Tuesday, December 15, 2009

Report ranks Ghana fairly child friendly

Story: Salome Donkor
THE 2008 African Report of Child Well-being, has rated Ghana 29th in terms of the country’s efforts to improve child well-being.
Prepared by The African Child Policy Forum (ACPF), an independent, Pan- African policy and advocacy centre based in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, the report reviews and compares the performance of 52 African governments using a common set of indicators and an innovative Child-friendliness Index developed by ACPF.
The report that scores and ranks the performance of African governments in terms of their efforts to improve child well-being, is prepared every two years and the current one was launched on 20 November 2008 in Nairobi and Amsterdam. The report was made possible through the financial support of International Child Support (ICS) and Plan International.
Ghana is among countries like Uganda, Nigeria, Tanzania, Gabon, Mozambique, Togo, Zambia, Mauritania, Djibouti, Democratic Republic of Congo and Niger that were categorised as fairly Child Friendly Countries.
The most Child Friendly Countries include Mauritius, Namibia, Tunisia, Libya, Morocco, Kenya, South Africa, Algeria and Cape Verde.
According to the report, a child-friendly government is “one that is making the maximum effort to meet its obligations to respect, protect and fulfil child rights and ensure child well-being.”
Dr Assefa Bequele, Executive Director of ACPF, in a statement said African Governments had an impressive record in their formal accession to the relevant child-focused international treaties. But the extent of their commitment to children’s issues varies widely, and the gap between promises and reality remains wide in many countries.
Dr Salim Ahmed Salim, former Foreign Minister of Tanzania and a three-term former Secretary General of Organisation of African Union (OAU) now African Union, in a statement said “we are convinced that the report is a significant contribution to public policy. It is an African report on African children by an African organisation”. In another statement, Professor Jaap Doek, former Chair of the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child, adds that “This is a meticulously researched and evidence - based report, and the first of its kind on the subject in the region.”
A statement issued by Mr Bright Appiah, Executive Director of Child’s Rights International, a Ghanaian child’s rights organisation, said the extent to which government respected children and protected them from harm and abuse, and provided them with opportunities for a healthy and productive life had an impact both on the future of the children concerned and the future of the country.
It added that a healthy, well-fed and educated child population was necessary to build a foundation for productive and knowledge-based economy that could make the people participate effectively in today’s globalised world.
“Similarly, the way we raise and treat our children at home and at school is critical for what they will be as adults and citizens. A child growing up in an environment where he sees his mother being beaten by the father, where girls are discriminated against and excluded, where differing views and opinions are not tolerated, and where choices are not negotiated contribute to chaos and democratic disorder” it said.
The statement made reference to the fact that Ghana was the first country in the world to ratify the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and urged the government to lay down the appropriate legal and policy frameworks that must be reflected in the laws, policies on government’s commitment to child protection
It said the most Child Friendly countries earned that rating because they put in place appropriate legal provisions to protect children against abuse and exploitation; they also allocated a relatively higher share of their budgets to provide for the basic needs of children and their resources were effectively used and the results reflected in the children themselves.

