Gender ministry sets up advisory committee
A 14-member interim advisory committee on ageing has been established by the Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection to support the implementation of the National Ageing Policy (NAP).
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The committee has been tasked to facilitate the development of the Act on ageing and the establishment of a National Advisory Council on ageing.
The operations of the team , however, ceases immediately the National Advisory Council on ageing is established.
The advisory council, a key provision of the NAP, is to provide technical advice to the government and key stakeholders on the implementation of the tenets of the NAP.
The NAP, adopted in 2010, is to ensure that the socio-economic and human rights of the aged are protected and guaranteed.
It is essentially the blueprint to guide the ministry in providing protection and addressing the challenges facing the aged.
The committee, chaired by the sector minister, includes representatives of the ministries of Health, Finance, Local Government and Rural Development, Education, Information and Employment and Labour Relations.
Other members are representatives of the National Population Council, the National Development Planning Commission, the National Pensioners Association, Help Age Ghana, Social Security and National Trust (SSNIT) and the National Pensioners Regulatory Authority.
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Inauguration
Inaugurating the team in Accra yesterday, the sector minister, Nana Oye Lithur, said the aged faced a lot of challenges including marginalisation, denied or limited access to proper health care, degrading treatment, housing and lack of income security, among other challenges.
Nana Oye indicated that government was committed to ensuring that the rights and socio-economic needs of this vulnerable group were safeguarded by integrating them into the national development agenda.
She, therefore, urged all stakeholders, including the public, to help ensure that the aged were well catered for.
“The problems of ageing are not just for the aged because ageing is not something that happens to a selected few. It is a process everybody will undergo,” the minister said.
According to her, as part of efforts to ensure a better and comfortable life for the aged, the ministry was in deliberations with the public and private transport sector to facilitate free ride for the aged.
She said the ministry had also established an aged desk to help establish priority access to health care, banks, and other key services they would require.
She said the ministry had already registered about 3,630 aged persons out of the targeted 10,000 aged on the National Health Insurance Scheme free of charge in 2014.
Writer’s email Doreen.andoh@graphic.com.gh