Cecilia Abena Dapaah
THE MINISTRY of Gender, Children and Social Protection has rolled out various interventions to ensure that all adolescents are fully empowered to prevent early and unplanned pregnancies.
The Minister for Sanitation and Water Resources, Cecilia Abena Dapaah, who is temporarily serving as caretaker Minister for Gender, Children and Social Protection, said the intervention programmes were being implemented in collaboration with other stakeholders, including the Ghana Education Service.
Answering questions on the floor of Parliament yesterday, Mrs. Dapaah disclosed that the ministry had formed parent advocacy groups and trained parents as advocates to support the sensitisation drive on preventing adolescent pregnancies.
She stated that the ministry has also formed regional child protection committees, which meet quarterly to deliberate on interventions by various stakeholders in preventing adolescent pregnancies.
The minister indicated that part of the interventions are engagements with 30 traditional leaders on how to create awareness on sexual and gender-based violence, including abstinence among adolescents to curb adolescent pregnancies.
She pointed out that the ministry has trained queen mothers to mentor adolescent girls on sexual and reproductive health rights, sex education and abstinence.
She continued that the ministry has engaged the public through radio discussions on issues around adolescent pregnancy, and embarked on school outreach programmes to educate pupils and students on their sexual and reproductive health and rights.
“The Girls’ Education Unit of the Ghana Education Service has designed a policy document titled: ‘Guidelines for Prevention of Pregnancy among School Girls and Facilitation of Re-Entry into School after Childbirth,’ as part of the programmes.”
According to her, the ministry was also fully aware of the situation in the Upper East Region, and was implementing a five-year strategic plan to address adolescent pregnancy in Ghana (2018-2022) to remedy the situation.
Mrs. Dapaah asserted that the ministry, together with stakeholders, has undertaken initiatives to reduce the phenomenon.
BY Ernest Kofi Adu, Parliament House