Early Childhood Development
UNICEF works with partners in Ghana to give every child the right start in life
Challenge
It has been estimated that globally, 43 per cent of children less than five years old are not achieving their full potential. This could be because they do not receive the five elements of ‘nurturing care’ for children.
Health, nutrition, early stimulation, learning opportunities and protection. These are the five elements of ‘nurturing care’
Due to this, their cognitive, language and psycho-social skills remain underdeveloped, which keeps them from performing well in primary school and eventually dropping out.
An effective solution for this is Early Childhood Development (ECD), the objective of which is to ensure that all children between 0 to 8 years, especially the most vulnerable survive, thrive and develop to their maximum. By providing all young children (from birth to entry into school) equal access to quality health, nutrition, protection, early learning services, support to parents and caregivers so that they can nurture their children through positive parenting, we build a strong foundation for a child's life.
The Early Childhood Development (ECD) framework covers four important areas - the first 1000 days of a child's life, early learning and protection, caring for the caregiver and family support.
Children and Caregivers
In Ghana, the majority of children in the age group of 0-3 years are taken care of by parents and family members. Therefore, it is important for these caregivers to have easy access to basic health and nutrition services and be in a position to utilize them.
Health and Nutrition
One child in every five in Ghana experiences stunted growth during the first thousand days of life caused by inadequate nourishment, frequent illness and an unhealthy environment. These affect the physical, social and cognitive development in children. Their brain development is negatively impacted which further affects learning at an early age, school performance and ultimately their socio-economic development.
Social Protection for Women and Children
Children bear the heaviest cost when it comes to poverty and inequality. UNICEF research shows that 3.65 million children in Ghana live in poverty and 1.2 million live in extreme poverty with inadequate resources to meet their basic food needs. Additionally, a child is 40 per cent more likely to live in poverty than an adult. The Under-five Mortality Rate remains high at 60 deaths per 1000 live births. This translates to one child in every 17 born in Ghana not making it to their fifth birthday.
Early Childhood Education
In spite of the progress that Ghana has made in improving access to school, several children do not have the required literacy and numeracy skills. A large number of pupils struggle to meet the proficiency cut-off point for English and Mathematics between grades four and six.
Solution
Children and Caregivers
There has been quite some progress over the last two decades in improving child survival and development. The Government of Ghana has implemented policies to increase access to these services. Moreover, it has provided fully paid maternity leave to mothers and is running programmes such as Livelihood Empowerment Against Poverty (LEAP) cash transfer and Community-Based Health Planning and Services, which have helped more children survive.
However, children with disabilities often miss out on appropriate care and services due to lack of early detection and reliable information.
Health and Nutrition
With support from UNICEF Ghana, the Ghana Health Service Directorate has launched programmes which involves community health nurses providing support to mothers from the time they register their pregnancy until after child birth, initiating breastfeeding within the first hour, providing newborn care, vaccination and post-natal check-up, and monitoring the growth of the child.
Social Protection for Women and Children
A number of social protection policies that promote the well-being of mothers and children are being implemented across Ghana. The LEAP cash transfer programme, introduced in 2008 is now reaching 213,000 poor households and has helped ensure that more children of school-going age enroll into pre-school.
The National Health Insurance Scheme and Free Maternal and Child Health Policy have enabled better access to basic health services, especially for the most vulnerable, which cannot afford them. In addition, Ghana’s National Social Protection Policy has helped link social protection to other services including health and education so that services are delivered across sectors to improve Early Childhood Development outcomes.
Early Childhood Education
Currently, the education policy of Ghana provides children two years of free and compulsory Kindergarten in an attempt to ensure that young children are enrolled into school for early learning. This places Ghana ahead of the curve compared to other countries in sub-Saharan Africa. Efforts are also being made by the Ministry of Education and the Ghana Education Service to reach out to the most vulnerable and disadvantaged children.