National Action Plan for Orphans and Vulnerable Children

Accra, Oct. 27, GNA - Mr Antwi-Boasiako Sekyere, Deputy Minister of Employment and Social Welfare, on Wednesday said although Ghana is always in the lead in the ratification of international treaties, the country is always found wanting in implementing them.

The nation also has the culture of formulating brilliant policy documents, which are left to gather dust on the shelves, he stressed. Launching the National Action Plan (NPA) for Orphans and Vulnerable Children (OVC) in Accra, he said government is committed to reverse the status quo by ensuring that the policy would be implemented to promote the welfare, care and protection of children as provided in the Constitution and the provisions of the Children's Act. The programme was on the theme: "Promoting Better Care and Protection for OVC in Ghana".

The three-year NPA would take care of social measures such as cash transfers, improved access to education and health and empower parents to support their families.

The NPA will also address gaps that exist in the implementation of existing laws and their enforcement, weak institutional capacities, resource constraints, both human and material, and lack of co-ordination among agencies providing child welfare services. He said the desperation of orphans made them more vulnerable to abuse and exploitation and susceptible to contracting HIV/ AIDS which had increased the number of OVCs.

The Deputy Minister called for the strengthening of families and communities to continue to provide care, protection and assistance to meet their basic needs.

He commended UNICEF for providing the needed technical and financial support to develop the national plan of action as well as members of the planning committee for their rich contributions. Ms Sheema Gen Gupta, Chief of Child Protection, UNICEF, called for the strengthening of institutions to improve the lives of orphans and protect them from abuse.

She said the NPA would cost $46 million to implement and noted that $38 million had been sourced, leaving a deficit of $eight million. Ms Gupta, therefore, called on government and other stakeholders to support the plan.

In a speech read on her behalf, Ms Juliana Azumah-Mensah, Minister of Women and Children's Affairs urged the Ministry of Employment and Social Welfare to involve all stakeholders for the smooth implementation of the NPA.

Dr Angela EL-Adas, Director-General of the Ghana AIDS Commission (GAC), noted Ghana had an estimated 1.2 million OVCs out of which 150,000 are HIV orphans with only three per cent receiving support services.

The launch of the NPA, she said, was timely for GAC as it coincided with the new National Strategic Plan for HIV and AIDS (2011-2015). She said it would set the platform for mainstreaming activities of public and private institutions.

Dr El-Adas said the strategic plan would help guide and prevent risks and vulnerability of children and protect the rights and interest of OVCs as well as transform their living situations by ensuring that they benefit from all opportunities.

"We all need to rally behind government under the leadership of the Department of Social Welfare and maintain full accountability to ensure that the document we have toiled to develop would yield the desired results."

Ms Comfort Sena Abbey of the Osu Children Home said children should have a say in decisions involving them. She said there is the need to integrate children in orphanages into the society through adoption and tracing of family members, adding that it is unfortunate that those who are to protect them sometimes became their abusers. 27 Oct. 10