Adolescents and Young People
UNICEF works with partners in Ghana to ensure that children in the second decade of life are empowered
Adolescence is a crucial period when children have more responsibilities, attempt new ways of doing things and seek independence
It is a period when values and skills which impact the rest of their lives are developed. In Ghana, young people between 10 to 24 years make for one third of the population. It has been proven that empowering adolescents, especially girls can help build a more equitable community and society.
Keeping this in mind, UNICEF is working to support their education, emotional and physical well-being, and free thought so that they can engage positively with their environments.
UNICEF's focus on adolescents and young people in Ghana is gaining momentum with increased emphasis on equipping them with educational opportunities and skill training.
Solution
In Ghana, UNICEF is working in partnership with various stakeholders and authorities to ensure that every children grow and develop to their full potential through various projects:
The "Better Life for Girls" Project
This project is funded by the Korean International Coorperation Agency (KOICA) and aims to equip adolescent girls in Ghana with knowledge, skills and an enabling environment to make informed decisions. It hopes to achieve a higher number of adolescent girls in the Northern and Volta region with access to learning and skill development opportunities and ensure the availability of powerful platforms for communities and institutions to engage on pressing issues related to adolescent girls, including child marriage.
Measures being taken include improving menstrual hygiene management and nutrition services, providing educational opportunities, offering vocational training and life-skills, improving community-level social action, expanding area of impact and generating comprehensive research data on adolescent girls.
Global Programme to Accelerate Action to End Child Marriage
This is a joint programme between UNICEF and the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) running in 12 countries in West, East and Southern Africa and South Asia, in partnership with Non-Governmental Organisations and governments. Its main aim is to eliminate child marriage to help protect millions of vulnerable girls from losing their childhood and educational opportunities. Besides this, the programme also supports adolescent girls who are at risk of child marriage or are already married as children, by providing life skills education, economic empowerment and social protection programming to safeguard their rights.
Empowering Adolescent Girls through Improved Access to Comprehensive Sexuality Education and Rights-Based Sexual and Reproductive Health Services
Funded by the Government of Canada, this is another joint programme between he United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) to ensure that the most vulnerable adolescent girls have access to comprehensive sex education, youth-friendly Sexual and Reproductive Health services, and an environment to defend and promote their Sexual and Reproductive Health Rights.
In order to achieve this, UNICEF is working to increase the capacity of education professionals and Civil Society Organizations to respond to Sexual and Reproductive Health and gender needs, raise awareness on Sexual and Reproductive Health Rights issues among adolescent girls through youth-friendly and gender-sensitive information and messaging, strengthen the system of procurement, supply, distribution and logistics management of contraceptives to the younger generation, improve access to adolescent friendly health services, raise duty bearers’ awareness on adolescent, gender and sexual and productive health and rights, generate more data and evidence to strengthen advocacy on Sexual and Reproductive Health and empower more adolescent girls to exercise their rights and agency on Sexual and Reproductive Health.
Click below to read stories of some amazing and resilient girls in Ghana who are thriving thanks to support from UNICEF and partners
Amplifying the voices and opinions of young people with innovative platforms
