Countries of West and Central Africa

Countries of West and Central Africa

Pays de l'Afrique de l'Ouest et du Centre

Pays de l'Afrique de l'Ouest et du Centre

 

UNICEF Ghana

The infant mortality rate (IMR) and under-five mortality rate (U5MR) have steadily declined in Ghana. However, regional disparities between the north and south of the country, partly due to poverty and to lack of, and poor access to, services, are a cause for concern. In northern Ghana, IMR is twice as high and U5MR three times as high as in the capital region. Malaria, acute respiratory infections, diarrhoea, malnutrition and measles remain the five leading killer diseases of children.

UNICEF priorities

UNICEF’s overall goal of the country programme is to contribute to the achievement of the national goals of survival, development, participation and protection of children and women in Ghana. The three country programme objectives are:

• To contribute to maternal well-being and early childhood care for survival, growth and development (ECC-SGD), increasing the number of children reaching the age of six, physically and mentally healthy, socially alert and able to learn;
• To contribute to sector-wide efforts in providing equitable access of all children to quality basic education; and
• To support children in need of special protection, especially vulnerable adolescents, to cope with their difficult life environment and improve their well-being and development.

Significant progress has been made in the Polio Eradication Initiative in Ghana. National Immunization Days (NIDs) were synchronized with other countries in the West African epidemiological block. No wild polio virus has so far been detected this year. Subject to confirmation by the Polio Expert Group, there may not be a need for nationwide NIDs next year. Efforts are already underway to turn attention to Measles control. A multi-year Plan of Action for Measles Control was developed by health partners and approved by the Expanded Programme on Immunization Inter-Agency Coordinating Committee (ICC). Malaria Prevention and Insecticide Treated Net (ITN) Promotion received an intensified policy and advocacy attention.

Basic obstetric care training was supported to increase access to essential obstetric care. Supplementary equipments, drugs and basic delivery sets were also provided to district hospitals and health centres and training on infection control was conducted for key personnel.

UNICEF’s nutrition programme consists of three projects namely, child and maternal nutrition, micronutrient deficiency control and household food security. 

UNICEF is assisting the government in reviewing education policies from the perspective of human rights and gender. This will address the issues of gender equity, corporal punishment and other components of education from the legal as well as rights point of view. The project also supports the development of manuals for the promotion of girls' education and school health education, which give direction and ownership to the Ghana Education Service and serve as guidelines for individuals and organisations working in these areas. A major activity is the creation of the awareness of the integrated early childhood programme in the communities. Support was also provided to train 320 pre-school educators on appropriate care and psycho-social development of the child.

In the area of child protection, urban protection programmes are facilitated through continued collaboration with non-governmental organization partners within the Greater Accra Region. Through their collective efforts, adolescent girls have been placed in vocational training, street girls and poor urban women received antenatal care and shelter services, while others  received street-based social counselling and access to family planning services.

In earlier times, Northern Ghana was the key source of child migrants. It is now clear that children are emerging from other regions such as the Volta, Eastern and Central in greater proportions who are engaged in child labour. Activities vary from in market centres to fishing, stone quarrying and food vending. UNICEF is currently working closely with IPEC to deal with the worst forms of child labour. IPEC estimates that there are 800,000 working children in Ghana, out of which an estimated 20,000 children live and work on the streets of Greater Accra.

Within the cultural context, children continue to be subjected to harmful traditional practices. Many of these include ritual servitude (trokosi), female genital mutilation (FGM), widowhood rites, early marriage and polygamy. UNICEF Ghana was successful in drawing attention of the general public to the direct linkages between HIV/AIDS and polygamy as well as FGM through a nation wide television programme. This will be translated into different Ghanaian languages for on-site community advocacy programmes.

 

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