The Ghana CSOs Platform on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) has appealed to the government to help make sanitary products affordable to all women and girls.

Sanitary products currently at­tract 32.5 per cent tax on imported sanitary pads, which is made up of 20 per cent import duty and 12.5 per cent Value Added Tax.

A statement signed by Ms. Levlyn Konadu Levlyn, National Coordina­tor of the Platform urged the Minis­try of Finance and the government to “as a matter of urgency scrap the import tax on sanitary pads and reclassify the product as ‘essential social goods’ which is Zero rated.”

The Platform again urged African countries such as Kenya, Rwanda, and South Africa to remove taxes on the same products.

The statement was issued in commemoration of this year’s Menstrual Hygiene Day themed: “Making menstruation a normal fact of life by 2030.”

“Women’s and adolescent girls’ ability to care for their bodies while menstruating is, an essential part of this fundamental human right. Poor menstrual health and hygiene therefore, represent an affront to this right, including the right to work and go to school,” the Plat­form noted.

It maintained that insufficient resources to manage menstrua­tion, such as sanitary pads and clean water, worsened the already existing social and economic inequalities and undermines the dignity and confidence of girls and women”.

The Platform, therefore, called for comprehensive effort aimed at making sanitary products afforda­ble and intensifying public educa­tion on menstruation.

While calling for policies that eliminate “period poverty,” the organisation again urged the media to continue encouraging open dialogue on menstruation and help break the stigma.

The Ghana CSOs Platform on the SDGs aims is to contribute to “building a fairer, healthier, gender-responsive Ghana that acknowledges and works towards achieving the vision for sanitation and hygiene under Goal 6 of the Sustainable Development Goals.”

 By Spectator Reporter