Greater Accra has been named as the region with the least cases of child marriage representing 8% while the Northern and Upper East regions recorded the highest cases of 28% respectively, according to the 2017/2018 Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey.
Chief Director of the Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection (MOGCSP), Dr. Afisah Zakaria who disclosed this stated that the practice of child marriage is an offence before the 1992 Constitution, which pegs the acceptable age of marriage at 18 years.
Child marriage, she said, has implications on the health, economic, social and general development of the individual, the family and the nation as a whole.
Delivering the keynote address at the launch of the Domestic Violence Information Portal (DVIP) on Tuesday 28th September, 2021, Dr. Afisah Zakaria noted that Sustainable Development Goal Five has called for Gender Equality by putting an end to all forms of discrimination against all women and girls everywhere and eliminate all forms of violence against all women and girls in the public and private spheres, including child marriage and other types of exploitation.
According to her, getting credible information and data in certain areas has always posed a challenge for the development of practitioners in Ghana.
The importance of credible information and data, she said, is very significant as the data is needed to inform lines of actions and future policy directions in the effective implementation of the 10-year strategic framework (2017-2026) and its Operational Plan.
She disclosed that to complement national efforts by government and Civil Society partners, the UNFPA Ghana Office, assisted the Ministry to develop the Information Portal in 2020.
“The Ministry in partnership with the UNFPA has also launched the Orange Support Center and the Boame App, an innovative electronic system to receive and support victims/survivors of domestic/sexual and gender-based violence and child marriage.”
“These are efforts made by the ministry and its partners to address issues of abuses in the country,” she said.
Dr. Zakaria expressed hope the intended objective of these portals to provide credible information and data on domestic violence and child marriage will be achieved through partnership to enable Ghana to reduce and close the gap in obtaining such information and data for programming.
UNFPA Deputy Country Representative, Dr. Agnes Kayitankore, in her statement noted that the UNFPA promote policies, programmes and legislation designed to end Child Marriage and all other forms of harmful practices that disproportionately affect women and girls.
This, she said, is the rationale for the unrelenting support to the MOGCSP, as the national machinery for enforcing the gender agenda across the board in Ghana.
According to her, the DVIP has been envisioned to serve as a central repository of up-to-date knowledge on Child Marriage to the general public.
“This will help to ensure that policymakers, academics, practitioners, and the general public have access to updated and relevant information on the subject matter and use it as appropriate.
“The Portal has been established to provide relevant information on the interventions by partners and serve as a platform for increasing awareness about laws, frameworks as well as best practices on eliminating child marriage,” she added.
She appealed to the stakeholders to make good use of the resources provided and use the laid down criteria to share best practices through the Portal so that Ghana can create robust mechanisms to protect, promote and enforce the human rights of vulnerable young girls.
Chief Director of the Local Government Service, Mr. J. Oppong-Mensah, pledged support of his outfit to ensure the Apps get to the remotest part of the country.
According to him, such important information should get to the people who need them and stressed that those engaged in domestic violence and child marriages are in remote corners who must be reached.
The Local Government Service, he said, will continue to deepen its collaboration with the Ministry to ensure people involved in such practices are made to know the consequences of their actions.
He added that sometimes it is not about punishment but sensitizing people to understand the psychological and economic implications of their actions.
