She said all stakeholders must get involved to root the phenomenon out of the country.

Speaking to Citi News at a steering committee meeting on ending child marriage with UNICEF and UNFPA, Otiko Djaba said her ministry will form clubs in various schools to help the pupils and parents understand their rights.

She said the ministry was coordinating with the relevant stakeholders to review and implement existing policy framework to end child marriage by 2030.

“We’ve come a long way as a nation. The traditional and negative cultural practices are areas where we are challenged, and we will come up with a programme, and already there is a policy. There is a platform developed by my predecessor [Nana Oye Lithur] for the framework which has already been done so we have to look at the implementation plan and there is a draft of it and we are going to work on it to ensure that we end child marriage by 2030. In that regard, were are going to be forming children’s right clubs in all schools and all communities so that parents and children will understand their rights and responsibilities.”

The meeting on March 7, was ahead of the celebration of International Women’s Day on Wednesday, March 8, 2017.

MICS in 2011 reported that, 27% of women in Ghana married before the age of 18. The Upper East region had the highest child marriage rate of 39.2%, followed by Western region with 36.7% and Upper West region, 36.3%.

The report also noted that, the phenomenon, which has in most cases led to many the girls dropping out of school, was more prevalent in rural areas than in urban areas.

Meanwhile the program director and UNICEF representative for the program, Ted Chaiban, commended Ghana for making significant progress in ending child marriage over the years, but said more needs to be done.

“Ghana has made enormous progress towards ending child marriage. 20 years ago, 1 in every 3 Ghanaian girl was married before the age of 18. But this has reduced to 1 in every 5 girls, and with the government support and civil society, we believe Ghana is on the path to ending child marriage by engaging with the girls through education, and with the commitment of government, the minister and its partners, we believe Ghana can continue to lead the way to end child marriage.”

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By: Jonas Nyabor/citifmonline.com/Ghana
Follow @jnyabor

The post Stakeholder collaboration needed to end child marriages – Otiko Djaba appeared first on Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always.

They resolved to work hard to end the practice which is depriving the girl child of education and plunging her into immeasurable abuse and suffering.

The stakeholders made these resolutions at a meeting organized by Action Aid Ghana in Adenta, as part of efforts to end child marriage in their respective communities.

The stakeholders, including religious leaders, teachers, social workers, assembly members were drawn from Adenta, Madina, Ashaiman and Shai Osudoku districts, all in the Greater Accra Region.

Action Aid Ghana in 2015 launched the “End Child Marriage Project” funded by UNICEF.

The stakeholders declared that the fight against child marriage is a shared responsibility involving all stakeholders and there is the need for committees to be instituted in the various communities to check and report cases to appropriate authorities.

“Effective and efficient collaboration with stakeholders including religious authorities, opinion leaders, teachers, the social workers and the Police is a sure way to expeditiously deal with the phenomenon while protecting victims as prescribed by law,” they noted.

Madam She-Vera Anzagira, the Project Coordinator of the End Child Marriage, said with the pervasiveness of the phenomenon, there was urgent need for religious and opinion leaders to be equipped as a major step in dealing with the practice.

Citizens’ engagement through the sensitization of opinion leaders, she noted, was necessary for further education at the community level where acts of child marriages are perpetrated.

Mr Alexis Dery, the Executive Director of the Centre for Development Initiative, said the legal framework in child protection provides a structure that ensures that persons who perpetrate acts against children were dealt with according to the full extent of the law.

He said community and opinion leaders were duty bound to report incidence of child marriage, as that would help in the eradication of the practice which has been outlawed under the Children’s Act (Act 560).

He said there were seemingly boundless laws that protect children from abuse, neglect and violence in the country, adding that implementation of such laws were rather awful.

Empowering religious and opinion leaders, he explained, was appropriate since they live in the communities with influences that can ensure change.

“Collaboration among these stakeholders gives them the primary mandate to be part of the problem and ultimately the solutions” he added.

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Source: GNA

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