MOWAC advised to reprioritise its activities - To provide skills training

Story: Salome Donkor
THE Parliamentary Committee on Gender and Children has advised the Ministry of Women and Children’s Affairs (MOWAC) to reprioritise its activities in order to provide skills training for women’s groups under the ministry’s budget allocation for 2010.
The committee stated that in reviewing the performance of MOWAC in 2009, it realised that no skills training and economic support was provided for women’s groups, adding, “The committee considers this situation as unfortunate, since other activities of the ministry were undertaken to the detriment of the economic empowerment of women groups.”
This was contained in the committee’s report on the 2010 annual budget estimates of the MOWAC that was presented to Parliament on Friday by the Chairman of the committee, Mr Sampson Ahi.
It said providing skills training and economic support for women’s groups was a means of empowering women financially and thereby accelerating the socio-economic development of the country.
The committee appealed to the government to adequately resource MOWAC to enable it to deliver on its mandate. It also urged the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning not to relent in its efforts at ensuring that promises made in the budget statement were fulfilled.
It indicated that in view of government’s commitment to the empowerment of women, particularly the vulnerable, the rural and urban poor, as well as facilitating the survival, protection and development of the Ghanaian child, MOWAC’s budgetary allocation, compared to the national budget, had been below 1.0 per cent over the years.
It stated that for 2010, the budgetary requirement of MOWAC was GH¢5,344,336 but that amount had been slashed to GH¢4,139,59.
It indicated that the concept of gender was cross-cutting and inextricably linked to development, adding that if Ghana was to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) by 2015, the government must demonstrate its commitment towards gender equality, the promise of empowering women, as well as the protection and development of children by allocating resources to MOWAC in future budget estimates.
The committee noted with concern the over reliance on donor funds for the programmes and activities of MOWAC and indicated, for instance, that in 2008, MOWAC was to benefit from donor funds to the tune of GH¢570,479.
It said the ministry’s projection for 2009 was GH¢6,768,571, out of which only GH¢1,752,092.94 had been released to MOWAC as of November ending.
It said in 2010, donor funds allocated to MOWAC was GH¢4,371,404, noting that although that amount had been slashed compared to the approved amount for 2009, it represented 53.62 per cent of the total budgetary allocation made to the ministry.
The committee noted that the situation was not a healthy development, since any delays or problems encountered in accessing those funds would disrupt the service and investment programmes of the ministry, thereby impacting negatively on its performance.
It also touched on the need to provide an office space for MOWAC and its departments and urged the sector minister to ensure that the construction of an office complex to accommodate the staff and the secretariats of the ministry commenced in 2010, since MOWAC had land demarcated for an office complex.
The report also touched on the outlook of the ministry for 2010 and said MOWAC would continue to collaborate with stakeholders, organisations and development partners to collectively address women’s reproductive health, infant and maternal mortality, child trafficking, child labour, streetism, irregular migration and other issues of national concern to women and children.
The ministry would also review the National Gender and Children’s Policy and ensure the Savanna Accelerated Development Authority (SADA) policy document was engendered to cater for the needs of women and children in the project areas and particularly to halt the irregular migration of young women and other youth from the northern to the southern parts of the country.

