By Priscilla Oye Ofori, GNA
Accra, Jan. 2, GNA The Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection has organised a capacity building workshop on the Child Marriage Information Portal in Accra.
The Portal launched on September 29, 2021, is a one-stop-shop database system on child marriage in Ghana, developed by the Domestic Violence Secretariat under the Gender Ministry in collaboration with United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA).
The system readily shares information on child marriage, Sexual and Gender-Based Violence (SGBV) and its related issues in an open source by a press of a button.
This is part of the Secretariat’s commitment to addressing child marriage in the new Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) Agenda, under Goal 5- eliminating all harmful practices, such as child early and forced marriage and female genital mutilation, with specific target to eliminate child marriage by 2030.
Ms Saphia Tamimu, Head, Child Marriage Unit, Gender Ministry, said the Portal was expected to help the Ministry to track issues of child marriage.
She said it was to also enhance the collaborative efforts of the stakeholders the Ministry worked with in the fight against child marriage.
The Portal, the Head, said was intended to provide precise data and information on child marriage in the country and to provide a link for people to report such issues in their communities.
However, publications on the platform have been slow due to inadequate stories received from stakeholders and partners, who work on addressing issues of child marriage.
She said the Portal had had its security certificate installed to improve the system.
An editorial committee was formed to explore strategies to improve content quality and impact on the audience and to also guarantee data was accurate, complete, authentic, and reliable.
Ms Tamimu said poverty and teenage pregnancy were key drivers of child marriage which had adverse effects on the health and education of the girl child.
The Head said the Ministry had put pragmatic strategies and policies in place such as the development of the National Strategic Framework on Ending Child Marriage where stakeholders were monitored in ensuring that child marriage was ended.
She said currently it had an updated national plan of action, which guided the stakeholders as to what to do in ending child marriage.
She called on all stakeholders to continually utilise the portal for the desirable result envisaged in meeting the agenda 2030 call to eliminating child marriage.
Mr Senanu Agbozo, a Consultant at UNFPA, said the workshop was to enhance editorial collaboration among critical stakeholders for efficient content creation, identify opportunities to improve reader engagement and audience reach and increase stakeholders’ utilisation of the portal.
He said information on the portal were in five main categories; Child Marriage Data/Statistics, Collaborations /Partners, Educational Materials and Guides, Projects and Events, and Published Research.
Mr Agbozo said although child marriage affected both sexes, girls were disproportionately affected.
2018 UNICEF data indicates that child marriage among girls is highest in Sub-Saharan Africa, where around four in ten young women were married before age 18 and though decreasing globally, still, the total number of girls married in childhood stands at twelve million.
Dr Samson Obed Appiah, Chairman of the Editorial Committee, said contributions of articles to the Portal must be relevant, short, clear and concise, factual and verifiable.
GNA