MMDAs to integrate child and family welfare policies

As part of efforts to reduce the policy gaps in child and family welfare, child protection interventions would be fully mainstreamed into the development plans of the various Ministries, Department and Agencies (MDAs) as well as Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDAs).

In addition, an inter-sectoral framework will be established for the implementation, collaboration, reporting and accounting on child protection and family welfare issues to ensure effective and coherent implementation of child protection and family welfare programmes.

Mrs Henrietta Abbani, Policy Advisor with the Ministry for Planning (MFP), gave the assurance at a day's workshop in Cape Coast on the Central Regional Dissemination Programme on the Coordinated Programme of Economic and Social Development Policies (CPESDP) 2017-2024.

This is targeted at ensuring equal opportunities are given to each child irrespective of sex, age, race, and geographical location, education, culture and religious background.

To achieve that, Government would pursue other child protection management information systems to improve reporting on child protection issues.

It will also implement the national social protection for children and expand interventions to reach out to all categories of vulnerable children.

It will also significantly boost and maintain policies that increase enrolment and retention in schools, such as School Feeding and Capital Grant programmes among others.

Other interventions will include the setting up of juvenile panels, promoting family values, improving birth registration systems, compiling a database on street children and beggars.

This would enable Government to know their predicaments and rigorously channel skills training for vulnerable street children below 18 years.

However, in the medium term, the Ministry indicated that the Government was working assiduously to pass the National Ageing Bill (NAB) while ensuring that the Ageing Council was established to coordinate the implementation of ageing policy.

Specific measures will be implemented to ensure the economic well-being of the aged, especially income security and house ownership, with supportive community care systems based on positive traditional and modern values devoid of stereotyping, discrimination and disrespect.

In her address, Dr Abbani indicated that the Ghana Living Standards Survey (GLSS 6) data showed that poverty levels have dropped significantly, putting poverty rates from 28.5 per cent in 2002/2003 to 24.5 per cent and extreme poverty rate from 18.2 to 8.4 per cent.

But despite these positive trends, the rate of inequality has grown with a significant difference between regions and between rural and urban areas.

The extreme poor were particularly vulnerable to shocks and risks such as sickness, unemployment, disability, loss of assets and old age, pushing them even further in poverty and deprivation.

The Government believed that poverty and disability were not excuses for one to beg on the streets, because begging was not a profession and must be discouraged.

She revealed that the Ministry would continue to embark on the ‘#Operation Get Off the Streets for a Better Life’, to help fight poverty.

She said LRAP caters for the aged who are 65years and above, caregivers of orphans and vulnerable children, persons with severe disabilities without productive capacity, pregnant women and children under two-years-old.

On health, the Gender Ministry collaborated with NHIA to enrol over 13,816 prisoners in Ghana unto the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) last year with a "Help Line of Hope Call Centre" - the toll-free number of 0800 800 800 and 0800 900 900.

Over 300 cases have been resolved as the policy geared towards improving case management system in health in Ghana.

Amidst these achievements, there were some challenges such as the lack of comprehensively sustainable financing for social protection implementation, inadequate capacity building, logistics, staff and lack of legal backing for social protection implementation.