Wednesday, December 2, 2009

Stand up to violence against women

Article: Salome Donkor
ON December 17, 1999, the United Nations General Assembly, by Resolution 54/134, designated November 25 as the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women and invited governments, international organisations and NGOs to organise activities designated to raise public awareness of the problem on that day.
Before that, women's activists had, since 1981, marked November 25 as a day against violence. November 25, 1960 marked the brutal assassination of the three Mirabal sisters, political activists in the Dominican Republic, on the orders of the Dominican ruler, Rafael Trujillo (1930-1961).
According to Article 1 of the Declaration on the Elimination of Violence Against Women, the term "violence against women" means any act of gender-based violence that results in, or is likely to result in, physical, sexual or psychological harm or suffering to women, including threats of such acts, coercion or arbitrary deprivation of liberty, whether occurring in public or in private life
The Executive Director of The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), Ms Thoraya Ahmed Obaid, in a message to mark the day, called on all to take a stand and say loud and clear, ‘No to violence against women’.
She indicated that every day, women and girls were subjected to domestic violence, exploitation, sexual violence, trafficking, harmful traditional practices such as bride burning and early marriages and other forms of violence against their bodies, minds and human dignity.
“As many as one in three women has been beaten, coerced into sex or abused in some other way,” she said, and called on the global community to come together to demand an end to the most pervasive, yet least reported, human rights abuse in the world in the 16 days leading up to Human Rights Day and every day.
She welcomed the leadership example exhibited by what she termed “a new network of men leaders, led by the United Nations Secretary-General, Ban Ki-moon, as part of the United Nations UNite Campaign to end violence against girls and women” and lauded the commitment to actively engage men and boys in the cause to end impunity, promote justice and human rights and end widespread violence against girls and women.
She said whether they were policy makers, community or religious leaders, fathers or husbands, uncles, brothers or young boys, they could all do their part to eliminate all forms of violence against women.
The Executive Director also welcomed the recent Security Council resolutions 1888 and 1889 that strengthened accountability to women and girls in conflict and post-conflict situations, adding that by condemning sexual violence, calling for a stronger role for women in peace building and mandating peacekeeping missions to protect women and girls, the resolutions signalled a political commitment to address sexual violence as a peace and security issue.
In a statement to mark the day read on the floor of Ghana’s Parliament, the MP for Savelugu and Chairperson of the Women Caucus in Parliament, Madam Mary Salifu Boforo, said in most cases, violence against women went unreported because majority of the victims were afraid to lose their marital status, while some were ignorant of their rights.
She noted that some harmful attitudes against women were reinforced by certain religious and other community leaders who exhorted women to stand by their husbands in all circumstances, while at the same time failing to take a clear stand against wife battery and marital rape.
A number of challenges and negative practices continue to affect the development of women in Africa and other parts of the world. Problems impeding their ability to expand their capabilities, how to attain their full freedom and dignity and how to promote and sustain empowerment programmes are some of the inequalities confronting African women in their daily lives.
In a report on violence against women in Ghana, the UN Division for the Advancement of Women indicated that widowhood rites included confining the widow to a room, shaving her head, having her wear a rope around her neck and making her go through a ritual bath.
In some African countries, women still lack access to economic rights and land ownership, ability to influence reproductive and family development such as who to marry, how many children to have and their spacing.
The Network of Women’s Rights in Ghana (NETRIGHT), a coalition of organisations and individuals advocating for gender equity, which made an assessment on issues of concern to women in Africa in 2008, has established that discriminatory practices against women in the name of culture still prevails in Africa, while increasing efforts are being made to address them.
All segments of society must, therefore, unite for the dignity and well-being of women and girls, for now is the time to build a society based on respect for fundamental human rights and the equal rights of men and women.

Be part of the ‘Know Your HIV Status Campaign’

