WEE-North Network is a registered non-profit organization (NPO) for young women (aged 18-35) in northern Ghana who are working in industrial trades. The Network provides platforms for women’s economic empowerment, leadership, advocacy, and peer support in 55 districts to promote gender equality and end gender stereotyping for women in engaged in the industrial trades
The young tradeswomen who are members of the WEE-North Network have benefited from the WEE-North Project through the Government of Canada’s contribution agreement with Alinea International. WEE-North’s training-to-employment program provided support for trades training and workplace experience learning, leading to contracts, jobs, and entrepreneurial opportunities.
The network’s over 2,000 members share common goals: to promote women’s economic empowerment through actively working in industrial trades; and to advocate for greater participation of women in industrial trades.
Young women benefit from high-value industrial trades training to employment programs
Promoting gender equity and transformation in industrial trades
Gender-responsive workplaces in small- and medium-sized industries
Female-led value-added business in industrial trades
WEE-North Network - independent, self-sustaining and resilient
WEE-Groups have five mandates or functions, of which the most important is WEE-Make because of its emphasis on economic empowerment – jobs and self-employment. Every group organizes its work plans and programs under the following five functions.
Network Trades Coaches, Trainers, Media Teams, Digitization Champions, and Monitors, who are all members of the Network, assist the groups to achieve their best in each function. At the end of the year, the Network assesses the performance of each group and awards them according to their level: Platinum, Gold, Silver, Bronze, and Red Clay.
WEE-Groups engage in business in the trades. Making money for economic empowerment is our most important function
WEE-Groups save together, collecting contributions at least once a month – saving for themselves, the group, the network and their community
WEE-Groups get more training in the trades, digital marketing, and entrepreneurship to upgrade and improve their capacities
WEE-Groups promote gender equality and women in the trades in their communities, especially in primary and middle schools
WEE-Groups use their trades skills to “pay it forward” in their communities by volunteering to do repairs or small building projects
It is a joy for me to take on this role as we move from the WEE-North Project into a lasting Network of women in the trades. As WEE-North Project’s Training and Industrial Employment Coordinator, I have seen with my own eyes the skill, determination, and hope that each tradeswoman carries as she sets the pace for all women who desire to take on male-dominated and non-traditional jobs.
I believe that the WEE-North Network will make it possible for many more young women to succeed in the trades. But our work is not only about tools and trades, but about showing what women can do for industry, for TVETs, for families and communities, and for the future of Northern Ghana. I look forward to building this next chapter together with you.
The Network’s Board of Directors is a team of passionate champions who believe in women’s empowerment. They are dedicated to building a future where women in the trades lead and thrive
