By Edward Dankwah, GNA
Accra, Aug. 14, GNA – Mr Baafi Nsiah, the Director for Chieftaincy and Religious Affairs, Ministry of Local Government, Chieftaincy and Religious Affairs (MLGCRA), says the Ministry is counting on traditional faith practitioners to use their influence, authority and moral leadership to help end gender-based violence and harmful practices, including child marriage in Ghana.
He said traditional faith practitioners wielded profound authority in their communities, with their teachings, rituals and spiritual guidance playing a significant role in shaping social norms and influencing behaviour, making their active involvement critical to protecting women and children.
The Director was speaking at an engagement meeting with traditional faith practitioners on ending gender-based violence, including child marriage in Accra.
Mr Nsiah said the engagement, which was the first time the Ministry had brought traditional faith practitioners together exclusively, was aimed at forging a united and coordinated response to harmful practices that continued to undermine the dignity and wellbeing of vulnerable groups, particularly women and children.
He acknowledged the important contributions of traditional faith practitioners to community development and social cohesion but noted that some practices associated with traditional and cultural systems had also presented challenges.
The Director cited child marriage, female genital mutilation and discriminatory widowhood rites among practices requiring collective efforts to address.
He called on traditional faith practitioners to champion the protection of women and children against gender-based violence and child marriage, while promoting values within traditional teachings that respected the rights and dignity of all persons.
“Their involvement will also help strengthen interfaith and intercultural collaboration in promoting peaceful coexistence and social justice,” he added.
Mr Nsiah urged the practitioners to ensure that customary practices were consistent with Ghana’s constitutional safeguards and international human rights standards.
He said the Ministry was seeking their expertise and in-depth understanding of traditional systems to develop concrete action plans that would guide advocacy, prevention and response efforts against gender-based violence and other harmful practices.
He stressed that such interventions must be firmly rooted in Ghanaian traditions and cultural realities while remaining consistent with constitutional and human rights protections.
Mr Nsiah expressed appreciation to the traditional faith practitioners for responding to the invitation and urged them to use their positions of influence to help create safer communities where women and children were protected from violence, discrimination and harmful practices.
Hajia Sophia Tamimu, the Head of Child Marriage Unit, Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection, said young people who marry early were about six times more likely to experience gender-based violence, underscoring the need for accelerated efforts to eliminate child marriage in Ghana.
She said Ghana’s efforts to end child marriage must be intensified as the country worked towards the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which required significant progress in eliminating child marriage by 2030.
The Head of the Child Marriage Unit described the engagement with traditional faith practitioners as a timely intervention and an important tool for accelerating action against child marriage and gender-based violence.
“Government, in collaboration with development partners, particularly United Nations agencies, has implemented a range of interventions at both national and subnational levels to address the socioeconomic factors that expose girls to early marriage,” she added.
She cited the Livelihood Empowerment Against Poverty (LEAP) programme under the Gender Ministry as one of the interventions supporting vulnerable households and helping families keep girls in school.
Hajia Tamimu said other social protection programmes were also being implemented to support vulnerable households, while the MLGCRA had introduced productive inclusion initiatives aimed at improving the economic circumstances of vulnerable families.
She acknowledged that Ghana could not yet claim to have completed all its interventions against child marriage butnoted that significant progress had been made through the various programmes and partnerships.
Hajia Tamimu called for greater responsibility from parents and guardians, urging them to take advantage of the government’s free education programmes to keep their children, particularly girls, in school.
She said poverty should no longer be used as a reason for giving girls out in marriage, stressing that supporting children to complete their education was critical to breaking the cycle of poverty that contributed to child marriage.
“Let us work together to ensure that Ghana makes significant progress towards ending child marriage and reducing gender-based violence by 2030,” she stressed.
GNA
Edited by Christabel Addo