Gender Ministry inaugurates technical committee to oversee social welfare interventions

The Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection (MoGCSP) is working on a policy to regulate the training, registration and licensing of social workers in Ghana in line with international best practice.

The development of the Bill to facilitate and guide the implementation of these objectives is still at the initial stages. It is being supported by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and it would establish a council that would regulate the activities of social work in the country.

The sector minister, Miss Otiko Afisa Djaba, made this known at the inauguration of an 11-member technical committee to have an oversight responsibility for social welfare interventions, social welfare workforce capacities and alternative care in Accra last Thursday.

Members of the committee

Members of the committee are expected to ensure that the existing social welfare policies are translated into social services through programme designing and facilitation.

The committee members who were sworn in include Professor Mavis Dako-Gyeke, Head of the Department of Social Work of the University of Ghana; Madam Clara Napaga Tia Sulemana, a representative from the Office of the President; Dr Prince Abrah, Principal of the School of Social Work; Mrs Rebecca Quaicoe-Duho of the Graphic Communications Group Limited and the acting Director of the Department of Social Welfare, who is an exofficio member.

 The others are Mrs Sheila Minkah-Premo, Apex Law Consult; Dr Charles Teye Amoatey of GIMPA Business School, Mr John Clay of the Ghana Association of Social Workers, Chief Superintendent Rev. Laurencia Wilhelmina Akorli, DOVVSU National Coordinator; Dr Badu, Head of Child Abuse Centre at the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital, and Mr Stephen T. Adongo, the Country Director of Kaeme Foundation.

The need for change

According to Ms Djaba, the image of social welfare needed to change in Ghana to enable it to meet the needs of the people, hence the need to enhance and ensure quality workforce capacity and policy improvements.

The formation of the technical committee, she said, was also in line with objectives to make reforms and ensure better social welfare services for the people of Ghana.

Ms Djaba further noted that the setting up of the committee was a follow-up to a proposal from the Social Welfare Experts Forums held in October 2014 and November 2016, respectively, to oversee the activities of social welfare.

She added that the technical committee formed part of the Care Reform Roll Out Initiative (CRI) and the professionalisation of Social Work in Ghana Programme initiated by USAID and the Government of Ghana.

The CRI has the objective of transforming the care sector by promoting family reintegration of children already in residential homes, de-emphasising the over-reliance on institutional care and shifting towards a range of integrated family and community-based care services for children without appropriate parental care.