Goodwill message from Gender Ministry
On behalf of the Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection and on behalf of the Government of Ghana, we wish all Ghanaians a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.
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It has been an exciting year for us at the ministry, with our new vision of ensuring a harmonious society in which the survival and development of the sexes, children, vulnerable and persons with disabilities are guaranteed.
As a ministry, we have maintained our core values of integrity, excellence and social justice.
In January 2013, we expanded and renewed our mandate to the people of Ghana - our ministry is now mandated to ensure gender equality through mainstreaming gender considerations, promoting the welfare and protection of children and empowering the vulnerable, excluded, aged and persons with disabilities through the use of social protection interventions to achieve national development.
We are committed to contributing to national development.
In the light of our renewed mandate, we have developed a restructuring plan for the ministry which would see the Department of Women converted into a Department of Gender and the Department of Social Welfare converted into a Department for Social Development made up of a division for social services and a division for social protection.
Five-year strategic plan
With respect to our legal framework, we are also developing a policy and legal framework for social protection, and creating a single agency for adoptions in Ghana. We have finalised the Affirmative Action Bill and forwarded it to the Attorney General. In 2014, we will engage with all stakeholders for discussions on the Bill.
We have developed Legislative Instruments for the Domestic Violence Act, Human Trafficking Act, Domestic Workers, and adoptions this year. We have finalised a comprehensive Child Protection Policy for Ghana. We are also reviewing and strengthening the juvenile justice system.
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In 2014, we will initiate the processes to review and amend the Persons with Disability Act, 2006.
Some achievements in 2013
We have increased the number of households receiving cash grants under our LEAP programme from 65,000 in 2012 to 74,347 in 2013.
This is disbursed in 99 districts across the ten regions of Ghana. We hope to increase this to 100,000 by March 2014 and 150,000 by December 2014.
We have commenced the piloting of e-cash payments under LEAP to beneficiaries in nine districts across seven regions in Ghana. We disbursed cash grants to 7,364 market traders in the Greater Accra and Ashanti regions after the fire disasters in 2013.
We are establishing a National Targeting Office within the ministry to help us better identify persons in need of social protection in Ghana.
We are implementing the National Aging Policy, and have for the first time, created a desk for the elderly at our ministry.
We have initiated discussions of facilitating free bus rides for persons aged 65 and above in Ghana on public transport as part of our social protection mandate.
We have inaugurated the National Council on Persons with Disability, and will work hard to ensure, that public places are made disability friendly in Ghana.
These tasks have been accomplished with the support of a dynamic hardworking team at the ministry, departments and secretariats, including all our regional and district offices.
We are extremely grateful to all our partners within government, civil society, the media and all other stakeholders for their support.
We also thank our development partners for their support. These include DFID, the World Bank, UNICEF, UNAIDS, UNDP and all the others.
We urge all Ghanaians to share the joys of the festive season with the less privileged in their churches, mosques, neighbourhoods and communities. Let us spread the love and joy of giving across the length and breath of Ghana.
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We wish everyone in Ghana a Merry Christmas and Happy New year.