Article: Salome Donkor
Comments and reactions by some people to issues relating to HIV and AIDS tend to show that they have rather become fatigued with stories on the global pandemic. There are times when people feel reports on the pandemic have become sterile.
To such people, the same story relating to education on the prevention of HIV and AIDS that highlights basic information about the A, B and C (Abstinence, Be faithful and use a Condom) of HIV and AIDS has been told over and over again.
Contrary to that perception, interactions by a group of journalists with persons living with HIV (PLHIV) during a three-day writing clinic organised by the Ghana Journalists Association (GJA) in Koforidua recently showed that a lot more stories needed to be heard on the epidemic in the country.
The story was told of a young woman who met a would-be partner who had travelled from Europe into the country to get married to her.
The would-be couple took a bold decision and decided to check their HIV status. Before they could go to collect the results of the test, they engaged in unprotected sex and the results proved that the man was positive, while the woman was negative.
Since she had been exposed to the virus through unprotected sex, the woman immediately made her problem known to doctors who put her on anti-retroviral therapy for one month.
Subsequent tests on the woman showed that she had not been infected with the virus.
She was lucky.
There was the pathetic story of another woman whose marriage broke up and after staying single for some years, met a man who married her.
She and her new husband did not go for HIV anti-body test to know their status and three years after their marriage, the man died, while their one-year-old baby fell seriously ill.
Tests conducted on the child showed that she had been infected with HIV. Based on the results, the woman also went for the test and the results proved positive.
One women also described the trauma she went through as a result of stigmatisation by members of her community and close family members. She said because of her HIV positive status that became known to the people following the death of her husband, no hairdresser is prepared to do her hair, as a result of which she wears a wig.
These stories narrated by the PLHIV, provided a compelling description of the context of HIV transmission in Ghana, the extent of fear, misconception, myths and stigmatisation against persons infected and affected with the virus.
These pose a great challenge to the national response to HIV and AIDS with reference to counselling and testing services. These challenges also create gaps in the attainment of universal access target, which is defined as being as close as possible to providing sustainable and quality HIV services that will lead to prevention, as well as offering counselling and support and access to care for all in need by 2010.
In spite of the fact that the annual rate of infection had reduced from 3.6 per cent in 2003 to 1.7 per cent in 2008, HIV is still a problem in Ghana, considering the fact that currently there are an estimated 240,802 HIV positive cases in Ghana, as against 236,151 in 2008.
Majority of the infections in the country, nearly 90 per cent, are within the age group of 15-49 years, with 58 per cent of infected people being women and girls.
Less than 10 per cent of Ghanaians know their HIV status and the aim of this year’s World AIDS Day, which fell on December 1, is to embark on activities that encourage people to buy into the ‘Know Your HIV Status campaign’ being undertaken nation-wide by the Ministry of Health, while emphasising human rights issues which impact on HIV and AIDS.
Currently, heterosexual sex remains the predominant mode of transmission, accounting for 75-80 per cent of all infections. Mother-to-child transmission and transmission through blood and blood products account for 15 per cent and five per cent, respectively.
Other consequences of the burden of the epidemic can be seen in the number of AIDS orphans and adult deaths in the population. In 2000, it was estimated that AIDS accounted for about 12 per cent of all deaths in Ghana, while about 140,000 children had been orphaned as a result of AIDS.
Except for the screening of donated blood and patients with symptoms suggestive of AIDS, routine testing for HIV and AIDS shall not be carried out and testing shall not be done without the knowledge of the subject.
Stigma and discrimination have greatly affected the response to HIV and AIDS. This is because while only 10 per cent of the global population knew their HIV status, in Ghana, it was eight per cent.
This means that a lot more people do not know their status and are likely to be living with the virus but will not know they have it, while a number of those who know their status and are in need of anti-retroviral treatment have refused to go for treatment because of the fear of stigmatisation and discrimination.
Records indicate that about 70,000 people infected with the virus need ARV, but because the knowledge gap is depreciating, resulting in stigmatisation and discrimination and consequent misinformation on transmission and misconception that tend to relate the spread of the virus to superstition, promiscuity and other factors, such people resort to spiritualists for support, while others take herbal concoctions that worsen their conditions.
One important submission made by the Director of Technical Services of the Ghana AIDS Commission (GAC), Dr Richard Amenyah, in his presentation and subsequent explanation to issues, was quite revealing and convincing.
He said there was the need for every individual to know his or her HIV status and keep it. This means that people who are now entering marital relationships will know the status of their would-be partners, while those in casual relationships and do not know the status of their partners will make efforts to check their status and practise safe sex.
People who also participate in social activities and strike new acquaintances that could make them engage in unprotected sex need to be wary of the epidemic and appreciate the fact that such behaviour puts them at risk of contracting the virus.
Ghana’s goal is to prevent new HIV infections, as well as mitigate the socio-economic and psychological effects of HIV and AIDS on individuals, communities and the nation. The first national strategic plan focused on five themes: Prevention of new infections; care and support for people living with HIV and AIDS; the creation of an enabling environment for a national response; decentralisation of implementation of HIV and AIDS activities through institutional arrangements; research and monitoring and evaluation of programmes.
The second national strategic plan, currently in process, focuses on: Policy, advocacy and enabling environment; co-ordination and management of the decentralised response; mitigating the economic, socio-cultural and legal impacts; prevention and behaviour change communication; treatment, care and support; research and surveillance and monitoring and evaluation.
This require increased resources, working towards the elimination of stigmatisation, enhanced access to affordable medicines, a reduction in vulnerability of persons affected by HIV and AIDS, particularly orphans, children infected with the virus and the aged.
There is the need to deal with low risk perception, especially among the youth, due to misconception and lack of adequate in-depth knowledge about HIV through the dissemination of information to reduce high risk behaviour and personal risk exposures, stigma reduction, increasing ART therapy to help PLHIVs manage the disease and prolong their life span.
There is the need to utilise HIV prevention services and promote safer sexual practices in the general population, especially among young men and women aged 15-49.