By Elizabeth Larkwor Baah
Accra, Oct. 30, GNA – Ghana is seeking to recruit about 2,400 social welfare and community development personnel to address staffing shortages and strengthen child protection services across the country, Professor Lord Mensah, Head of the Local Government Service, has announced.
He said the proposed recruitment would enhance the capacity of Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDAs) to effectively respond to cases of child abuse, neglect, exploitation and other threats to children’s welfare.
He announced this at an engagement on strengthening collaboration between Community Child Protection Committees (CCPCs) and MMDAs, organised by SOS Children’s Villages Ghana in collaboration with JoyNews and supported by Norway.
According to Prof Mensah, inadequate numbers of social welfare and community development officers remain a major challenge affecting child protection efforts across the country.
He said recent visits to assemblies in the Northern, Savannah and North East regions revealed significant staffing gaps, with some districts having only one social welfare officer while others had none at all.
He expressed concern about the ability of the limited number of officers to provide effective services to children across vast geographical areas.
He cited the Savannah region as an example, where a single officer could be expected to serve hundreds of communities within a district, making it difficult to adequately respond to the needs of vulnerable children.
The Head of the Local Government Service urged MMDAs to identify local needs, coordinate responses, mobilise resources and provide services to vulnerable children and families.
He commended the organisers for supporting districts to review the experiences of CCPCs, develop activity plans and integrate them into Annual Action Plans and composite budgets.
Prof Mensah noted that child protection required timely intervention, professional support and effective collaboration among institutions responsible for children’s welfare.
He warned that where staffing levels were inadequate, cases of abuse and neglect could go unreported or experience delays in response, thereby exposing vulnerable children to further harm.
Prof Mensah stressed that child protection must be treated as a continuous national responsibility requiring coordinated action by government institutions, local authorities, civil society organisations, development partners and communities.
He therefore called for dedicated funding for child protection initiatives.
He said local authorities needed to recognise the social and economic benefits of investing in children’s welfare, noting that adequate funding and sufficient personnel would enable assemblies to sustain community-level interventions and improve access to social welfare services.
Prof Mensah observed that children remained among the country’s most vulnerable groups and that the quality of protection, care and opportunities provided to them would significantly influence Ghana’s future social and economic development.
He added that effective child protection depended not only on policies and community awareness but also on adequately staffed institutions, sustainable funding and coordinated action to ensure vulnerable children received timely support.
GNA
Edited by Laudia Anyorkor Nunoo/Lydia Kukua Asamaoh
Reporter: Elizabeth Larkwor Baah
Email: [email protected]