Walewale, North East Region, Ghana – Participatory Development Associates (PDA), a leading social research and development consultancy firm, hosted the 7th Annual Knowledge Sharing Workshop on Child Protection in Walewale on Thursday, 30th November 2023. The workshop, which was themed “Tackling Child Marriage in Northern Ghana: A Shift from the Rhetoric to Evidence-based Advocacy”, brought together various stakeholders within the child protection ecosystem to discuss the worrying trends of child marriage in the region and to devise practical and culturally-relevant strategies to combat it.
The workshop was a partnership between PDA, the Department of Children, AfriKids Ghana, and A1 Radio. It attracted over 70 participants, including traditional leaders, students, policy makers, and development practitioners from the northern regions of Ghana. Some of the notable guests included the managing director of PDA, Mr. Edem Agbe; the director of operations of AfriKids Ghana, Mrs. Linda Marfoh; the acting director of the Department of Children in the Upper East region, Mrs. Georgina Ako-Aberese; and the Queen Mother of Uwasi, Mrs. Comfort Pog Naab Akontoa.
The workshop featured a presentation by Mr. Agbe, who shared alarming statistics on child marriage in Ghana, based on two decades’ worth of data from the Ghana Population and Housing Census. He revealed that despite the overall reduction in child marriage by 2.36% between 2000 and 2021, the prevalence of child marriage has been consistently higher in the northern parts of Ghana compared to the national average. He also highlighted that a staggering 4,470 children are currently widowed in Ghana. He urged the government and development partners to intensify their efforts in addressing child marriage, especially in northern Ghana, where it poses a serious threat to the wellbeing and development of children.
The workshop also featured a documentary on child marriage in the North East region, produced by PDA, and a panel discussion that exposed new dimensions to the conversation on child marriage that are seldom considered in policy and programming discourse in the country. Some of these dimensions included the normalization of child marriage in certain communities, the novel approach adopted by young boys to persuade girls to drop out of school and marry them, and the prestige associated with early marriage among many girls and their families.
The workshop concluded with an interactive session, where participants shared their experiences, challenges, and recommendations on how to tackle child marriage in their respective contexts. Some of the challenges cited included the lack of Domestic Violence and Victims’ Support Unit of the Ghana Police Service in affected districts, the inadequate resources to pursue, apprehend, and remediate child marriage perpetrators and victims, and the cultural and peer influences that push for, rather than fight against, child marriage.
Some of the recommendations proposed by the participants included holding video shows of documentaries such as the one premiered at the workshop, within communities to raise awareness about the extreme adverse impacts of child marriage on the health, wellbeing, and development of children. It would also help community members to understand their roles in the fight against child marriage. Another recommendation was to task schools to keep track of the annual numbers of child marriages, to facilitate collaborative relationships between enforcement stakeholders like the police, development organizations, state officials, and traditional authorities.
In his closing remarks, Mr. Agbe commended the organizers of the event, as well as all stakeholders present for discussing actionable ways of addressing child right violations. He finally expressed his optimism for traditional leaders to lead the fight against child marriage in their local contexts and provide a safer environment for child growth and development.
The workshop was part of PDA’s flagship event series on child protection, which aims to create a platform for knowledge sharing, learning, and collaboration among stakeholders working to promote and protect the rights and welfare of children in Ghana. PDA is a social research and development consultancy firm that provides innovative and participatory solutions to complex social problems. PDA’s vision is to contribute to a world where people are empowered to realize their full potential and live with dignity.
Resources from the Workshop
Insights from Data on Child Marriage: download here
Full-length documentary on Child Marriage: view here