The Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection has held an intersectoral meeting to review and discuss the National Gender Policy and the Ending
Adolescent Pregnancy strategic plan as well as educate stakeholders on the institutional framework of the strategy.
The five-year strategic plan aimed at eliminating teenage pregnancy in Ghana was developed and launched last year.
It seeks to provide adolescents with the right information, knowledge, skills and services to insulate them from unplanned pregnancies.
With support from the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), the ministry also developed an institutional framework to monitor the implementation of the plan.
The Ending Adolescent Pregnancy document was developed and launched last year
Unplanned pregnancies
In a presentation at the meeting, an Assistant Programme Officer at the Department of Gender, Mr Evans Datsomor, said adolescent girls were vulnerable to early and unplanned pregnancies and other reproductive health challenges.
He explained that the aim of the plan was to ensure that all adolescents, particularly girls, realised their full potential in the development process in Ghana.
According to him, since the plan was launched last year, the Department of Gender had implemented some of the strategies through mentorship programmes in some districts throughout the country.
More resources needed
The Director of the Department of Gender, Mrs Comfort Asare, said that the various policies and strategic plans by the ministry aimed at empowering women and girls were yielding positive results.
She, however, said more resources were needed to intensify community engagements to achieve the goal of gender equity in society.
“We have lots of commitment in our polices, strategies and institutional framework and if they are well implemented, we can attain our objectives but we need adequate resources to implement these plans”, she said.
Dialogue
She explained that the sure way to address adolescent pregnancy and child marriage and other issues that threatened the future of the girl child was through dialogue with traditional and community leaders in areas where the incidents were prevalent.
Mrs Asare explained that the ministry had realised that more girls in the rural areas were not able to complete junior high school because they were forced into child marriage or became pregnant.
The ministry was therefore using dialogue as a strategy to reach community leaders and parents to help reduce the problem.
