The two policies dubbed “Child and Family and Justice for Children Policies” programme, seeks to provide a holistic approach to the protection of the most vulnerable in the Ghanaian society, and was launched by the Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection in 2005 with support from UNICEF.

The Head of Local Government in charge of Administration, Dr. Margaret Sackey, disclosed these in a Citi News interview on the sidelines of a stakeholder engagement with Assembly Members, Queen Mothers, educational authorities, women groups, health practitioners, security personnel and head of departments (HODs) in the Asutifi North District of the Brong Ahafo Region.

According to her, beneficiary MMDAs are expected to fashion out strategies and programmes on how to implement the policies by establishing a framework to give guidance on how child and family welfare should be perceived and addressed.

“It is a programme or framework that enables MMDAs to contextualize or localize the policies taking into consideration their own challenges and situations of children in their environment”, she explained.

She mentioned that the traditional belief that children need to be seen and not heard, and the incoherent disconnect in the implementation of child policies between the formal and informal sectors was a major challenge to the success of the policies, but was hopeful the implementation of the two policies will address this challenge.

She, therefore, appealed to participants to come up with their framework taking into consideration the area’s own peculiarities of children, and develop some guidelines and activities that help in attaining goals of the policies.

The District Director of the Department of Social Development, Peter Duayah, said the implementation of government’s social intervention programmes such as Livelihood Empowerment Against Poverty (LEAP), has socially and economically empowered the vulnerable in the society from extreme poverty and exclusion.

He however appealed for the timely release of funds to serve its intended purpose, and assured of his outfit’s commitment to implement the various social interventions as a tool for poverty eradication to bridge the inequality gap in society.

Mr. Duayah noted the successful implementation of the policies would not only create stronger social protection framework, but unite families to tap into potentials of their children and commended the assembly for their support.

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By: Mashoud Kombat/citifmonline.com/Ghana

The post 20 MMDAs to pilot justice for family and children policies appeared first on Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always.

This revelation was made by the President, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, during his tour in the Ashanti Region over the weekend.

Responding to questions from the media during his tour, the President explained that, the policy document “is going to be with the objective of dealing with this phenomenon, once and for all.”

[contextly_sidebar id=”LL6vWC1bcbodY7K7vIkDZDOnUyDO45tZ”]My simple answer is that, all of us agree that it’s a major menace to the future of our country; but there is some complexity. You see how widespread it is, the forces and interests involved in the whole galamsey tsunami.”

“I don’t think we are going to be able to deal with the effects of it by piecemeal methods; we need a comprehensive policy which may even involve legislation to deal with it. And that is what my government is working on right now. Sooner rather than later, that policy will be outdoored and you will have an opportunity to examine its effectiveness,” Akufo-Addo added.

Galamsey menace

The President’s assurance comes on the back of intense pressure on government to deal with the galamsey menace.

Currently, some water treatment plants have been shut down over activities of illegal miners, which have rendered water bodies from which the plants harvest water for processing useless.

Watchers of the sector have further lamented that if such activities are not stopped, Ghana may soon be importing water from neighboring countries.

The galamsey menace has also led to the destruction of many farmlands, which serve as livelihood for a number of families.

Citi FM launches #StopGalamseyNow campaign

Citi FM on Monday launched a campaign against galamsey in the country.

Dubbed #StopGalamseyNow, the campaign makes five clear demands of government to clamp down on the menace which is destroying the county’s land and water resources, and may see Ghana resorting to the importation of clean water in the next two decades.

The demands include:

• The total cessation of all small and medium scale mining for a period of six months
• The cessation of the issuance of new mining licences for a year
• The reclassification of mining categories to reflect the use of new/larger equipment
• The allowance of water bodies to regenerate their natural ecology
• Tree planting and a land reclamation project

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By: Godwin A. Allotey/citifmonline.com/Ghana
Follow @AlloteyGodwin

The post Gov’t formulating policy against galamsey – Nana Addo appeared first on Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always.