you teach someone to survive? You pointed them in the right direction and hoped they'd swim, not sink. Waving, not drowning. There are more important things in life than individual happiness. It was an easy trap to fall into, mistaking a lack of self-direction for an expression of love."